Nursery Owner Dishes on 'Absolute Menace' Weed That Homeowners Should Look Out For

Dealing with invasive species can be a real pain in... your yard. Especially if you're dealing with something like dallisgrass, which the creators over at TikTok channel Smith's GardenTown say is a particular problem. Let's see what they have to say about it, as well as how you should deal with it!

First of all, dallisgrass is an absolute menace to homeowners. It's a grassy weed that oftentimes gets mistaken for crabgrass, but it's not crabgrass and it actually has a different treatment method than crabgrass does. The easiest way to differentiate this from crabgrass is by looking at the seed heads. Dallisgrass has a very distinct-looking seed head and also has these little black fuzzy things hanging off the ends of the seeds.

Why Is Dallisgrass Such a Problem?

There are a few reasons why dallisgrass is such a gnarly weed in lawns and landscapes and why it's difficult to control. First of all, it's very fast-growing, and that's why most people don't want it in their lawns. You go out and mow, and a couple of days later, it's already up and tall and producing seed heads. It makes it where you have to frequently mow your lawn to try and keep it looking decent.

Related: 8 Invasive Plant Species Found in Big Box Stores That No One Should Be Buying

The other problem with dallisgrass, at least in southern states, is that it's actually a perennial. It's going to come back from the same root year after year, which means that just applying pre-emergent is not going to stop it. Pre-emergent stops seeds from germinating, but it will not stop a plant from coming back from the root like dallisgrass. That means that you're eventually going to have to address the actual plant itself if you want to try and stop them.

These individual clumps of dallisgrass can be dug out or pulled out one at a time, though it does have a very fibrous root system, and it can be quite difficult to pull. There are some chemical methods to get rid of it, but it's not exactly easy either. One way is to spot spray with glyphosate or Roundup . You'll just have to individually spray each clump and know that it's going to leave a yellow or dead spot temporarily in your yard until your other grass can grow back over that spot.

If you have access to more commercially available sprays, there are two that you can mix together that will knock out the dallisgrass without hurting your lawn grass. That would be Celsius mixed with Revolver. All that being said, this is a very difficult weed to eradicate for a home gardener. Still, once you do have those individual clumps gone, just by having a routine maintenance of using pre-emergent, you can keep it out of your yard quite easily.

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