Need help identifying weed and how to control it

nlandman – posted 24 March 2011 19:56

Hello

I live in Orlando, FL and have St. Augustine in my yard. We had several areas around our yard that were full of weeds after chinch bugs and sod webworms got into our yard about a year ago. We waited till after this season’s cold weather finished and sprayed most of the weeds with a light coat of round up (they were already mostly brown), then pulled and tilled the areas and laid 5 pallets of fresh St. Augustine (believe it was the “Classic” variety). This was about 3 1/2 weeks ago.

The grass itself is looking very good, however we have one type of weed that seems to be growing a lot many sections of the newly sodded areas, especially in the area between road and the sidewalk (this type of week always grew a lot in that area). TruGreen has told us that it’s “Torpedo Grass” and that nothing that’s on the market will kill it, you can only control it by pulling it, but there is SO much, we can’t keep up. I’m going to try posting pictures below, but looking for some way to get rid of the stuff. Also, not sure if it’s really Torpedo grass as it doesn’t really look like the pictures I’ve found on the web.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer![img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed1.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed2.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed3.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed4.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed5.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed6.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed7.jpg[/img][img]http://www.thelandmans.com/Weed8.jpg[/img]

nlandman – posted 15 April 2011 22:51

Haven’t seen any responses yet… Anyone able to identify? It’s getting worse

awin4me – posted 20 April 2011 00:47

Yep, I’d say its nutsedge. Two varieties are yellow and purple. You probably live in the south. If you are in Florida like me you deal with this stuff all the time.

Google it online. Basically they have seed nodules that most of the time drop off even after you pull the weed up so it continually comes back.

There are treatments…………..WARNING follow the guidelines as excessive treatments will harm your sod.

Additionally, it normally gets worse because the sod is not healthy and unable to choke them out. So if you treat the sedge you might risk hurting the sod even more.

It’s a irritating weed if its sedge. I’ve heard “experts” say treat it with sedgehammer and it goes away. I’ve never seen that happen 100%. Make sure you check to make sure the herbicide won’t kill your existing sod. Some sedge killers are not safe with St. Augustine varieties.

awin4me – posted 20 April 2011 00:52

Sorry I did see you lived in Florida like me and had St. Augustine.

So yeah it’s nutsedge. I live 40 miles from you battle the same stuff. If you let it grow it even puts out a little seed looking stem, but since you have regular mowings you probably don’t see that as often.

awin4me – posted 20 April 2011 00:58

From a previous posting, but its 100% correct…..

For control of nutsedge, you will have to look for a product containing Halosulfuron , aka Pro Sedge, Sedge Hammer, Manage, etc.

Also, nutsedge cannot be controlled pre-emergence. You have to attack nutsedge once it has emerged.

Perry Whaley Owner, ConsultantGreen Fa*************@gr***********.net