Common Georgia Lawn Weeds

No matter how hard you try, it seems difficult to keep weeds out of your lawn. The same favorable conditions that help your grass grow, cause many weeds to thrive. Some of them are  tolerant of adverse growing conditions, allowing them to take over when your lawn is stressed. In the Atlanta area, the main weeds we battle are:

Why Is Weed Control Important in Georgia?

If left to grow unchecked, weeds are detrimental to maintaining a beautiful, healthy lawn. The presence of weeds disrupts the appearance of your grass with differences in leaf color, height, and shape. They rob your turf of nutrients and water. Often, pests benefit from the shelter their broader leaves offer, increasing the likelihood of bug infestations. These are just a few of the side effects of letting weeds grow uncontrolled.

Crabgrass

Crabgrass appears as a light green clump of grass with coarse leaves and it spreads out into a star-shape with many ‘legs’ as it grows. These extensions can develop their own root system when they touch the ground, which is how it creeps around your yard like a crab. It’s often found along the edge of driveways, in sidewalk cracks, and bare spots in your lawn. Even though it is an annual plant and only lives a single season, one plant can produce up to 150,000 seeds that spread with the wind, causing it to quickly take over your lawn, leaving bare spots in its wake!

How to Get Rid of Crabgrass

If the infestation has just started or the weeds are young, you can hand pull them when the soil is moist. This is often a very labor intensive endeavor and will need to continue over a number of weeks, as new plants emerge.

There are two chemical methods of eradicating crabgrass – pre-emergent and post-emergent treatments. Pre-emergent herbicide applications for crabgrass work to prevent last year’s seeds from germinating. They should be applied in the early spring, before sprouts have appeared. To control possible crabgrass spread from neighboring lawns, yearly treatments are necessary. Once the crabgrass sprouts, there are crabgrass specific post-emergent herbicides that can be used.  These are formulated so that they target the crabgrass, but don’t harm your lawn.

Annual Bluegrass (Poa Annua)

Annual bluegrass, or Poa Annua, is a weedy grass that has yellow or green leaves, shallow roots, and grows in tufts. The most identifiable feature is its white seed head. It is usually found in bare areas of your lawn and along driveways and sidewalks. Because annual bluegrass thrives in cool conditions, it typically dies out by late-spring or early-summer in the Georgia heat after releasing its seeds. That leaves an opening for other weeds, such as crabgrass, to take its place. 

How to Get Rid of Poa Annua

The best way to treat Poa Annua is with pre-emergents before the seeds germinate in the fall. In Atlanta, that is in early September. Another effective treatment is to eliminate bare areas of your lawn, reducing where it can establish itself.

Clover 

If you see a low-growing plant with shamrock-shaped leaves and spherical pinkish-white flowers, you have clover in your lawn. Clover is a cool weather plant and will be most evident during the winter when your lawn has gone dormant and it continues to grow. Often, its presence is an indication that you have a soil problem. If left uncontrolled, it can choke out the warm season grasses that make up most lawns.

How to Get Rid of Clover

There are many ways to eliminate clover from your lawn. They range from physical removal, which must be done carefully to make sure no roots remain, to use of broadleaf herbicides. There are also some DIY remedies that can be used. In addition, whatever soil issues allowed the clover to gain traction in the first place should be corrected.

Yellow Nutsedge

This weed has a 3-sided stem, with bright yellowish-green grass-like blades and spiky yellowish brown flowers, and quickly grows taller than the surrounding grass, giving your turf a non-uniform appearance. Even though it has a grassy appearance, yellow nutsedge, also known as nutgrass, belongs to the sedge family. It prefers the wet areas of your lawn to start, but will spread quickly if not stopped. Each plant has multiple nut-like tubers that develop along the roots and eventually germinate. Because these tubers can remain dormant, it is especially difficult to control.

How to Get Rid of Yellow Nutsedge

Pulling yellow nutsedge is not a feasible control option, because of how deep the tubers are in the ground. A herbicide that is formulated to control sedges is the best bet for combating this invasive species. The tubers can lay dormant underground for up to 2 years, so multiple treatments are necessary. You can maximize the effectiveness of treatments by applying them earlier in the season, before the plants have more than 5 or 6 leaves and the root tubers have a chance to develop.

Broadleaf 

The identifying characteristic of most broadleaf weeds are the net-like veins in their leaves. Seedlings emerge with two leaves and they appear nothing like grasses or sedges. Common Georgia broadleaf weeds, to name a few, are chickweed, dandelions, henbit, and ground ivy. They are more likely to pop up in areas of your turf that have thin grass coverage and well moistened soil. They do not look like the rest of your lawn and steal nutrients and water from your grass, further weakening it.

How to Get Rid of Broadleaf

As with other types of weeds, both pre- and post-emergent herbicides specifically formulated for broadleaf weeds can be used to curb and eliminate them. The application timing is dependent on the particular weed and whether it is active in winter or summer. A healthy lawn is another deterrent to broadleaf propagation.

Having Trouble With Weeds? Call in the Professionals!

The main thing to remember about weed control is that the healthier your lawn is, the less likely it is that weeds will be able to gain a foothold and thrive in your turf. When you partner with got lawn?, our trained lawn care specialists will assess your property and design a custom plan to get your current weed problem under control. They will then recommend treatments to improve grass health and density, which will make it more difficult for new weeds to flourish. This includes correcting compacted soil and low areas, eliminating bare areas in your lawn, mowing at the correct height for your grass, and proper watering techniques.