Total Landscape Care Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/301674
T here are many good uses for ryegrass. No other grass is faster at providing a quick pop of green. It's prolifi c. In southern states, this cool-season grass is often overseeded on warm- season turf to provide a green lawn during winter. In cooler climates, ryegrass can serve as a perma- nent lawn. It's versatile and adaptable. It has good disease and insect resistance and even tolerates moderate shade. These are all good traits for turf, except when you don't want ryegrass in your lawn. The char- acteristics that make it a desirable option are the same ones that make it so diffi cult to purge, espe- cially if you live where there aren't especially harsh summer temperatures to help. Annual ryegrass is more compliant than its counterpart, perennial ryegrass. There are some pre-emergence herbicides (pendimethalin, prodi- amine) that can help you transition annual rye- grass from turf. Perennial ryegrass, by contrast, presents more of a challenge because there are far fewer tools from which to choose, and no selective herbicides can do the job. If you want to take down perennial ryegrass, you have two options: a non- selective herbicide like glyphosate or a shovel. In it to win it The good news is that perennial ryegrass is not really an invasive weed, certainly not in a lawn environment. It's not one of those plants that goes to seed in a lawn, according to Peter Landschoot, Ph.D., professor of turfgrass science at The Pennsyl- vania State University. "It's either being planted in lawns or was planted in the past and has somehow gained an advantage," Landschoot says. It can over-compete and take over a newly seeded lawn, even when it's planted as a small part of a seed mix, which is sometimes the case. Many seed mixes will include ryegrass in some amount, even as little as 20 per- cent, for its quick-green qualities. "I've seen situations before where lawns have been seeded with an OK mix, and for years, the lawn performs fi ne. But have a few bad summers or winters, and certain grasses predominate more than others," he continues. "A lawn is an ecosys- tem and is constantly changing. If you plant with three grasses, you'll never retain the same amount of each. It will always go back and forth between species. Also, you start to get certain types of grasses segregating into patches or clumps. "You're dealing with a long-term perennial ecosystem, and things are going to change; some bad and good will happen," he says. If for some reason clumpy, coarse turfgrasses have gained an advantage, it's all part of the process, and it's likely because of the weather, soil or traffi c. Taking out the grass One reason your clients are going to complain about perennial ryegrass as a weed is because it's the fi rst grass species to green-up in early spring M AY 2 014 To t a l L a n d s c a p e C a r e . c o m 47