Aloha everyone,
Dave I see you are up already this morning, I need some help!
I have a weed that I have never had before the lawn was turned up to put the septic system in - possibly brought in with the equipment? It has been identified as nut grass although I have been told that our soil has little phoshperous (sp?) so we don't get the nuts. It laughs at roundup. I have been to the store and have seen a poison that will kill nut grass - it takes up to 5 weeks, and sounds pretty vicious. Someone else has told me to get buckets of seawater to pour over the grass to kill it. My question is - the nut grass is in what is left of the lawn and I have a very large old plumeria tree growing there too, what can I use to get rid of this scourge besides hand weeding and yet not harm the plumeria? I am talking here of an area 25X15, and a whole mornings hand weeding has only cleared a small patch!
This is a most hateful weed...
Anybody else dealt with this beast who can advise me?
Nut grass
Sorry, you cannot be rid of that stuff. It has little tubers, 1/4 to 1/2 inch wayyy deep. They sprout anew once you hand pull the grass. forever.
There'a a seasonal pond here. Full of water for as long as a year and a half at a time. It was dry lately. Hum, some beautiful grass, I got out of the car and climbed down the slope--- nut grass! Since I had a shovel wwith me, I dug in, the tubers went deeper than th shovel blade, ?, ten inches?
My condolences.
Aloha again,
LOL, Melissa!
After spending a great deal of time on Google I think the beast is acually called Cyperus brevifolius aka green Kyllinga. I am posting a picture in the hopes someone will recognize it and tell me if I am on the right track...
This is the best I can do for a close up of the seed head, they are green although the photo looks brownish...Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Yikes another weed i need to see if I have.
Mahalo Larry, I will look for those brands.
I am so sorry to hear that you have it too, Hetty, it's a thug.
I hope you don't have it mlassi, it says it grows in disturbed, damp ground however it's getting a foothold everywhere in my garden. It seems to grow like wildfire both by running and by billions of seed heads. I don't usually like to use the heavy guns and I spend hours hand weeding, but this one is getting blasted big time.
This is a world-wide thug. Comes up here any place there is a vacant place in the soil. Only thing I have been able to do is fertilize like crazy and thicken the st. augustine to shade it out. Takes a long time.
Well it looks like I have it. Dang!
Melissa, St. Augustine has definite runners and seldom puts all of its energy into growing tall. Since we have a lawn of the stuff we have never allowed it to grow more than 3 1/2 inches which is recommended for thick turf. I am currently putting in more and more beds so I can rid myself of such a water-hog. Although it is beautiful and luxurious, it requires way too much care. The yard crew is here right now for the weekly grooming. Usually is planted here either by sprigs or 12" squares and covered solid. We have been in this home 42 years and I am glad I am not starting a new lawn as it is $1.25 per sq and requires a lot to get a solid covering.
Now, on the Gulf Coast, it is like a weed and covers the bar ditches. Seems every place various plants are either considered a thug or desirable. Don't think I have ever heard of anyone being in love with nutsedge. What you describe sounds like nutsedge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine_grass
Ha ha ha....I have a similar situation Melissa. Only I don't think that my "ground cover" could be called anything as nice as "grass"...just whatever weeds decide to grow in that area. I am getting a tiny clover type of stuff growing in big patches, which is decidedly attractive, so that I am encouraging. As for the rest, my lawn guy mows it, and its green...and that's about it. Since we are on coral, not much in the way of real grasses do very well out here, so we all just hope for the best with what we can get to grow. Maybe I need to look into nut grass!
Yokwe,
Shari
Hi Jen,
Your plant is Kyllinga brevifolia, known as Kili'o'opu in the Islands.
It is said that Chinese sugarcane workers brought the plant here to create more work!
Round-Up has a hard time killing Kyllinga, as it has perennial rhizomes. Digging it out will take the rest of your life.
If there is not much Calcium Carbonate (Hawaiian beachsand) in your soil you should work some into the problem area.
Growing Cynodon dactylon, Bermuda Grass in the area may crowd out the Kyllinga. It is a tough drought resistant grass that can handle heavy traffic.
I have dealt with Kyllinga in gardens by using lots of mulch, and pulling the plants when they surface.
Good luck with a very problematic weed.
Aloha, Dave
Doesn't stay mowed hardly over night. The profile of grass is just not there.
LOL! Thanks Dave for the positive ID - what beastly stuff it is! I can't believe how it spread like wildfire throughout the garden - too bad really, because it has a beautiful emerald green color and it would have made a gorgeous lawn - if only it didn't have such bad habits...I have acually sprayed Spectricide down (can't believe that I am using such poison), and it has finally browned out, although I wouldn't put it past this thug to survive the onslaught and green up in a day or two!
I will get some beach sand to put down on the soon to be (I hope) naked area. I don't have so much trouble pulling it out of the flower beds, so far!
Aloha all...
Oh Jen...I have it too but I also have about 50 other horrible weeds and 25 different types of grass and I just mow the whole lot!!! I even bought some of that IMAGE to kill it...but that would mean too much work! I will spray against Maile Pilau and Sleepy Grass (and I need to do that tomorrow or Sat.) as they can really become a major problem not just an eyesore! If you mow short enough it all looks good!!!!
Carol
Nut grass - (Purple Nutsedge - not to be confused with the comparatively innocuous Yellow Nutsedge they have up north)
The only redeeming feature this terrible weed has is that it's kinda fun to see how long a string of nuts you can dig-up without breaking the fragile thread between them. My record is 7'4". :-) The herbicide "Image" is the only thing that will kill it - but you can't plant a food crop in the treated areas for at least a year! This is one strong chemical! It can also kill nearby trees. It's used in commercial agriculture on areas that have become so infested that that the land is worthless - the presence of nutgrass is a major factor in the valuation of farmland.
It only has one weakness - it doesn't compete well with other plants. That's why you don't notice it in the yard until you till-up an area. Then it suddenly appears and goes berserk! The nuts will stay dormant for many years. I've seen it come-up through a new asphalt driveway!
Digging it out and sifting the soil is okay for a very small area, but obviously impractical for a whole garden - even a small one. There's only one practical way to deal with it - don't let the new sprouts get more than five leaves. When the plant has five leaves, it begins to put out it's runner to start a new nut. Either till the area, hoe it off, pull it up or Roundup it while it's still small. The tiller will spread it around even worse, but regular tillage will eventually kill it as long as you stay with it. But if you till and then let it go you're dead meat! Here's why:
The nut uses energy when it sprouts, and it can sprout up to 12 times before it becomes dessicated and dies - but usually 4-6 times is enough to kill it unless, of course, you allow it to regenerate itself with green foliage. The secret is to remove the little plants - by any means - before they can feed the nut and make new runners. Roundup will kill the leaves but not the nut. But the nut can only sprout so many times. Always remember that! Never ignore a little nut grass shoot in your garden - kick it out, zap it with Roundup or pull it up immediately, and check it again daily until it's gone.
A little Mantis-type tiller is perfect to control it. Just run it frequently, remembering the "five leaf rule," and after the first year you'll have it under control. After that, just Roundup, or hoe, any new shoots that appear until the nut dies. Gophers gather the nuts and make winter stashes of them. You may see a lot of shoots coming up in one place. Dig down and you'll find his stash. Remove all you can - 100 or more is common - and then patrol the area carefully for awhile until the ones you missed have dessicated and died.
That shield I mention in a post above is going to be perfect for this - a lot faster than using a coffee can. You can get real close to plants, minimizing hand pulling. In some cases, around very valuable ornamentals where you can't any chances, use a small paint brush and carefully apply the Roundup with that. In fact, that shield might eliminate the need for constant cultivation between rows of vegetables.
After tilling turf for a new garden area, consider spending the first year eliminating the nut grass along with other undesired weeds and grasses. After tilling, water and fertilize it. Then Roundup it when it comes up. Repeat this until nothing comes-up any more and the next year you'll have a great, nutgrass-free garden.
Don't let the greenies talk you out of Roundup - it's the greatest invention for agriculture since the plow - and it's absolutely harmless! It does not harm the soil as they claim. Modern farming would be impossible without it - or food would cost a whole lot more. Tomato farmers even use it "burn down" the plants after harvest - makes it easier to disentangle the vines from the cages, the organic residue tills-in better and, best of all, it really helps control diseases and insects. Roundup is great stuff!
Jack
Found this today on the Texas Forum. A thread started by Eltejano, titled "farming for Jesus". Hope I got that correct.
Thanks for the info Christi, I am not sure if Kyllings is a type of nut grass or not - it sure sounds like it.
So far it has come up through the beach sand like it wasn't even there, and although it looked sickly for a week or so after being blasted with the Spectracide, it is now a lovely healthy green again. Unfortunately I can't use any kind of tiller on it because, not only do I not have one, but also with all the lava rock I would think that I would have bent tines after the first pass! Gonna try another dose of Spectracide again tomorrow if the trades are not blowing too hard. Even with all the persistant weeds I grow in my garden this has become my nemesis - I wonder which one of us is ging to be left standing - right now my money's on the Kyllinga!
Hi Jen,
Kyllinga is a nutgrass or sedge. The calcium carbonate is not an immediate solution, but a treatment to make soil conditions adverse to the plant in the long term.
To try and quickly kill everything in your lawn that you don't like, in Hawai'i, will be futile. As a bird flies, there will be new species.
What most people do here is run a lawn mower or weed-eater over the existing ground-cover to keep it low, and not worry about it other-wise.
Fighting these plants to have a perfect lawn will cause you to get frustrated to the point that you will just give up and enjoy your garden the way that it is. You'll always have weeds like Kyllinga!
In Hawai'i, Kyllinga is an aggressive weed that loves to be in cultivated areas. Cutting your lawn probably makes Kyllinga happy, as you are getting rid of competition.
Letting something like Cynodon dactylon, Bermuda Grass, take over can help, but this is an aggressive weed where it is not wanted as well.
You can not apply enough herbicide to the point that you'll get rid of it! You do have the opportunity though to produce herbicide resistant Kyllinga.
Crowding out Kyllinga in your lawn might work better, this is a good time of year to do so: As the weather changes to a moister environment, apply more nitrogen and potassium to your lawn and let the grass get longer than you normally cut it to.
Kyllinga likes to be low to the ground, and doesn't like competition. Spread calcium carbonate over your entire lawn. (Instead of trying to fight the Kyllinga, help the grasses to do better.)
Control in your garden beds will always be manual.
The mainland story of controlling nutsedge, does not work in Hawai'i. When you apply enough herbicide to get rid of the Kyllinga, you are just making more room for more Kyllinga. Best to crowd it out from your lawn, and make conditions better for grass. Remove it by hand from your garden beds; use lots of mulch.
Aloha, Dave
The part about crowding out nut grass has worked for me. We have St. Augustine and occassionally will have nut grass come up here and there. As the summer gets on and the grass gets thick the nut grass disappears. The only thing worse in a garden is mosquitos.
The above I just passed along because this gentleman has a very large garden and is always trying to control it.
Christi
Aloha Dave,
Thanks for all the advice, and no! I don't want to grow resistant Kyllinga, perish the thought! So I won't put more killer down, but I am going to try to clear a patch by hand and then put down some centipede grass seed. I am not sure that centipede grass grows thickly enough to crowd out the Kyllinga - but it would sure be nice to have a bit of grass in our naked back yard, the whole affair of the septic system caused such devastation in the garden, sometimes I wonder if it will ever be repaired - but the trees seem to be okay despite having limbs torn off by the huge machines they used.
Onward and upward!