Wintergrass is a common weed best known for its bright green and fine leaves, it can come up in abundance in our lawns every year, in Winter, and proliferate and worsen with each passing year unless it is treated. The treatment for wintergrass is different than that which is done for most other weed types, and the treatment times for wintergrass allow for a narrow window of time to effectively treat and eradicate this weed from our lawns.
There are some people who actually like wintergrass in their lawns each year as it can give an otherwise unsightly off colour Winter lawn a bit more brighter and greener colour during the cold months. For those with less than stellar lawns, this might be okay, however for those of us who like to upkeep our lawns as best we can then controlling wintergrass should be a priority for us.
Wintergrass easily and quickly spreads each year via its masses of tiny seed heads, these seed heads can appear as the lifecycle of the wintergrass weed matures later on in the Winter season, and even into Spring.
Once the wintergrass weed matures and is seeding there is very little that can be done to stop the spread of these weeds seeds. Mowing regularly with a rotary lawn mower is about the best option to lessen next years weeds, the rotary mower is important as by its design it uses a suction to life up grass clippings - and those wintergrass seeds too - into the catcher for later disposal. Mulch mowing lawns while we have wintergrass or any other weeds in proliferation is never a good idea, as we’d be depositing weed seeds back into our lawn again, so always use a catcher in these times.
The more mature the wintergrass weeds become, the more difficult they are to control, and herbicide usage is almost useless from about the second half of Winter onwards, though we could always try.
Treating Winter Grass
Here is where wintergrass treatment differs from most other weed types treatments.
Wintergrass herbicides act on the roots of the weed, whereas other weed killers act on the leaf of the weed, so other general lawn herbicides just will not work on wintergrass. This is also why treating wintergrass too late in the season is almost futile, as the roots and the weeds themselves are just too strong by this stage and they can resist the treatments being applied to control them.
Wintergrass herbicides are readily available at your favourite nursery or garden store, the cost is low, maybe around $10.00 - $15.00.
Follow manufacturers directions to mix and apply the treatment to your lawn.
Generally this will mean mixing up the herbicide in watering can and filling the watering can with water, then applying the treatment to the lawn, sometimes and if recommended by the manufacturer we may also need to water the treatment into the lawn as well. Remember this herbicide acts on the roots of the weeds so we need to get the treatment into the soil.
When To Treat Wintergrass
The timing of wintergrass treatment is equally as important as using the right herbicide.
Wintergrass must be treated as early in Winter as possible, while the weeds are as young as possible. We should aim to treat wintergrass as soon as we see it first emerge in the Winter, don’t delay, get onto it as fast as possible. As already mentioned, if we leave treatment until too late in the season then there can be a high chance that the treatment will not work at all.
Wintergrass can also be treated pre-emergent. Before it can even be seen, this is actually the very best time of all to apply herbicides for wintergrass control. So let’s look at a scenario whereby this might be the best option to choose for our weed control.
Let’s say we’re living somewhere where we have the standard Winter months of June, July and August. We should first see wintergrass appearing in our lawns right about the start of June, maybe even right at the end of May.
If we’re seeing wintergrass in our lawns for the first time, then June and July are the best times to treat, after those months we will struggle to control it.
If we missed our window of opportunity, and we tried anyway to control the wintergrass infestation in our lawns, then our next best option is just to continue to mow with a catcher to minimise spread this year, and then to mark in our Calendars to treat wintergrass next year, BEFORE IT EMERGES.
Remember, if you’ve got wintergrass this year, you’ll have it next year too, and worse.
Mark down MAY in your Calendar to treat your wintergrass problem. In May the wintergrass has already come to life in the soil, beginning to grow, only for us to see it emerge in June.
So anytime in May, before we can even see any wintergrass at all, apply the wintergrass treatment to the lawn. Then if we still do see some wintergrass still emerge over the coming weeks or months, we treat as necessary and per the herbicide manufacturers recommendations.
This should solve the majority of wintergrass weed problems in our lawns.
However, the old adage of one year of seeding equals seven years of weeding, is true. There will still be more wintergrass seeds hidden and lying in wait amongst our lawns and soils for a perfect time to emerge in the future, so we should always continue to keep an eye out for this little bothersome weed.
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