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let's go right back to Iowa City and
let's hear from Nick with a quackgrass
problem hey Alan this is Nick from Mesa
City Iowa
I absolutely love your podcasts videos
emails the entire lawn care program I
even a few of my buddies Matt and Brian
we have our own little LCN group and
we're working to dominate three
neighborhoods using your program I have
a 15,000 square foot side lawn I believe
its KBG Ryan fescue about eight years
old and I have very few weeds at all I
do have two 8 by 8 patches of quack
grass in the back it's only kind of
single blade space style but it gets to
be an eyesore after about two days after
I'm alone I've heard you address it and
I've done some researching on the
extension sites and it sounds like
roundup or lawn destruction or really
the only answers and I'm not quite ready
to do that on my nice turf it also kind
of talks about mowing twice a week using
nitrogen but I've been doing that and it
still seems to spread so my question is
is what if I start him pulling it all
the time I know the rhizomes are still
going to sprout but what if I keep
pulling it and keep the dense healthy
grass around it wanted eventually run
out of nutrients you know without
getting the Sun and using energy to keep
making new plants kind of pull a war of
attrition on it won't it eventually die
out quicker that way or do you have any
other ideas for getting rid of quack
grass without really harming the healthy
turf around it without going to extremes
thanks for everything you do
keep up the nomination okay Nick
exercise just listening to that
recording again did you say Bates City I
thought it was Iowa City anywhere
somewhere in Iowa shout out to you guys
and shout out to Bryan and Matt your
friends you guys are dominating three
neighborhoods that right there my
friends is strategy not only is Nick
dominating by himself he has actually
brought a crew in and they are taking
over neighborhoods I'd love to hear that
that's awesome but that is kind of cool
when you can do lawn care with your
buddies give you something to talk about
as you stand in the driveway watching
the sunset maybe having a cigar and a
nice cold beer on a Saturday night so
really cool dude all right let's talk
now about quackgrass so this is one of
those that I haven't had to face too
much my buddy Jake the lawn kid he's
faced quiet grass in his lawn there in
Northwest Indiana and actually I'd given
him a strategy
last year with it to try to mow it out
and we're gonna talk about that a little
bit you heard Nick mentioned all these
different strategies and how he's kind
of thinking through him and Nick that's
exactly what you want to do you kind of
weigh out the strategies he did another
thing that I was recommend I want to
point out is he went to University
Extension websites that really is always
the first place you should go to get
advice as University Extension websites
because they're typically going to give
you the most conservative advice and
when I say the most conservative it's
not gonna be about sling and Kim's first
and foremost they're always going to try
to tell you how to do things in another
way and in the case of mowing it out
we're talking about what we call
cultural practices that's what that
means now Jake was able to get it I
would say stem the tide of it in his
lawn last year however I was watching
one of his more recent videos here in
the last few days and I can see it's
starting to crop back up because as Nick
is finding here that lots of mowing is
not the not really a completely
effective way to eliminate quackgrass so
let's talk about what crack quackgrass
is I guess to start off and the way I
would equate it to for those of you that
are down here in the south it's like
torpedo grass in that it's got really
long rhizomes that will creep under the
ground and pop up in various places and
in fact typically it's gonna find the
thin spots if you have a thinner area of
your lawn boom that's what it's gonna
find the rhizomes will just creep and
creep and creep until they feel like
they've gotten a chance to take hold and
boom they will pop up and that is the
same thing that torpedo grass does here
in the south and it's very interesting
because Matt says he's only got a couple
spots 8 by 8 I would wonder why I mean I
don't that doesn't gonna affect the
strategy we're gonna go through here
Matt but I would just wonder why why
only in these spots was the was the lawn
treated differently during construction
in that area was it sodded or seeded
later than the rest was something
brought in there was something dumped
there was something left there was
something not done there either way just
something to think about so that way in
the future as you do battle this if you
can figure out the cause or why it's
concentrated in that area maybe that'll
help you to keep it from coming back but
yes the first thing you do want to try
to do even though it doesn't work a
hundred percent is you want to try to
mow it out and guys that's what I want
you to do with any type of invading
problem in your lawn whether it's
broadleaf weeds problem grasses whatever
it is when in doubt try to mow it out
and usually what you're going
want to do an especially with quack
grasses you're gonna actually want to
mow as low and often as you can
so quack grass is one of those things
that because it runs with rhizomes and
it only pops up in opportune places
where it does pop up it's got to get
leaves up into the air quick to grab as
much Sun as it can to recharge this is
one of the things about these types of
invaders you can sometimes use their
strength against them and we'll talk
about that in a minute
but the idea being this is a very quick
grower and that's why people don't like
it in their lawns you know this time of
year you got this nice dark green blue
kentucky bluegrass maybe some rye in
there or fescue and what will be popping
up is this lime green very fast-growing
leaves from our blades or stalks from
this quackgrass
and it grows so much faster than your
kentucky bluegrass so it just waves out
it just waves that you like ha ha ha I
see you ha ha look at my stupid look in
the lime green leaves here ha ha and a
lot of people actually mistake it for
crabgrass as well no we can't get into
that in a podcast because that would
definitely take visuals but one thing's
for sure if you are seeing what you
think is crabgrass this time of year
before you go spraying it you might want
to look and make sure that it's not
quackgrass because the to have to be
treated completely differently that said
you do want to go ahead and try to mow
it out because quack grass has that
strength of growing super fast because
it needs to get leaves up in the air to
grab as much Sun as it can to refuel
because remember that's how plants
create their own food through the
process of photosynthesis which
basically makes sugars that they send
down into the rhizomes or down into the
root system so that way it's recharged
down there so more you know so it can
spread wider it can push up more leaves
that's the idea that's how
photosynthesis works but the way that
quack grass grows by its nature of
sending out these long rhizomes and
popping up in certain places it's only
got a few antennae to stick up or a few
spots to stick up it's got to grab as
much Sun as it can so if you cut that
off by the way those rhizomes and those
roots of that they take a lot of energy
in other words that machine needs a lot
of energy to run on so it's got to push
those you know those leaves up to grow
fast and so what you can do is cut it
off by frequent mowing and then what I
would tell you if you could Matt mow
every day just or Nick I keep calling
you Matt Matt your buddy our walk
but Matt Brian Nick all you guys what
you want to do is mow it out do the best
you can mow every day if you can for two
weeks just see what you do just stunt it
just weaken it that's the idea it's not
gonna take it out completely but I bet
it will weaken it enough that you may be
able to use some other strategies to get
ahead of it so that's the first thing I
would say is definitely try to mow it
out and try to mow every day for two
weeks
just keep it cut off just stunt it just
just zap it just try to take some energy
away from it your Kentucky bluegrass on
the other hand will love that and will
just push out more rhizomes so it's not
gonna hurt the Kentucky blue if anything
it should help or stimulate the Kentucky
bluegrass to thicken up with its own
rosanna mmus rosanna miss rhizome
autonomous rhizome cumin autonomous you
know nature in its own self and try to
thicken up and help choke that out as
well so that's the first thing I would
do the second thing I would do is can
you get the lawn to be mowed lower you
seem like somebody that's on it you
taken care of it you obviously think
through the strategy so I'm sure your
irrigation is in line I'm sure that you
know your other culture your mowing will
be in line because gonna be mowing a lot
so what if you try to mow a little bit
lower because again the the fact that
that quack grass has to grow tall and
fast you're gonna be cutting it off a
lot well instead of cutting it off a lot
at 4 inches what if you cut it off a lot
at 2 inches and you cut it off as its
knees Kentucky bluegrass can do fine at
2 inches now if you get a lot of hot Sun
you know or you get a blazing day with
no cloud cover to help you yes that
Kentucky bluegrass can be stunted and it
can also you know suffer from some heat
stress but there's always a
give-and-take with everything you do and
if you have your watering in line you
still will probably be okay now the
third piece is can you real mow I know
there's a big craze going around the
community about real mowing I think
that's cool if you guys are not familiar
with what real mowing is look it up our
e-l you can look up my friend Connor
Ward who has a Kentucky bluegrass lawn
that is real mowed at five eighths of an
inch and he proves even John Perry does
manual real mowing of his Kentucky
bluegrass in his backyard I think he's
at an inch or 3/4 inch so it can
definitely handle it if you've got a lot
of your other things in line if you've
got a lot of your other you know a
challenge is solved if you're if you're
not somebody that's dealing with you
know a ton of weed invasion you're not
dealing with a bunch of insects or
disease then yeah maybe you can you can
take that down in a real mow it and I
if you real mow it I bet you could get
one of the rid of the crap quack grass
let's call it crap grass I bet you could
get rid of the quack grass all just only
with real mowing I don't know that for
experience but I can just just imagining
from my other experiences in lawn care
and what I've seen and what I've been
able to mow out of my lawn before and
things like that I bet you if you went
to a real mow Nick that you would be
able to get rid of the quack grass
altogether so something to think about
also an interesting way to dominate a
lawn now people ask me if I'm gonna real
mow and one day I probably will do some
real mowing but it's not in my future
for right now so that would be the first
choice would be all about the mowing and
the cutting now Nick also asks about
hand pulling and certainly hand pulling
is a great idea especially because again
right after you mow your Kentucky blue
grass you're gonna see the quack grass
popping up the day you know 24 hours
later it's gonna reveal itself so sure
if you went out say every morning as
you're having your morning coffee maybe
you're gonna make a little patrol around
the lawn and you just purpose in your
mind that I'm gonna pull ten of these
plants today well if you did that every
day for five days you will pull 50
plants and your your sections are only 8
by 8 I bet you if you pulled 50 plants a
week for 3 or 4 weeks that certainly you
would definitely be making a huge dent
in those especially if you're also
mowing now people will say and you'll
read this and this is what I want to say
or I want you guys to think about people
will say Alan if you pull it there are
still rhizomes left and it can regrow
and the answer to that is yes and that's
what you're gonna read on the University
Extension websites and they're exactly
right but what happens with us and in
the way we work we you me all of us is
we think in black and white we think ok
if they tell me that it doesn't work
that means it doesn't work at all it's
either this or that yes or no all or
nothing there's like no middle ground no
gray area but in fact there's a lot of
gray area there's a ton of middle ground
and that's where success happens is in
that middle ground so just because
there's some rhizomes that will stay
there and regrow it doesn't mean that
pulling it doesn't still weaken it it
doesn't mean that it might not reduce
the population by 50%
ok so 50% grows back but 50% didn't grow
back you see what I'm saying there so
just because you read on somewhere that
hey if you pull the if you pull it it's
gonna regrowth it can regrow from
rhizomes it doesn't mean it will a
hundred percent of the time
let me just tell you if you cause damage
to a plant guess what you did you caused
damage to a plant it's not good for it
if you chop a plant off it's not good
for it now it is for our turf grass but
that's because we're training it to do a
certain thing the way we cut turf grass
is also not good for it when you look at
the way that it naturally wants to grow
we are training our turf grass we are
sculpting our turf grass to be what it
is but the way your grass looks out
front that's not how it wants to look
that's not its natural appearance we
maintain it that way
we sculpt it that way we cut it that way
you know that's what we do we trim it we
maintain it to be the way it is but
that's not how it wants to be now these
other grasses like quackgrass again I
said let's use what its strengths are
against it and it's strength is that it
can come up anywhere and it can grow
really fast but that also means because
it can only come up in a few places if
you pull those and you get those leaves
off of there it will burn out because it
uses all of its energy trying to find
these spots where it can overcome where
it can take over where it can take
advantage and if you pull those spots
it's already used up all its energy it's
already blown its load it's out you can
keep it out so two things together
frequent mowing low as you can and hand
pulling and I bet you have a really good
strategy right there and by the way
that's a chemical free strategy so just
because somebody tells you pulling
doesn't always work it doesn't mean it
doesn't work at all and basically that's
what Nick was saying what if you listen
in to what he's saying he's saying all
of those things he's saying I wonder if
I should still try it Alan because I
know I'll get some results so Nick thank
you for totally understanding you're
gonna open that up to a lot of people
and that's the idea here is for us to
open up your thinking to get you look at
things a little bit differently when you
approach your strategy here now the last
piece would be then what if I do need to
use some kemp's what if it is you know
the outbreak is so bad I don't have time
to let's say you don't have time to mow
every day let's say you don't you don't
have you're not in line where you can
you know start lowering your cut you're
just not there let's say you're not able
to hand pull as much as you might want
to okay then there is a chemical
strategy and you will see that and that
is a glyphosate so roundup right
glyphosate is what they call a
non-selective herbicide which means it
will kill anything it touches it's not
selective it kills everything with that
means if you spray that on your lawn
it's gonna kill your good grass and the
quackgrass and that is not the strategy
we want to go at there is a strategy
like that it's called the total burn
down we're going to talk about that a
little later in this podcast but I don't
want you to do that what I would say if
you do want to try some chemical attack
is to get what's called a weed wick now
I've never used an actual weed wand
which i think is a brand name if you go
to grass daddy's channel he's got a
video or a couple videos he's done using
a weed wick or a weed wand by the way he
did an April Fool's joke where he told
everybody that I bought his channel I
want you guys to know that was a an
April Fool's joke I tend to see coming
up every once in a while people going
allen bought grass tetany channel no tim
is my friend I love Tim he's a great guy
up there in the Northeast he does great
videos ok so I can't whistle very well
at least not today but that's his little
theme song he's got some good videos on
a weed wick now I've actually never used
an actual weed wick but when I worked
for true Green we did some weed wicking
and what we would do is we would just
have a broom stick with a paintbrush on
the end of it and we would just dip it
in the glyphosate and just hammer on the
weeds and that's the thing about a weed
wick is and actually I think I'll try to
do some videos on this I think it might
be fun to make my own weed wick you
watch now everybody's gonna do that like
everybody in the community is gonna make
these videos before I do that's fine you
guys do that I'll catch the trend but
either way what what they do you do is
you dip it in and then you're just you
know kind of painting the actual
individual leaves instead of blanketing
it now some of the residual that will
leak around the edges it's gonna kill
your good grass but the ideas that's a
very concentrated way to apply
glyphosate to a problem such as quack
grass where you can really easily see it
and that's the idea you would cut the
grass wait a couple days till the quack
grass grows higher and then you're
really able to get in there and just
paint them nice and simple nice and easy
and kind of target them that way so
that's another type of an idea that you
might go after so actually if you kind
of employed all three of those against
your quack grass there Nick as you did
frequent mowing at a lower height hand
pick when you can and then when you're
done hand picking and you can't handpick
no mow
that's when you go out and you paint
those or weed Wickham or weed wand the
weeds in the lawn or the quack grass on
the lawn so
something that you ought to try there I
love your thinking I think you're on it
and please tell your buddies Matt and
Bryan and all of you have the same name
in my mind right now hope you guys can
dominate your three neighborhoods out
there and as always for you we're gonna
be hoping for the best
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