Weeds can be very undesirable vegetation that grows wildly on your lawn or yard. These plants are not only unsightly but also harmful as they compete with your lawn grass, ornamental plants, and garden crops for water, sunlight, and essential nutrients in the soil.
There are two main types of weeds, grassy and broadleaf weeds. Due to the adverse effects of these weeds, it is necessary to identify them correctly and then find an appropriate way to control their growth and spread.
This article provides an insight into the broadleaf weeds and gives advice on how to kill them with an herbicide. So keep reading through the article to find out more!
What Are Broadleaf Weeds?
These are invasive species of weeds that grow undesirable in yards or lawns. In general, broadleaf weeds have large leaves, but the sizes and shapes may vary between the different species. The leaves are wide with a prominent vein at the center and smaller veins that branch out from it. This characteristic makes them easy to spot among other grasses and weed types.
The broadleaf weeds are more aggressive and can easily outcompete the lawn grass, which makes them challenging to deal with. However, many broadleaf species will not invade thick lawn grass because the turf will choke out the unwanted invaders.
In weed control, the broadleaf species are known as dicots, unlike other lawn grasses. Some examples of broadleaf weeds that are commonly found in lawns include the curly dock, prostrate knotweed, clover, prostrate spurge, dandelions, ground ivy, thistle, oxalis, and plantain.
What’s The Difference Between Lawn Grass And Broadleaf Weed?
Various broadleaf species may grow or develop in your lawn grass over time. However, when controlling these weeds, you may find it difficult to distinguish between them. Experts reveal various properties that you can use to distinguish broadleaf weeds from different lawn grasses, like zoysia, fescue, or annual bluegrass.
The primary difference between these weeds is the appearance, where the broadleaf weeds have broad leaves with a vein at the center, as described above. Furthermore, most broadleaf species are dicots with a fibrous root system and leaf veins that form a net pattern. They can have either single flowers or a cluster of flowers.
Whereas lawn grasses are monocots that have narrow single leaves with parallel veins, an oval and hollow stem, and hard, closed nodes with alternating leaf blades on each side.
These differences are essential to choosing the appropriate mechanism for controlling these weeds or getting them out of your yard effectively.
What Herbicides Will Eradicate Broadleaf?
Broadleaf weeds are invasive plants that can invade your lawn grass and other plants or seeds to dominate the yard for a long time. The invasions may lead to deteriorated soil quality and low-quality vegetation, as they compete with existing plants for essential soil nutrients, sunlight, and water. Therefore, it will be appropriate to control them and eliminate them from your yard.
It is recommended that you select the appropriate broadleaf herbicides to control these weeds. As no single compound can control all broadleaf weeds at once, the most effective product to eradicate these weeds should be a mixture containing two or three of the following herbicides: Dicamba, Triclopyr, MCPA, 2,4-D, and MCPP.
It is possible to apply a broadleaf herbicide in the form of granules or liquid. Choosing the right herbicide product will be critical to eliminating these weeds and preventing re-emerging.
Do Broadleaf Herbicides Also Kill grass?
Broadleaf herbicides offer an appropriate way of controlling or eradicating the broadleaf weeds. These herbicides are selective as they can only kill the broadleaf weeds, but not the lawn grass. So, if you apply the appropriate type, i.e. selective versus nonselective products, and use the right dosage, these herbicides won’t affect your grass or any other plants in your yard.
Most broadleaf herbicides are systemic and selective to kill broadleaf weeds only and they won’t kill weedy grasses. Manufacturers create these herbicides with selective components that target the broadleafs actively growing. Applying the common post-emergent broadleaf herbicide 2,4-D Trimec to your lawn, will wipe out all the growing broadleafs, without harming the turf grass.
How Do You Apply Herbicides Effectively?
A good attack plan is to use a pre-emergent herbicide before the weeds develop, and/or to apply a herbicide to kill them once they are established.
Herbicides are an effective tool for controlling and eradicating weeds from your landscape. However, you must apply these herbicides accordingly to get the desired results and keep yourself safe. Make sure to observe various safety rules and precautions for an effective herbicide application when using these products.
Below are the correct ways to apply herbicides effectively:
– First of all, carefully read the manufacturer’s instructions and follow the directions on the label before mixing and applying any product to enhance effective weed control.
– Avoid applying herbicides when wind speed exceeds 10mph or when it’s blowing towards sensitive plants in your yard. Do not spray against the force or direction of the wind to prevent the wind from blowing the chemicals. The perfect spraying conditions are when the wind speed is somewhere between 3 and 10mph.
– Herbicides have been shown to be most effective when there is a combination of good relative humidity and warm air temperature. Thus, the product should be applied when the conditions are relatively humid with high temperatures to increase the absorption. Avoid applying broadleaf herbicides when the soil moisture is low as this will reduce their effectiveness and also cause damage to the turfgrass.
– Weeds tend to grow actively in the morning just before the dew evaporates from their leaves under the morning sun. This is therefore a great time to spray them to achieve the best results. Despite many contradicting opinions, there is no conclusive scientific evidence that morning dew can either reduce or improve the effectiveness of a herbicide.
Just make sure you don’t spray them while their leaves are very wet, whether it’s from rain or irrigation. Excessive moisture can lower the herbicide concentration and lead to to runoff of the chemicals. So wait for the weeds to dry out after rain to prevent the herbicide from being washed away.
– Apply just enough of the product to moisten the weed leaves and not until the herbicide is dripping off the leaves. It is best to apply it to young and/or actively growing weeds.
– Choose the appropriate spray nozzles that are proportional to the herbicides liquid or granules, as this determines the uniformity of application and the overall herbicides coverage.
It is necessary to consider options for killing and controlling the broadleaf weeds that are actively growing in your landscape. However, with all the various herbicides available on the market, selecting an appropriate product can be overwhelming.
Losing the battle against broadleaf weeds? If you feel like these plants are taking over your yard, give our team at Guaranteed Green in Metro Atlanta a call today. We’ll be happy to help you with all your lawn care needs, including weed control and lawn fertilization, as well as to advise you on what products might work for your yard.
