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Originally posted by Mike A:
What is Carpet Grass and how do I get rid of it?

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Originally posted by Mark M:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike A:
[b]What is Carpet Grass and how do I get rid of it?

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Thanks,

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Originally posted by M. Simmons:
You stated that carpet grass can be killed with Arm & Hammer saop. Would this be Arm & Hammer laudry detergent? If not, what kind. Also, to mix it into a paste, do you use water? and how do you apply it. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Merida Simmons

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Did you find out how to apply it???

Do you have a weed problem?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

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Originally posted by :
Carpetgrass is a warm season turfgrass that grows well in wet, poor draining soils. It looks a little like Centipedegrass. Grows best in acid soils (pH 5-6). Chemical eradication will depend on what the type of desirable turfgrass you have. If you want to try cultural practices to kill it off; cut back on irrigation and let it dry out and die.

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Originally posted by david dahl:

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Does anyone know how to kill carpet grass?? I read Arm and Hammer applied but how much, how often, and dry or in a paste???

Anyone care to help a new Floridian that hs no clue how to grow anything???

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Originally posted by rong:
It is very simple to kill carpet grass. Use two scoopfuls of arm and hammer powder soap in a gallon of water. Pour it on the carpet grass and it will die within 48 hours.

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Originally posted by DrHocker:
Did the soap kill the carpet grass?

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the borax works great for me. Within my experience borax is more productive than baking soda. I have a medium sized area where healthy floritam is fighting a turf war against crabgrasses. My applications of borax have caused minimal damage to the good grass whereas baking soda seems to harm both grass and weed.

I tried the baking soda but ...
The baking soda did show results within a day or two, but it also did quite a bit of damage to the floritam. I prefer the slow-poison borax that more precisely targets crabgrass.

I grab a handful of borax powder and scatter it out like it is fertilizer. It takes 4-5 days for yellowing to appear. After about 10 days, the carpetgrass root system is severely weakened and it is easy to rake it out. It will grow back, but much less healthy and at a much greater disadvantage versus floritam. With each treatment, the floritam gets thicker and stronger while the carpetgrass gets thinner and weaker.

For example - I have put it in same area three times this year at about 6-8 week intervals. With each treatment, the carpetgrass gets significantly thinned. On first pass, it was mostly carpet/crab with the floritam struggling to spread into the area. On the second treatment it was 50/50. On the last treatment it was mostly Floritam with pockets of carpet/crab.

My first experiment with borax was early last august from an entry on this blog. The landscaper was telling me that I would have to use round-up and re-sod ... anything was worth a try. The test area was 30/30/30 of floritam, carpetgrass, and beggarweed. Used a rake to "comb out" and pull the big clumps then followed with a box of borax per 500Sq ft. By October floritam was dominant. A winter of atrazine treatments killed off the beggar weed and the area is now virtually weed free.

a regular garden rake. my floritam spreads along the ground and then grows striaght up. The carpetgrass grows from a central clump and then sreads out spreads out across the top. if you rake so that the forks don't catch the floritam the the cartpetgrass usually rakes back to the central clump.

2) How do you keep the crabgrass from reinfesting the "Thinned" areas?

I mow 6-8" tall.

3) when you broadcast the borax do you water it in?

Never gave it any thought. Sprinkler goes off twice a week during dry season and it rains every day at 3:30 otherwise.

4) Are you using 20 Mule Team Borax?
Yes. Straight from grocery store.

If the borox is flushed away over time, then I assume the borox is not accumulating in that area and re-application is a must.

Right now I have a front lawn that consists of Common Bermuda, El Toro Zoysia and Carpet Grass.

The carpetgrass is highly invasive & I gave up trying to get rid of it. It spred faster than the zoysia and easily dominates the bermuda.

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Originally posted by Judith Mac:
Thanks for the info about ridding my floritan from carpet grass.... I used 2 1/2 scoops per gallon of water ,of dry ARM & HAMMER laundry detergent... I applied it with a watering can---after 2 hours the crab/carpet grass was dark brown..The floitan was peeking out of the dark patches and looks healthy to me ... Now I have to rake !!

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You mention "scoops". Do you mean the "scoop" included in the Arm & Hammer box?

Thanks!

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Originally posted by Lucky:
Guest,

I simply sprinkle the baking soda as finely as I can onto very wet grass. I agree that it damages the Floratam. My experiments with liquid Arm & Hammer detergent seem to show no damage to the crabgrass. I am treating fairly sizable patches in my lawn, however. I'd love the same information from you on how you are applying the borax. Do you just sprinkle it on? Does the grass need to be wet? Is it true that you can only treat with borax once on your lawn?

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Originally posted by pgharr:
carpet grass easily killed off by wick wiping with glyphosate. In place of a wick wiper use a small brush.

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The best I have tried is saltwater. Carpetgrass is known to have poor salt tolerance which is the opposite for St. Augustine or Floratam. I used the water discharge from my water softener by rerouting the small hose to a 7 gallon tub. If this is not possible, just use tap or rain water. Put about 2 cups of salt in the tub and make sure it's all dissolved. It may take 2 days to dissolve it. I used the salt from my water softener which is the Morton Salt brand (can be bought at Home Depot, Wal-Mart or Sams Club - but any brand will do). A 40lb bag is about $4.00. This is more than enough salt but depends on how much Carpetgrass you have. Since Carpetgrass have shallow roots, you don't have to use much saltwater in an area. I bought a 2 Gal. water can at Home Depot for $5.00 and used it to water the Carpetgrass every other day. Water in dry conditions only. In a about 2 or 3 days, you will notice the Carpetgrass turning brown without harming your lawn. Be very carefull on your mix. Do not put too much salt as this will kill both Carpetgrass and your lawn. Tasting the water may be necessary for best judgement. The water must taste like seawater or a little less saltier.

Once the Carpetgrass are all dried up and brown, use a shallow rake to remove them. You will need to be diligent in watering the carpetgrass for a few days. It took me just 1 week to kill about 100 sq/ft of carpetgrass.

There is no weed killer for Carpetgrass. My lawn is serviced by TrueGreen and they will only kill it using grass killer with my permission. I will then have to remove the dead grass myself and re-sod.

Here is a link to see what carpetgrass looks like.