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Invasive Grass Species? #752397

Asked May 26, 2021, 6:23 PM EDT

I live in Williamsport, and my property is adjacent to 2 planted agricultural fields. I have working to improve my lawn over the last few years, but seems to be dealing with the expansion of an invasive grass. At the end of last season, I aerated and over seeded my acreage with a fescue mix. The lower part of the property seems to have an expanding grass species which does not cut well. My commercial mower only seems to take the top of the grass off at a variety of speeds and heights. Can you help me to identify this so I can work on getting rid of it? Thank you!

Washington County Maryland

Expert Response

It is difficult to identify the grass just from these photos alone. Since you are located near farmland, you might have brome grasses or timothy grasses (among other agricultural weeds, or even possibly a type of rush) coming in. A good view of the open flowers (inflorescence) would be needed as a starting point in order to identify it. This page shows other small details we would need to look at for identification purposes. 

Regardless of the species, however, management of it will be similar if you want to remove it and re-establish fescue. There are not many options for selective control of perennial weed grasses, so you will have to use a post-emergent, non-selective herbicide -- essentially that will kill all the grass and you will have to re-seed with the fescue you want. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/lawn-herbicides-weed-control

This page on our website goes into details about renovation when a lawn is more than 50% weeds. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/lawn-renovation-and-overseeding

Since you are near an agricultural area and this problem may persist from weeds blowing in, you might want to think about lawn alternatives -- other types of perennial plants you could grow at the edges/places where the lawn is most difficult to maintain. 

Christa

Hi Christa,

Thanks for the informative reply. Based on your feedback, I did some additional research and looked more closely at the invader. Based on what I am seeing, and from what I can find online, I believe I am dealing with rush creeping in to the lawn. The unfortunate part is that it is extensive enough that I don’t think hand pulling the clumps is possible. Here is another photo including the root structure in case that means anything more in our identification. Since I know these, I don’t really get to see the flowering to use as an identifier. 

Regards,

Dean 

image

Sent from my iPhone

On May 27, 2021, at 12:41 PM, Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:


The Question Asker Replied May 28, 2021, 8:49 AM EDT

Yes, this looks like one of the rushes. Hand pulling would be effective in areas where it is sparse.  

If you have areas where it has taken over, you'll have to renovate, meaning you'll have to kill everything and then reseed with fescue, because there is no herbicide you can apply that would selectively kill only the rush.  Here is how to successfully renovate (same link as previous reply): https://extension.umd.edu/resource/lawn-renovation-and-overseeding

The other option is to simply live with it. It's not a bad alternative to fescue in areas where fescue doesn't grow well because it's too wet, etc. And it blends in with fescue fairly well.

Ellen

Ellen Replied May 28, 2021, 10:14 AM EDT

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