When it comes to dealing with Bahia grass, or Paspalum, (note that paspalums include Bahia, and Dallas grass etc) you have a number of options:

Control options

• You can live with it, and mow it at least once a week during the growing season.

• You can control it by suppressing it’s growth with a number of different agents.

• You can kill it.

• You can prevent it

Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Living with Bahia grass

If you live with the problem, you will need to mow pretty often, since at certain times of the year this invasive grass will grow more than a foot in under a week! Mowing twice each week is what I would recommend. The advantage of this course of action is that it allows for doing nothing, the disadvantage is that you will need to mow more often, or learn to live with the tall grass.

Controlling Bahia grass

It is possible to control the growth rate of Bahia grass using chemicals. There are a number of chemicals which can accomplish this when used in combination with other chemicals, and some that are labeled specifically as preventative growth regulators. These “pgr’s” are expensive to use. There is however one chemical which will do the job with a low dose, and at minimal cost. It is glyphosate. Glyphosates are made under several brand names, many of which are labeled for the suppression of Bahia grass, and do a great job of doing just that. The dosage is generally 2 to 6 ounces of 41% glyphosate per acre. At this rate, damage to other grasses is minimal to non existent. This combination will give seed head suppression for several months. The lower level of treatment will require re treatment after a couple of months, but will give a lower level of  phytotoxicity, or yellowing. The highest rate will give season long control, but will cause a higher level of yellowing. The advantage is, that you get to lower the number of times you mow, and avoid the problems of erosion, and weed invasion that can occur when you kill off the majority of your Bahia grass turf. The disadvantage, is that you do not kill the Bahia grass. This however is offset by the weakening of the Bahia which allows other grasses to catch up, which might later allow you to actually kill the invasive grass without totally destroying your turf.

Killing Bahia grass

Why not kill the Bahia and be done with it? Well, that is an option. If you plan to kill it, there are products available such as the metsulfuron ureas that will do the job selectively. If you plan to do this, I recommend extensive forethought. If you kill the Bahia grass, and do not replace it with another grass, and it is your primary turf, the result will be grass burs. You must take care to use only the proper ratio, over the exact area, or you run the risk of salting out the good grasses. You should plan on seeding, fertilizing, and irrigating as soon as the label directions allow, in order to prevent the growth of grass burs and other weeds. If you do not do this, you will have grass burs in areas that have become bare. It is a fact, grass burs won’t grow where there is competition. You must make the soil able to produce competition for them, to prevent them.

Preventing Bahia grass

The best way to deal with  Bahia grass, or any other weedy grasses The best way to deal with any weeds, or for that matter, any pest is to prevent it from gaining a foothold! If you avoid, or prevent a problem, you don’t have to deal with it. How can you prevent Bahia from taking hold in your yard?

1. The number one means of transporting weeds in lawns is dirty mowers. If you clean your mower before you mow your lawn, you can prevent the majority of seed transfer problems. If you have a Bahia grass right of way, mow your lawn while it is clean, and before you mow your right of way, or wash it between. This simple act will prevent the majority of  transfers. It should be mentioned that you can not legally perform a chemical treatment on a highway right of way without a license in that category.
2. The next thing that you can do, is to develop a healthy lawn. A healthy lawn will prevent a host of problems, and will prevent weeds from getting a foothold. Think of your lawn as an organism. If the organism is healthy, it resists disease and parasites. Weeds are parasites!

Is Your Lawn Suffering From BMB?

One of the problems I have seen more frequently over the past few years in lawn care is not a result of bugs, weeds, fungus, foot traffic or any other of the usual suspects. The symptoms are narrow shallow ruts, horizontal rows of compaction, and rows of balding areas in otherwise healthy lawns. These symptoms are often treated with chemicals, fungicides, extra fertilizer, or other common lawn care practices, and never solve the problem.

In most of the cases I have been called out because of these symptoms, I was able to identify the problem as BMB!

What is BMB?

BMB is short for “big mower blight”, a condition that occurs as a result of the use of over sized mowers in areas where they are not appropriate. This disease shows up first in areas such as slopes, edges and corners, especially where turns are made.

Turning shifts the mowers weight to one side, causing one side to be heavier than the other, when this is done on slopes, or in tight areas, the effect is magnified. The effect is skidding, scalping, and compaction.

Big mowers are great for large flat prime lawns, they also work well in rougher areas, but in small areas with short turns, and slopes, the effect can be damaging and counter productive.

Steps to Prevent BMG

To relieve the compaction problems related to the use of large mowers, aerifying is the answer. For prevention, talk to your lawn care professional about using push mowers on your property instead of the larger deck mowers and stand on self propelled mowers. If they agree to do so, the problem is solved, if not, it may be time to change services. Of course, you can always do your own mowing if you have the time.

Bigger is not always better, and this is especially true when it comes to lawn mowers in small sloped lawns. Don’t let BMB destroy your lawn!

More about mower size and big mower blight

Lawncare Pest Control Tips and Advice

Lawn care, there is more to it than you might think. You have to consider everything that’s involved, like mowing, fertilizing, irrigating, and even pest control. It turns out, that good lawn care, and good pest control go hand in hand. as a matter of fact, if you use proper lawn care techniques, you will have very few pests to have to control by other means!

Proper lawn care and pest control go hand in hand.

The list bellow gives a few details about good lawn maintenance, as it relates to the control of pests.

• Scalping your lawn, weakens the scalped area’s turf, and allows weed invaders to take the place of the weakened grass.

• Not mowing the grass at a low enough level, leaves cover for insects and allows some low growing weeds to reproduce seed under the mowing height

• Thatch hides insects, and should be removed or cultivated, and not allowed to build up. Good mowing practices will stop it from building.

• Waiting too long between mowing’s, can allow weeds time to reach seed head maturity, and plant themselves in your nice green lawn. Too much growth also provides cover for insects.

• When you have waited too long to mow, change your mowing height, so that you take off less leaf blade, and then mow again in a few days at a lower cutting height. Do this in increments until you reach your desired cutting height.

• You should never remove more than one third of the top at a time. Taking too much off at once will leave your lawn in a weakened condition, inviting more bugs and weeds to take over.

• Avoid mowing weedy outside areas before you mow your lawn. If you have to do this for some reason, stop and thoroughly clean your mower between the two areas.

• Mow away from your landscape beds and garden to avoid throwing grass, weed clippings, and seed into them.

• Don’t “over water” your lawn and landscape beds. Many weed pests, and bug pests enjoy excess water, and may decide to take up residence in the new sea side resort in your landscape. Over watering fuels fungus, and bacteria as well.

• Over fertilization leads to most of the same problems as over watering.

• Don’t fertilize your lawn too late in the year. If you do, you may be fertilizing winter weeds instead of grass.

• Avoid aerifying late in the fall. Aerifying at that time, will plant the weed seeds that would have otherwise rotted on top of the ground.

• Avoid lawn compaction. Areas with heavy foot traffic, are likely to have poor quality turf, and are subject to invasion by weeds that like compacted areas. If you have compaction, loosen it by aerifying. If the area is getting so much traffic because it is convenient, you could make a paved foot path through the area, or you could plant or build a traffic barrier to make it less convenient.