Help with weed identification

10 years ago

Hello, I am new to the lawn care forum, but not new to Gardenweb. If I ask a silly question, please be patient with me. Here's my situation.

Last year, we sodded my 3/4 acre back yard with bermuda sod. We have a lawn service that cuts every two weeks, and another service to spray for weeds once per month. The weed service cannot spray the backyard because the sod is not a year old, but hopefully this winter, we can get things going. Until then, I need help eliminating as many weeds as possible. The yard looks a mess! I'm so embarrassed. My DH does his best...sort of, but he just can't seem to get the hang of it. We've been at this since January. in mid March, we put down a few bags of Halt ( not enough in my opinion). That seemed to work for most of the crabgrass. We have been getting lots of rain lately so my DH put down two large bags of another brand of weed and feed. This one had a very high nitrogen, 38 i think. As a gardener, I dislike the idea of using weed and feed because i know in feeding the lawn, we are also feeding the weeds. Does that make sense? Considering the size of my lawn, the bermuda sod, and the time of year, is there a special type or brand of product that we should be using? Our neighbors yards look amazing. Why not ours? The only obvious difference is they cut weekly with personal mowers.

Please help me identify these weeds. The most common, not pictured, is Fescue, but the others are spreading rapidly. Thanks in advance! April

Close ups of #5 and #2
{{gwi:95030}}

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Comments (9)

texas_weed
10 years ago
Is this a test, or your lawn?

Pictures are not great for identification of some of the subjects, but here is my best effort.

1. Spurge
2. Annual Blue Grass
3. Small Plantain or Dandelion.
4. ? Not enough picture detail
5. Carrot Weed
6. Either Barn Yard or Quack Grass
7. Carpet Weed or Knot Weed
8. ? No detail in picture
9. ? Not enough detail in picture
1. ? Mallow
ourhappyhome
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the quick reply texas-weed.

Not sure what you mean by test. These are weeds I pulled right out of my lawn just moments before posting. They are everywhere and many are forming seed heads. Must be cutting too high. What would you do now if this was your lawn?
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texas_weed
10 years ago
What kind of grass do you have.
ourhappyhome
Original Author
10 years ago
We have Bermuda sod. Annual bluegrass, clover and #9 are the most common. Here are a few more pics.

{{gwi:95034}}

{{gwi:95036}}

{{gwi:95037}}

{{gwi:95038}}

{{gwi:95039}}

{{gwi:95040}}
Julie717
10 years ago
It does look like you need to be mowing weekly, at least now while it's raining a lot. When it gets hotter you might not need to.

There is an organic pre-emergent (blocks seed sprouting but does not kill anything) called corn gluten meal that you could try. It is a nitrogen fertilizer but it does not have as much nitrogen as chemical fertilizer and it is released more slowly into the lawn. I used to buy it at a cattle feed store (it is a protein additive that is used in lots of pet and cattle foods) and it was not too expensive when sold as feed. The kind that is sold as fertilizer is a lot more expensive. I had really good luck with it but I did have a spreader that would dump more than it was supposed to, so I spread it pretty heavily compared to instructions--about 50 pounds over 2000 sq ft or so.

Anyway, my lawn looked really good when I used it, better than any chemicals I have tried. But like I said, it doesn't kill weeds, it just stops seed sprouting. If you really can't spray anything to kill them, then the only option is to pull all those weeds or keep them mowed short and hope the grass chokes them out. Also, some of those weeds will die once the weather gets hot.
texas_weed
10 years ago
It would help if you start mowing two or three times a week at 1 to 1.5 inches.
ourhappyhome
Original Author
10 years ago
Just back fom Memorial Day with the Fam. Wanted to thank Texas weed and Julie 717 for all the helpful information. It is consistent with what we have read. Guess the gluten meal can't hurt. We plan to try it in a small area as a trial. Best advice is clearly to cut the grass more often than we have been -once or twice per week. In the fall, our service will start and it won't be much of an issue. I think the service is necessary to get rid of the horrible fescue. Frankly, if we are cutting every week, the other weeds won't matter much. Ya won't be ale to see them anyway!

I really appreciate when folks here take time out of their schedules to help the novice. Thanks and blessings!
texas_weed
10 years ago
Corn Gluten Meal is not going to do a thing.
ourhappyhome
Original Author
10 years ago
Just wanted to post an update. It's barely been two weeks and the change is unbelievable. We have been cutting every 5-7 days. It is also quite a bit warmer. The combination has done wonders for the lawn. The Bermuda has the advantage and is overtaking most of the weeds. The crabgrass and fescue are hanging on but the others are MIA! Thanks for your help.