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Grass/weed identification

8 years ago

Can anyone identify this? This fall, I had my front yard completely re-seeded. Existing top layer of dirt was scraped up, new soil put down and seeded, with straw for mulch. I noticed there's some kind of plant growing twice as tall/fast as the rest of the lawn. I showed the 2nd picture below to someone at work and she said it was probably wheat seeded from the straw. The grass seed I bought included a bunch of fine fescues, perrenial rye, and kbg. I thought those grasses were supposed to sprout as a single blade (this looks like multiple blades from one sprig)

If this is wheat, I figure it'll die out after the first season (annual). I just want to confirm whether this is one of the grasses in the actual seed blend and figure out what to do with it.

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Comments (7)

PRO
Garden Source Inc.
8 years ago
It looks like it could be wheat. If you look up "wheat leaf blade" on google images, there are some pictures that look like that. I am most certain though that grass is not one of those from the mix. Most of those have flat blades. I hope this helps!
owlnsr
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I seeded last year with some Pennington tall fescue. Turns out a lot of that was orchard grass. This looks like the young orchardgrass looked for me last year.
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Keep that away from me and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Tenacity will take it out, although it'll also bleach PR/Fescue and may do damage to both as well depending on the cultivar (it is listed for turf type tall fescues and perennial ryegrasses, I've simply noticed it seems to do a little more damage to them than it does to bluegrass, although they certainly do recover from it). Several applications, several weeks apart, may be necessary to control it, and it's a prolific seeder, so it'll be back. Use of any good pre-emergent listed for P. annua (I like Prodiamine, but many others work as well...including Tenacity itself, which is a short-term pre-emergent of about 30 days) helps to suppress the seed sprout. P. annua is a fall-sprouting grass, just like any other, and easily survives any northern winter (it's now naturalized itself to friggin' Antarctica as per an arcticle...I mean article I read some years ago). Use of most pre-emergents will preclude reseeding your lawn since it sprouts at the same time and under the same conditions as your lawn grasses do, but Tenacity application with the lawn seeding will help you out there. It's not perfect, but it helps. The instructions are on the bottle.
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jeanerz
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for the responses. I really hope it's wheat, but maybe I should try to start pulling it in case it is orchard grass :/ I suppose orchard grass could be counted in the "other crop" section of the seed breakdown. Bummer.
owlnsr
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Yes it could, and so could wheat. I don't have any experience with handling wheat. If it's orchardgrass, it should be easy to take care; it grows faster than even KY-31, so in between mowings it should be easy to identify if it's mixed in anywhere else in your lawn. I've tried pulling it up.

Sometimes they come right out when you pull. If you don't get it all, it will grow back soon --- it's hardy grazing stuff. If you can get it up while it's young, do it.

Otherwise it can outperform your turf grass. It just keeps growing and growing, and it's tillers get larger and larger in size. Regular mowing just seems to push it down, where it kind of grows prostrate. I've had a helluva time this fall with overseeding because of orchardgrass. Thankfully, it doesn't spread except by seed.
jeanerz
Original Author
8 years ago
Would suck for a grass seed blend touted as slow and low growing to include something like orchard grass (most likely part of the "other crop" I suppose). *sigh* guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.
dchall_san_antonio
8 years ago
I would not automatically lay blame on the seed. You brought in new topsoil, which can have weed seeds in it, and you brought in straw, which can have weed seeds in it. And then you did not pre water it to bring up any weeds so you could kill them with a weed killer. So had you not done all those things, you would have/should have gotten better results.
jeanerz
Original Author
8 years ago
I actually was blaming the straw first off, and hoping that it was wheat which should die off after a season. If it's orchard grass, I just don't think it would be considered a "weed" and that's why I said if it came from the seed it was probably part of what is listed as "other crop". I guess it could have come from the topsoil that was brought in too. I wasn't "automatically laying blame" to the seed - just saying it would suck if the seed contributed to the problem (it does have an "other crop" and a "weed seed" section on the content label).

Regardless of how it got there, it sounds like it needs to be removed now, while it's young, in case it is a perennial.

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