Knowledgebase

bind weed & absinthe weed control in tall/chewings fescue lawn #334649

Asked June 20, 2016, 9:44 PM EDT

My daughter bought a house in Denver's Green Valley Ranch several years ago. We seeded her then-barren backyard with Gurney's Nursery Healthy Lawn Grass Seed--a type of tall or chewings turf fescue--about three years ago. It is a beautiful dark-green turf grass and holds up to "dog traffic" and "kid traffic" very well. However, bindweed is becoming a real problem, as well as an extremely fast-spreading, deep-rooted, sagey-smelling weed that looks like absinthe wormwood (yuck). Pulling these plants doesn't help since they spread from deep underground roots. Please recommend an herbicide that we can use safely on this type of turf grass to control these weeds before they take over the lawn. Thank you for your time and attention to our request.

Denver County Colorado

Expert Response

Here's some help with controlling the bindweed in your lawn taken from a Plant Talk Colorado fact sheet ( http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1552.html):

'Bind weed survives many herbicides that kill other plants. For example, 2,4-D is largely ineffective against bindweed if used alone. Three-way mixtures containing dicamba or dichlorprop (combined with the standards 2, 4-D and MCPP/MCPA) can provide moderate to good control.

The herbicide quinclorac is highly effective at controlling bindweed. Quinclorac is also a component of a few professional products. Quinclorac is available to the homeowner in the products Ortho Weed B Gon MAX plus Crabgrass Control and Bayer Advanced ™ All-In-One Lawn Weed and Crabgrass Killer.'

If you've correctly identified the other as an artemisia, then you should be able to control it with an herbicide labeled for broad-leave weeds. If you're not positive of your ID, I highly recommend you get an ID. You can send us photos or bring a sample into the Denver Extension at 888 E. Iliff (in Harvard Gulch park). 

Colorado Master Gardener, Denver County Replied June 22, 2016, 6:36 PM EDT
Here are photos of the plant we think may be absinthe wormwood.
The Question Asker Replied June 29, 2016, 11:10 PM EDT

That looks like Western Ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya) not Absinthe Wormwood. It's a native, not an alien, but it is a main cause of hay-fever in late summer when it blooms. To control it, hand-pull new plants before they establish, and remove and discard the flower inflorescences to avoid them going to seed and creating new plants.

Chemical controls similar to those listed for Absinthe Wormwood may be used to kill the underground rhizomes. Here is a link to that Colorado Department of Agriculture fact sheet: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Absinth%20wormwood%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

Colorado Master Gardener, Denver County Replied July 02, 2016, 2:39 PM EDT

Loading ...