Weed growing in grass

joeyvicks

Evening folks,

My back lawn is covered in these things. Anyone know what they are and how best to tackle them?

Sally_A

Looks like plantain. Use a daisy grubber or an old kitchen knife to dig down quite deep in a conical way to lift the root out.

joeyvicks

Only problem is my back grass is about 15m x 6m an it's full of them. Is there not a spray of some sort? Weed and feed don't seem to budge it

SailorSam

If you want to be eco-friendly try sprinkling each of them with salt.

djohn2002uk

It is Plantain. I think Verdone kills it without killing the grass. You can buy it in spray containers.

valk_scot

Plantago is usually a sign of damp conditions, caused by poor drainage or not enough light. They'll just come back if you don't deal with what's encouraging them tbh.

Jony

to add on what valk said, they are a easy way to tell that your lawn is compacted and needs a hollow tine areation, these LOVE compacted areas (you will quite often see them on walkways in the country)

basic weed to get rid of, most weedkillers should sort them out, if you get a spray MAKE SURE it is SELECTIVE weedkill otherwise it will kill the grass as well.

gardenroute

As Jony said its an indicator of compacted soil - this is the reason the plantains can compete with the grass.
I wouldn't put one weedkiller down soon after applying another -wait a month or two.
The plantain leaves look slighlty twisted - maybe in a week or two they will die off anyway - the weedkiller will take longer to take effect than the feed.
I would be surprised if Verdone doesn't shift them.

dickydonkin

Jony wrote: »

to add on what valk said, they are a easy way to tell that your lawn is compacted and needs a hollow tine areation, these LOVE compacted areas (you will quite often see them on walkways in the country)

basic weed to get rid of, most weedkillers should sort them out, if you get a spray MAKE SURE it is SELECTIVE weedkill otherwise it will kill the grass as well.

What I do is get a plastic funnel, place the pointy end on the leaves of the plantain, and then drop weedkiller in the funnel which ensures no surrounding grass is affected or any 'drift' occurs.

Weedol seems to work fine for me as does a 'weed and feed' treatment twice a year, but due to my neighbours lack of lawn maintenance, I get more than my fair share of lawn weeds and I try to keep on top of the situation by dealing with rouge weeds in between treatments.

GlynD

Another thing you can do is cut a small square of sponge and, making sure you're wearing gloves, dip it in a good weedkiller like Roundup and dab it onto the leaves, making sure they get quite wet. A bit finicky but cheaper than buying a lawn weedkiller - as long as you have ordinary weedkiller in your shed.

angelavdavis

I use a cut down plastic pop bottle to limit weed killer to specific areas - cut the bottom off which leaves you with a funnel shape when you turn it upside down. Alternatively, cut the top and bottom off the bottle to leave a thick tube which can be placed over an individual weed and used as a barrier to protect other plants when spraying the weed.