What is growing in my yard?

[DieUCLA98]

I recently reseeded my lawn with zoysia (or what I thought was zoysia at least). And now I have these sprouting up in my yard:

On the left side, you can see a little single leaf blade of grass, which to mean looks more like a bermuda blade. On the right you can see what looks like a "sprout" of grass which to me looks more like a st. augustine blade. What gives? Or is what I'm seeing just the various life stages of zoysia (starts as a single blade leaf and moves on to a sprout like structure)?

 

[ScoPro]

Looks like "nut grass". Just pull it out.

 

[mishatx]

That's nut grass. Set the lawn on fire and start over.

 

[bozo_casanova]

That's nut sedge. Only Satan can help. Sacrifice a goat on your lawn.

 

[accuratehorn]

I would move right away.

 

[DieUCLA98]

God dammit. That blows... Theres a **** ton of them in my yard too. I'm guessing anything that kills nut grass will kill the zoysia too?

 

[B]

nothing kills nut sedge. I had to move 200 miles away to get rid of it.

 

[accuratehorn]

You could request to become an atomic testing site, but it may not get rid of all of it.

 

[strider]

As others have said that's nut grass. Paint it with Round-Up. FTR, zoysia is plugged in the north and sodded in Texas where it cannot overtake the native grasses. I'd go back to whoever sold you the seed and first get a refund and then kick his ***.

 

[random horn]

you're doomed

 

[El Sapo]

Personally, I would replant the yard with corn.

 

[DieUCLA98]

I went with seed as it was a much cheaper option than sod. If it fails, I'll tarp the yard for a week and lay down sod and eat the cost of the seeds.

 

[MilkmanDan]

Here's a nice tarp.

 

[tropheus]

a week won't do it. they have "nut" like bulbs 3-4 inches below the surface and then they grow up and send runners out and then up. a week of darkness won't do a damn thing. round up won't work either, there are some nutsedge killers that are "safe" for st. augustine and zoysia type lawns but they still turn the grass yellow. nutsedge is a *****, you are in for a real fight. best thing is to dig them up and make sure you get a good chunk of soil so you have the bulb.

cheap seed usually has it, so does prepackaged top soil from HD and Lowe's. It's a real pain in the ***.

good luck.

 

[Bob Wills]

On the bright side, you won't have to pay as much for muscle relaxants.

 

[accuratehorn]

Ha. That stuff eats roundup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and turns it into fertilizer. It's like giving a fish a glass of water.

 

[bevo_daddy]

I don't know much about grass, but from what these guys said it sounds pretty bad.

 

[austintex]

It's threads like this that make me glad I've gone back to renting.

 

[hollisdude]

I would rent a road grader and take off the top 20" of soil. Then pour a foot of concrete on it and paint it green. Otherwise, nutsedge wins.

 

[Uninformed]

Maybe if you plant bamboo you will have a chance. Nut grass vs. bamboo is like Godzilla vs. King Kong.

 

[dendox]

I have this problem very bad right now. DO NOT PULL THEM. I REPEAT DO NOT PULL THEM.

I was first instructed that this was a "normal weed" that only needed to be pulled. I now have two sections of my yard that have gone from a small two to three square foot radius to a 25 foot radius. When you pull them you break the nut bulbs under ground and cause more seeds to enter your yard.

There is a product called IMAGE that will work - but I don't think it is safe on zoysia. Might be wrong about that.

Round up will kill them, but they will come back. If yuo hit them with round up in the first few days you actually have a decent shot at killing the nuts under ground too (not guaranteed). Be prepared to have yellow spots in your yard for a year or two.

On a related note - does anyone know how much it would cost to get someone to come in and take up the top layer of grass and soil and start all over on a yard in a standard production home neighborhood (Read: average sized yard now days)? They can't dig too deep because I have limestone bed rock about 4 inches under the surface.

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

Nutsedge has a waxy film on it that makes it hard for the weed killer to penetrate. I was told to mix in a little Dawn with the Image. Haven't had to try that yet, knock on wood I haven't seen Nutsedge around here lately.

 

[dendox]

Supposedly you can pull them if you get the bulbs. I guess I have had no luck. I am just hand pulling them after a good watering.

I may try using a small spade and going all the way to the bottom.

 

[DieUCLA98]

Hell, my nutsedge is just now sprouting as it gets warmer... I can't imagine they die off in a month or so...

That IMAGE stuff says its safe for Zoysia. I might have to give that a whirl once my lawn gets a little established (the Zoysia are still very spread out and thin right now). IMAGE is safe for all the grass types that are used in Austin except for Buffalo. It doesn't say it isn't safe for Buffalo, it just doesn't explicitly say it is.

 

[dendox]

There is a product called "sedgehammer" that is quite expensive but is supposed to work. I have tried it and not noticed any real results. That could be because we had a thunderstorm pop up out of nowhere two hours after I put the **** down. MFER.

You are supposed to use something like this

This helps the herbicide bind to the leaves. I found this as milberger's here in SA.

 

[tropheus]

Image will turn your lawn yellow and might kill it if the grass isn't well established -- what safe means is it won't kill it completely if its well established.

if you can get the bulb, you can dig it up safely. easier said than done though with a lawn.

 

[DieUCLA98]

Does nutsedge die off in the winter? Or does it just go dormant?

 

[bozo_casanova]

I strongly endorse this product for pulling but sedge and removing the root.
It's tedious manual labor, but this does pull the bulb.

 

[gsoda3]

nut sedge sucks. our asparagus garden is overrun with them and i have to pull them out by hand daily.