How to Treat Chickweed

Chickweed can overtake a lawn.

Chickweed is common throughout the world. According to the Virgina Tech Weed Identification Guide, chickweed is a winter annual with small leaves and white flowers with 10 petals. The plant grows in damp, shady areas. While it has certain medicinal values, it is also considered a weed and treated as unwanted in most lawns because it can crowd out other plants and take over lawns.

Things You'll Need

• Weed control fertilizer
• Ammonium sulfate

Instructions

How To Treat Chickweed

1. Apply a weed control fertilizer directly to the plant. As the grass grows the chickweed will not be able to spread over the grass.

2. 

   Pulling the weeds should not be too difficult.

   Pull up chickweed by the roots. The roots are shallow, so pulling out the entire root should be relatively easy.

3. 

   The dew will seal in the ammonium sulfate.

   Dust chickweed with ammonium sulfate in the early morning, when there is more likely to be dew on the plant.

Tips & Warnings

• As an additional measure, you can apply a thin layer of mulch over the treated area. This will help prevent any seed from germinating.

References

• Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide: Comm Chickweed: Stellaria Media

Resources

• National Garden Association: Chickweed