How To Kill Spurweed Plants - Spurweed Control for Lawns
Are you trying to keep weeds out of your garden? It's likely that you've noticed that a lot of your plants are slightly misbehaving and leaving behind tiny seedpods, which serve as the ideal habitat for weeds to grow. Numerous annual and perennial weed species can quickly take over your garden, but not if you know what you're doing.
Winter annual spurweed grows very closely to the ground. It resembles parsley, in my opinion. As the weather cools in the fall, it starts to sprout, and throughout the winter it stays small or unnoticeable. The springtime, however, brings about a period of rapid growth for spurweed, which also starts to develop spine-tipped burs in the leaf axis. The sharp-tipped spiny burs hurt when you walk on them barefoot, as I already mentioned.
What is Spurweed?
Spurweed, also referred to as burweed or stickers, is a winter-growing perennial weed. It resembles parsley in appearance and grows close to the soil's surface.
The peak spurweed blooming and fruit-producing seasons are late spring and early summer. These fruits are covered in razor-sharp spines. If pets ingest the spines, they may become injured and become irritated.
The screech of pain is what alerts people to the presence of the weed when they walk across the lawn in sandals or bare feet. Spurweed on athletic fields is significantly more hazardous for athletes who slide or tackle frequently during spring sports.
But there are numerous efficient ways to get rid of spurweed.
How to Kill Spurweed
The weeds can be pulled up, but the fibrous roots eventually break off, allowing the plant to grow again. Given the number of plant seeds still waiting to germination in the soil, this is only a temporary fix.
Spurweed can be eliminated, though, by applying pre-emergent herbicide in the fall before germination or post-emergent herbicide during the winter.
You should aim for the plants before they form to prevent damaging seed heads or cones. Although there are many different ways to manage spurweed, each one emphasizes getting rid of the plant while it is still a young one.
It's important to use caution when using herbicides because excess application can also kill nearby plants. Pre-emergent herbicides work best for preventing weeds in your garden before they even sprout.
Pre-emergent herbicides stop weeds from even germination or sprouting. You can broadcast them or use a wand to apply them evenly throughout your entire garden. They are available in liquid and powder form.
How to Identify Spurweed in the Garden
Lawn burweed, also known as spurweed, can grow in ditches, meadows, and grass, along roadside ditches, and in other degraded land areas.
They are low-growing plants with sticky stalks that produce long, rangy stems and hairy leaves. The stalks have purple mottling and palmate leaves that alternate.
Other Different Ways to Destroy Spurweed
Pulling – Simply pull the plants up. You might want to repeat this process several times if your garden has a lot of spurweed.
Weeding – You can use weeding tools to get rid of weeds from your garden beds if you don't want to just pull the plants out. A trowel, weeding hoe, or a handheld cultivator can all be used. To protect yourself from the plants' intense irritability while using a hand-held cultivator, be sure to put on gloves and a dust mask.
– Spray Killing: You can use a spray killing machine to quickly eradicate spurweed while avoiding the unfavorable effects of herbicides and pesticides. These devices release a high-pressure stream of water, steam, or air that transforms the plants and their components into safe byproducts.
– Tillage: Tilling the soil kills weeds and destroys the soil's structure, making it hard for the weeds to establish and flourish. To prepare the soil for planting again, you should first till it up.
– Cultivation – Cultivating the soil prior to planting eliminates weeds by destroying the weed roots. After you have sown your garden, this should be done about a month later.
When to Treat Against Spurweed
Because it produces its spiny fruit in the spring, spurweed appears to emerge during that time. That's the part that stabs you in the soles of your bare feet, but it's also the part that scatters seeds, filling your yard with spurweed seeds ready to germinate next year.
If you use a chemical pre-emergent, you should do so before the seeds germinate since seeds usually sprout in the fall.
After the first stems emerge in the winter, use post-emergent products. Vinegar or chemicals both have the potential to cause this. Post-emergent weed control aims to eradicate weeds in the window of time between their emergence and seed production. Your chances of completely getting rid of spurweed from your yard and gardens increase if you kill them before they can set seed.
Spurweed Control: Summary
Your lawn is a wild area, despite the fact that you probably don't think so. Your lawn can quickly turn into a tangled mess of spurweed if you don't regularly maintain it.
Particularly common in the US is this invasive weed. home gardens and pastures, where it grows prolifically from seeds dropped by animals or spread via tractor ploughing or walking through the area.
You can try pulling or soaking spurweed to get rid of it, or you can spray it with a non-toxic liquid or use a non-herbicidal killing machine to get rid of it quickly without harming your garden plants.
FAQs
How to Get Rid of Lawn Burweed
The best strategy for controlling lawn burweed is to apply a preemergence herbicide, containing the active ingredients atrazine or isoxaben, in late September to early October before the winter weeds germinate. When it sprouts, this method will kill it, greatly reducing its presence in your yard the following spring.
What is the Best Product to Kill Burweed
Postemergence herbicides such as 2,4-D, simazine, dicamba, metsulfuron, mecoprop, fluroxypyr, or auxin containing formulations will get the job done. These ought to be used in either January, February, or March.