LSU Garden News: Sedges are tough nuts to crack | Home/Garden

What is the No. 1 weed issue close to the earth? Nutsedges — and they are formidable foes.

Despite the fact that frequently known as nutsedge, the weeds don’t essentially bear a nut, but they do develop compact brown tubers with a nutlike visual appeal. There are two primary kinds of nutsedges: yellow and purple.

Nutsedges are a nuisance due to the fact they expand upright swiftly, a great deal more rapidly than grasses. They can address a large spot in a make a difference of times.

They also are perennial weeds, coming back again year just after year and creating it a lot more complicated to manage than typical yearly weeds.

The principal motive sedges are so hard to handle is due to the fact they can reproduce in a lot more than one particular way.

Even though nutsedges deliver seeds, they are frequently not practical, so the crops rely on underground tubers and rhizomes, which make additional tubers. This is termed vegetative advancement, and it is extremely aggressive in sedges.

Sedges can be recognized by their triangular, upright stems their triangular leaf blades and purple or yellow flower heads.

The spikes of purple nutsedge are dark crimson to purple to a brown. In addition to yellow spikes, the yellow nutsedge creates gold or brown spikes with plenty of bouquets.

Nutsedges can be a indicator that your soil desires support for the reason that they prosper in poorly drained and compacted soils.

The greatest way to manage nutsedge is to be proactive. Make guaranteed your grass is thoroughly fertilized and cut to the ideal height consistently.

A healthy lawn with great drainage, free soil and vigorously rising turf grass is the most effective defense and levels of competition to the nutsedge.

Pulling nutsedge is often ineffective and may make issues even worse. To effectively control, you will have to eliminate the nut escalating 6 to 12 inches beneath floor. If you pull young plants just before tubers get started to type, hand pulling can be helpful.

Cultivating or tilling nutgrass also is not encouraged for the reason that it redistributes the rhizomes along with the tubers.

Having said that, some study has proven that purple — not yellow — nutsedge can be managed in summer months by cultivating the affected space and withholding humidity, forcing the tubers to dry. However, recurring tilling and drying are required, and this will not be successful in parts the place other plants need to have irrigation.

There also are chemical herbicides labeled for use on nutsedge with names these kinds of as Sedgehammer and Sedge Ender. Be absolutely sure to read through and stick to the manufacturer’s label.

For publish-emergent herbicides that control equally yellow and purple nutsedge, look for active ingredients halosulfuron, sulfosulfuron or imazaquin. For pre-emergent command of yellow nutsedge seem for herbicides with the lively components metachlor and dimethenamid-p.

Make contact with herbicides will want to be applied a lot more than at the time because it will destroy the leaves in the to start with spray but tubers and rhizomes will stay lively if you only make a solitary software.

Check with LSU AgCenter publication figures 3624-LL and 3624-J for a lot more information on herbicides and proper cultural practices these as chopping heights for precise turfgrasses. You can obtain these publications by hunting for their numbers at LSUAgCenter.com.