Kill Japanese Stiltgrass In Lawn
From forested floodplains to forest edges stream banks fields trails and ditches it is known for colonizing lawns and gardens too.
Kill japanese stiltgrass in lawn. Japanese stiltgrass microstegium vimineum is an introduced annual grass that has invaded forest lands throughout much of the eastern half of united states figure 1 the plant is native to asia and was historically used for packing goods shipped from china. Either pulling the weeds or killing them with a post emergent herbicide. It has a wiry stem from which sprout thin pointed lime green leaves that grow about 4 inches long. Post emergent is a fancy way of saying actively growing weeds that have already come up from soil.
How to kill it if you have japanese stilt grass living in and through your lawn other than replacing your entire lawn with sod there are effectively only two options. It manages to replace native vegetation in a lot of ecosystems. This past summer i attended a workshop given by nofa organic land care on the organic management of invasive plants in the landscape. Japanese grass also known as stilt grass is a prolific invasive species that arrived in the united states from japan perhaps in packing materials about 1900.
Discarded packaging material may have been the source of seed introduction to the united states. Vimineum was originally documented in tennessee in 1919 and is believed to have been accidentally introduced to the united states through its use as a packing material. I want to share some of the information i learned especially as it relates to japanese stilt grass microstegium vimineum which i wrote about last week since japanese stilt grass is an annual grass the primary goal is to prevent it from producing seeds. Mike mcgrath shares tips and tricks to getting rid of those pesky weeds in your lawn without all the fire and fury.
Japanese stiltgrass microstegium vimineum is bright green with a distinctive silvery stripe of reflective hairs along the midrib of each narrow lance shaped blade the leaves are one to three inches long and alternately arranged on a branched stalk resembling a smaller more delicate version of bamboo.