Treatment for Nut Grass
For years, nut grass has been a thorn in the side of lawn caretakers of homes and golf courses in the warmer climates of the country. It's difficult to kill, even when using herbicides instead of natural means, but it can be done. The treatments vary, with ground tillage offering the best—and fastest—means of killing all of the tubers beneath the ground. Does this Spark an idea?
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Nut Grass Defined
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Nut grass (Cyperus rutundus or purple nut sedge) isn't really a grass at all but a sedge, or a weed. You normally find sedges in damp areas. While nut grass does like and need moisture (especially the tubers below ground), it fares better in sunny and hot terrains, according to the Garden Seeker. You can recognize nut grass by the brown flowers that bloom at the top of this grass and how it exceeds other grass growth in your lawn. Other sedges have different colored flowers at the top.
Significance
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In the 1920s, nut grass was first recognized as one of the worst, most virulent weeds to hit golf courses in the southern U.S. It multiplies rapidly, with one nut having the capacity to produce 1,100 nuts in one growing season alone, according to Mississippi State University (MSU).
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Earlier Treatments
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In the '20s, eradicating nut grass meant also killing the grass that grew alongside it, according to MSU. Even then, the chemicals and sprays used only killed the top part of the plant, leaving the tubers below to produce new growth overnight—as much as an inch. Table salt, calcium chloride and sodium chlorate were found to be the best treatment methods available then.
Current Natural Treatments
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Summer tillage, shading, and plant competition are the natural methods for getting rid of nut grass. Summer tillage, although effective in killing nut grass in as little as four days, is time consuming. The ground has to be tilled every three weeks during the summer to keep the weed from growing back. But this method will bring the tubers up to the surface and dry them out enough to kill them.
Shading is an option. If the area infected with nut grass is covered with shade it will not get the needed sunlight and be more likely to die in that area. Plant competition helps with shading, as the nut grass and other plants compete for sunlight. Plant competition also helps reduce the amount of nutrients the nut grass gets from surrounding soil.
Herbicide Treatment
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Glyphosate can kill nut grass, but is unable to treat and kill anything but the mature plants above ground and their connecting tubers growing beneath. Dormant tubers (those not sprouting weed above ground yet) can't be treated until they grow fully above ground. Thus herbicide treatment for nut grass can take years.
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