Spraying Lawn Weeds
Spraying weeds can be a highly complicated matter with different herbicides to treat different weeds, which can all work slightly or very differently, can be tolerant or intolerant of different lawn types, and the complications continue.
However for most of us, if we know the weed types we’re dealing with we can usually purchase the appropriate herbicide for our needs and apply it with an amount of certainty when following the instructions on the packaging of the herbicide.
Our aim with this article is to give an overview of some of the considerations that people should be aware of when doing any type of weed spraying on their lawns.
Herbicides and Lawn Varieties
Many of the most commonly used herbicides can be toxic to some of the most popular lawn varieties. In most cases these are herbicides used to kill broadleaf weeds in lawns, and the lawn types most adversely affected by these weed killers are Buffalo and sometimes Kikuyu. But other herbicides can also affect other grass types. We couldn’t possibly list every brand of herbicide available – so always check the label of herbicides before purchase to see whether they are safe to use on your lawn type.
The wrong herbicide may kill a lawn!
The increasing popularity of Soft Leaf Buffalo and it’s susceptibility to many weed killers has lead to the development of special herbicides for Buffalo grass. Look for these first if you own a Buffalo lawn.
Restricted Weed Killers
There are many weed types which are found in home lawns – most of the common weed types can be controlled by the homeowner with the use of herbicides bought from the local lawn care and garden shop.
But there are some weeds which can the homeowner cannot treat themselves, the poison os considered too toxic to be handled and disposed of safely by the general public. These restricted weed killers are available to licensed weed sprayers, so if you do find yourself faced with weeds you cannot control – the best and easiest option is to make a quick call to a licensed professional weed spraying contractor.
Lawn Mowing and Weed Spraying
Mowing lawns creates open wounds in the grass leaf, while these wounds remain open the lawn will absorb any weed killers which are applied to it. The lawn can become very sick or even die in areas if herbicides are applied to newly mowed lawns, so the general rule is to wait for one week after mowing before applying weed killers to the lawn – and to wait one week after applying weed killers before mowing the lawn again.
Watering and Weed Spraying
Needless to say, if a lawn were watered or if it rained after applying herbicides, the herbicide would be washed away with the water – always be sure that no water will go onto the lawn within a few days of spraying – a few days more would be even better.
Herbicide such as Winter Grass Killer is not absorbed by the leaf of the weeds like most other herbicides – this herbicide will need to be watered into the soil after application in order that it can be absorbed by the roots of the Winter Grass.
Herbicide Safety
No need to say, herbicides are highly poisonous. Be sure to store herbicides in a safe place out of reach of children. Always be sure to keep children and pets off the lawn for several days after application – even better would be to wait until after the first lawn watering before allowing pets and children back onto the lawn.