Dallisgrass in Tall Fescue

9 years ago

I have quite a few patches of this but not enough to warrant a complete lawn replacement. But there are enough that I would prefer not to have to pull them all up, and from what I can gather, even if I do that the grass may reemerge from its stolons.

Which post-emergent herbicide can I use to eradicate this? Most of what I've seen doesn't seem to be a good product for cool season grasses like TF. FYI I already put pre-emergent down to avoid further spreading this year. But I'm just not sure where to go from here! Help!

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Comments (5)

forsheems
9 years ago
As far as I know Glyphosate (aka Round Up) is the only herbicide that will kill dallisgrass but it kills everything. You might not have a choice but to spot spray the individual plants and reseed the areas in the fall. For what it's worth, I had excellent luck with Prodiamine against dallisgrass as a pre emergent.
DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)
Original Author
9 years ago
So is this my best bet?

1. roundup the existing plants

2. dig them out

3. sprinkle the holes with preemergent

4. Overseed in fall

Or is it too late to put down preemergent? For reference, I was using Amaze.
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forsheems
9 years ago
If you kill them with glyphosate there should be no need to dig them out as it will kill roots and all. It might take a couple treatments to get a 100% kill. If it were me, I would leave it alone until about a month before your time to reseed providing you can keep the dallisgrass cut often enough that doesn't get the chance to put off seed heads. This will require cutting two to three times a week because the stuff grows like mad. If cutting that often is not an option killing them now and dealing with the bare spots might be your only choice.

I'm not familiar with Amaze so someone else might be able to help you out there. Prodiamine was the only pre m I found that actually says it controls dallisgrass and so far it has done well for me. A good pre m app now would probably be a good idea since dallisgrass germinates during the summer. Just be careful and make sure the pre m will be gone by the time you plan to seed.
DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)
Original Author
9 years ago
So I bit the bullet and decided to systematically go through and pull out all the dallisgrass. Mostly because I don't want it to go to seed and have to pull out more later. Plus it is hideous and the patches actually look better.

Should I sprinkle the patches with pre emergent now to avoid weeds taking over? And then perhaps seed the areas this fall? I was also thinking to use a post emergent this season just to prep the lawn for overseeding this fall. Can anyone recommend a good postemergent?
forsheems
9 years ago
A good pre m would be wise to prevent seeds that are mostly likely there from germinating as long as the timing doesn't affect the fall seeding.

To my knowlege, there is no post emergent hebicide that will kill dallisgrass without harming the good grass. Worst case would be to spot spray any dallisgrass that makes it through by the end of summer with RoundUp a few weeks before seeding. At least that way you won't have to deal with brown/bare spots this summer. I had a major infestation in my front lawn back in 2013. Did a complete reno that fall and using the Prodiamine pre m I haven't had any return. If you're interested, I bought the Prodiamine online at domyownpestcontrol.com for about $65 for a 5lbs container. Even with a 1/2 acre lawn that one container should last me at least 8 years so it's extremely cheap per application. It's easy to use however the application rate much be fairly precise.

Dallisgrass in Tall Fescue

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forsheems

DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)
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Dallisgrass in Tall Fescue

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forsheems

DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)Original Author

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DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)Original Author

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DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)
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DandyLioness (CA 9, SZ 14)
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