How to kill paspalum ?

 Paspalum grasses are common weeds in lawns, flowerbeds, and waste places which has very short stout rhizomes. It’s a very common issue which joins plants together to form dense clumps, Here we try to identify the problem and also try to solve it.

 

Identify the problem

Paspalum is a summer-growing perennial grass that spreads with rhizomatous roots. It is characterized by 'sticky' seed heads in late summer. In lawns.

 

Solutions

Lawns

Manual removal is very difficult and will leave roots and rhizomes in the ground which will sprout again.

• Spot treat - Wearing rubber gloves paint Weed Weapon Invade Gel onto as many leaves of the Paspalum as possible. This will kill the grass and its roots.

Flowerbeds

• Spot treat - Wearing rubber gloves paint Weed Weapon Invade Gel onto as many leaves of the Paspalum as possible. This treatment will kill the grass and its roots without risk to surrounding plants.

• Follow up with Weed Weapon Preventer sprinkled in the flower bed to prevent new weeds emerging.

Paths, Driveways, etc.

• Apply Weed Weapon Long Term to kill existing Paspalum to the roots and prevent new growth appearing for an extended period.

Waste Places

• Apply Weed Weapon Extra Strength or Rapid Action for the rapid killing of Paspalum to the roots.

 

 

Coarse grasses such as Paspalum, Kikuyu, Couch/Twitch, Poa, Barley, in fine turf lawns can be difficult to control weed as lawn weed killers control broadleaf weeds and usually leave grasses unaffected.

As paspalum is such a large grass, it also grows successfully in waste areas. It can cause problems in orchards too, as it is fairly resistant to many of the herbicides used under fruit trees. In pastures, it can be debated whether paspalum is good or bad, as it does provide feed during dry summers, but it can result in poor animal production over winter because it out-competes perennial ryegrass in summer, then when it grows poorly through winter, there is less ryegrass available to give winter production.  As paspalum needs warm conditions due to being a C4 species, it is mainly only a problem in the North Island, and this is also why it is generally not very active in winter.