How to Control Bahia Grass

Bahia grass seedheads

Bahia grass has rigid stalks about a foot tall with a distinctive seed head in the shape of a Y. It spreads by rhizomes, underground roots that spread horizontally. It can be dug up, although this is hard work. It can be smothered with mulch on land intended for a garden. It can be poisoned with herbicides on turf or lawns.

Things You'll Need

• Garden trowel
• Newspapers
• Mulch
• Herbicides
• Sprayer
• Cardboard

Instructions

Digging up Bahia grass

1. Water the soil.

2. Dig up the Bahia plant with your hand or with your garden trowel.

3. Make sure you pull up the roots that spread horizontally underground.

Suppressing with mulch

1. After it begins to warm in the spring, lay six to eight wet newspaper sheets on the ground where you propose to plant a garden.

2. Apply a mulch of less than 3 inches of old hay, grass clippings, pine needles or other organics.

3. When the rotting mulch has decomposed and the weather permits, plant your garden.

Controlling with herbicides

1. Study the available herbicides to see which is appropriate for your lawn.

2. Read the instructions carefully on the herbicide that you choose.

3. Shield your ornamental plants with cardboard to protect them from the herbicide.

4. Apply the herbicide in the recommended manner using a proper sprayer.

5. Wash everything that you used to apply the herbicide.

Tips & Warnings

• Some herbicides kill selectively. Others kill everything. Both kinds are sometimes used to kill Bahia grass. Herbicides should ordinarily be applied when the Bahia grass is growing actively. Apply Glyphosate, an herbicide ordinarily used to kill plants after they emerge from the soil, three or more days before you plant your garden.

• A nonselective herbicide can leave bare patches and kill adjoining plants. Selective herbicides are usually more expensive. To stop weeds from growing in bare spots left by an herbicide, fill them with sprigs or plugs of good turf grass. MSMA (monosodium methane arsonate) used to treat Bahia grass growing in Zoysia grass, Bermuda grass, and tall fescue lawns, may temporarily discolor your lawn. Atrazine, used to kill Bahia grass seeds before they germinate on St. Augustine grass or Centipede grass, is banned in the European Union because it is said to harm amphibians. Metsulfuron can kill hardwood trees. Make sure you don't apply the herbicide too close to the drip line of the tree. Pay attention to the instructions.

References

• How to control Bahia grass
• Bahiagrass can be hard to eliminate
• bahia grass