Nutgrass

[Kaitlyn]

Hi there,

I need help with nutgrass!I have nutgrass coming up in my vege garden. I’ve been told that painting each strand with turpentine will get rid of it. Does anyone know if this is true? Also will it poison any of my vege?

thank you!

 

[AuntRose53]

Don’t just paint it in dump it on there needs a lot to kill it.

 

[Chuck]

I know this sounds crazy but molasses kills nutgrass. It doesn't kill it quickly but it does kill it. Use 1 cup per gallon of water and pour this over a 10 square foot area. Do this once a month until the weed starts to turn yellow and then do it once more. It usually takes 3-6 months but I would rather benefit my garden soil by doing it this way than to use turpentine. I know turpentine will kill a small hackberry tree if poured around the base. I haven't used it in my garden and don't plan to

 

[cpp gardener]

Molasses won't really kill it, the only thing you can do is pull it for temporary removal or use a chemical control like glyphosate(Roundup) or one of the furans(Sedgehammer). I know glyphosate is a bad word, but what works, works.

A while back at a training session the Ag rep had a 10 step program for nutsedge control that ended with the only known cure being move.
Turpentine is for paint cleanup, NOT!!! for gardening!! Don't use cleaning chemicals for garden pest control(Roundup is safer than turpentine by about 1000 times)

 

[Meadowlark]

I agree w/cpp....and would add, 6 months of good old fashioned weeding will do the trick...followed by annual weeding diligence practices and the use of cover crops.

Over time, with cover crops, nutgrass just isn't a problem at all, but it does take some time. As an example, pictured below is my garden currently partially in cover crops in what used to be infested by nutgrass...no more nutgrass and spectacularly healthy garden soil.

 

[Chuck]

Molasses DOES kill nutgrass. The reason people who have tried it and failed is because they didn't apply it for long enough. The entire end portion of my garden was full of the stuff. I mixed 1 cup of molasses per gallon of water and spread it over about 6-10 square feet. I did this every 2 weeks. I used a lot of molasses but within 4 months the nutgrass disappeared and I haven't seen a sprig of nutgrass in 4 years. Whether it really killed it or just chased it off I don't know, but, I do know it isn't there anymore. One cannot just pull up nutgrass like you do weeds. You will leave nuts in the soil. I suppose one could dig up the soil and sift it to remove all of the nuts but that is more labor than I want to do. I tried Roundup (glysophate) and it killed the tops but not the nuts. Sedgehammer is a conglomerate of nasty long lasting chemicals that I would never put in a vegetable garden