Quack grass

[harvey lee]

Is there a selective herbicide that will handle quack on the market?

In the past I have used round up and a cotton swab and just touched the plant but that is time consuming to say the least.

[Powerstroke]

I believe there are selectives out there, but I've never used them.

Round up is the best thing I know of. Since quack tends to clump, I usually spray the area and dig the clump out once dead and then reseed the area. Its tough since you know there are more seeds in the soil.

[fishersofmen]

There are no selective herbicides that will kill quack grass. There has yet to be a chemical introduced to the market that can tell the difference between your standard broadleaf grass and regular grass. They say the first one to figure it out will be loaded so lets get at it!!

[Tom7227]

Try taping a foam paint brush to a rod. Another trick is a sock on a hockey stick. The stuff will stick up fairly quickly above your other grass and you just sort of paint the roundup on it. Of course you'll also croak everything else that you drip on, but that's the price you pay.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Certainty by Monsanto claimed to control it, but now I cannot pull up a label anywhere to show it here.

After further review, I found the label. Do a google for Certainty label, the 3rd or 4th listing was a greenbook dot net site and it has the label.

The whole Monsanto HSOforum seems to be down, I'd rather get the label straight from the manufacturer, so you know the product is still available.

Anyways, section 8.8, page 3 or 4...

8.8 Additional Weeds Controlled

For selective control or suppression of annual or perennial weeds listed in this

section, apply this product at 1.25 to 2.0 ounces per acre. Use the higher rate of

this product for control in areas of established, dense weed infestation. If using an

initial rate of application of 1.25 ounces per acre, a second application of

1.25 ounces per acre may be made 4 or more weeks after the initial treatment,

if needed.

Barley, little Garlic, wild

Hordeum pusillum Allium vineale

Bedstraw, catchweed Geranium, Carolina1

Galium aparine Geranium carolinianum

Bentgrass, creeping1 Henbit1

Agrostis stolonifera Lamium amplexicaule

Bluegrass, roughstalk Ivy, ground1

Poa trivialis Glechoma hederacea

Bluegrass, bulbous Johnsongrass

Poa bulbosa Sorghum halepense

Burweed, lawn Mustard, wild

Soliva pterosperna Sinapis arvensis

Buttercup Pennycress, field

Ranunculus arvensis Thlaspi arvense

Chickweed, common Quackgrass1

Stellaria media Elytrigia repens

Clover, white Ryegrass, perennial

Trifolium repens Lolium perenne

Crowfootgrass Shepherd’s-purse

Dactyloctenium aegyptium Capsella bursa-pastoris

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

1 Suppression or partial control only

You notice the "1" after common Quackgrss, that this chemical only offers Suppresion or partial control, so it's still not a cheap / easy fix.

[Powerstroke]

There are no selective herbicides that will kill quack grass. There has yet to be a chemical introduced to the market that can tell the difference between your standard broadleaf grass and regular grass. They say the first one to figure it out will be loaded so lets get at it!!

I owuld like to disagree partially because there are some fantastic selective herbicides out there that take care of post-emergent crabgrass without harming the rest of your lawn.

LMM2 and I have both had fantastic and repeatable results using Drive on crabgrass. I don't think its unreasonable for a selectable herbicide to come out for quack. It may not be here yet, but you know someone is working on it.

[Tom7227]

Quack, Quack. Not crab. Or were you just ducking the issue?

[fishersofmen]

Yea what Tom said.....Most people realize there are many different selective herbicides for crabgrass that work great. We have been using them (including Drive) at our company for many years. However as I said there is no chemical that will kill your STANDARD broadleaf grass without killing the rest of your lawn. People view quackgrass as several different things which is why I just say standard broadleaf. We are in constant communication with reps from 3 different distributers so if a product does eventually come around I'm sure we will hear about it.....but don't cross your fingers, they have been working on it for a LONG time.

[FISHINGURU]

i can't believe you actually did the round up and cotton swab trick...that would suck lol

just as people are saying there is nothing out there that will kill quack grass without killing your normal grass.

your better off killing the whole area and reseeding or sodding....either that or continue to plant a good grass seed in the area year in and year out and hope your dense turf chokes it out.

[fishuhalik]

Round up is the best thing I know of. Since quack tends to clump, I usually spray the area and dig the clump out once dead and then reseed the area. Its tough since you know there are more seeds in the soil.

Quackgrass doesn't clump. What's you're looking at is probably tall fescue. Very similar-looking to quackgrass, but completely different.

As far as overseeding to choke out quackgrass, it doesn't work. You may choke some out, but it's still gonna be there. You need to get rid of it. The cotton swab or sock trick works pretty good.

BTW, make sure you don't aerate when you start getting a quackgrass infestation. If you aerate you'll basically be transplanting the quackgrass and it'll spread even faster. Kill the stuff, then worry about the good grass.

[harvey lee]

Lokks like the cotton swab and round up is still the way to go to kill only the quack.

The day they come out with a selective herbicide for this, someone will make some cash.