Hi all, I have got this pesky creepy plant all through my lawn, NEVER used to have it but somehow it appeared a year or so ago and now seems to want to take over my whole lawn. Anybody know WHAT IT IS and is there a spray I can use to eradicate it without killing what grasses I do have left.
The only way to get rid of this is to weed spray and kill off the entire lawn. Then you have all the issues with resowing which may be successful if you have managed to kill the Kikuya completely. But if your neighbours have Kikuya lawns then I feel you are fighting a losing battle and you may have a few years of dealing with regrowth and seeds germinating. Good luck.
lythande1,
Mar 25, 12:40pm
Leave it. It's a tough drought resistant grass. It will always win over the soft fluffy sort of grass you see in cooler areas.
lemming2,
Mar 25, 6:09pm
Just keep on spraying the shoots - glyphosate - it controls it ok along with pulling out. all my neighbours have Kikuyu "lawns", and I've managed to keep it at bay for 31 years pretty successfully. Largely I don't want it because as a lawn it eventually forms thick mats and invades my flower beds and climbs into my shrubs and can smother them.
charie4,
Mar 25, 7:58pm
Yes and the shorter you can mow it the better. Very similar to Buffalo grass.
wildot,
Mar 26, 12:59am
Hey guys thanks for all your import, much appreciated. Now I've got to make up my mind what to do. Will not be spraying the whole lawn that's for sure but maybe a bit of the spot spraying might be a good idea, thanks lemming2 for that idea. Cheers n thanks to all.
tweake,
Mar 26, 2:30am
how cold does it get there? frost knocks it back fairly easily. its a summer grass, it goes brown in winter unless its really warm. some people love it as it is hardy and will grow in aeras where other grasses won't. but it can be very very invasive. it will grow up and through shrubs, into walls, and around anything. mowing it short is ok if you have a lawn that you can mow really really short. it dosn't really make a good lawn. it looks like crap after a mo. most people i know mow it short because they can't be bothered getting rid of it or having a decent lawn.
stevo2,
Mar 26, 2:33am
If you still have a reasonable amount of lawn, you can spray the whole lot with Victory. It only kills kikuyu and flat weeds but will leave the grass alone.
tweake,
Mar 26, 3:01am
my understanding is it only suppresses kikuyu. it won't kill it. but it may suppress it enough that some good frosts kill it and the other grasses will compete with it.
stevo2,
Mar 26, 3:04am
Have used it many times in the past, needs doing 2 or 3 times but eventually its "goneburger"
tweake,
Mar 26, 3:19am
i will try it. lawn is due to be sprayed out and redone in spring. but kikuyu is a never ending battle here. its over 1m high next door :(
leonv8,
Mar 26, 4:03am
Roundup at 1:100 will kill it
voyager4,
Mar 26, 4:30am
pull out the runners, as they will cover paths, and the earth builds up over them before you know it you have vanished under a mound of kikuyu.
jsimons12,
Mar 27, 10:32pm
You may of always had it but never noticed the runners? Unless it is spreading from a neighbouring lawn from beneath a fence. It doesn't often self seed on the wind as such. You will have to kill off the lawn & be sure to plant a grass seed without kikuyu in it, most of them are a blend with kikuyu included unless you get the one that is just soft plain grass. If you are going to plant a whole new lawn then be sure to check if the kikuyu has come through from a fence line if it has, you will need to block up the fence area so it doesn't set in to your new lawn first. You will know if it is coming from a neighbours fence line or boundary line as it will be poking down from the borders of your property.
Something you can do is put salt around the open borders of the property - but nothing will grow there for months then years after repeated salting & you will need to pull out the dead Kikuya - after you have salted, so you will also need to put rocks or a fence without gaps or something in the salted areas. Salt will kill Kikuya but everything else to - so only do it if there is a problem in specific patches near boundary lines.
Do you have your lawns professionally mowed? It could of been spread by a lawn mower.
tweake,
Mar 28, 12:56am
? i've never seen any seeds pack that come with kikuyu. it generally a special order as most consider it a pest.
one problem you can have is after spraying kikuyu out is that it comes back again, either from parts that didn't quite die or from years of seeds in the ground.
wildot,
Mar 28, 5:44pm
Oh heck, they are mowed professionally, started that about 3 years ago. Maybe that's why I now have it. Darn ! ! !
jennis,
Mar 29, 6:34am
I like kikuyu as our lawn - stays green all summer, no matter how dry it gets - people ask if I've been watering the lawn when there's goes brown. Strong growth, keep it fairly short, grows well - and looks good.
koru67,
Mar 29, 1:18pm
Yep, me too. Nice and spongy to walk on. If your neighbour has 1m high runners going up trees, gardens etc they need to do a bit of gardening. It will not achieve 1m in height in a short period of time.
sla11,
Mar 29, 5:04pm
You could try spraying with tordon it will take out any weeds and leave the grass alone, but do it on a calm day as any drift will take out garden plants also. Good luck I know how you feel as it is a weed that will over take everything I have seen it go under paths& under concrete nibs along fence lines. Any sprays with Glyphocote in will kill all the lawn.
tweake,
Mar 29, 5:39pm
it will depend on local conditions. i noticed you failed to mention that it browns off and goes dormant in winter. places with winter type grasses will have green lawns. theres good and bad points about summer or winter type grasses. you must be in a frost free aera. even up north here we get enough frost to knock it right back, which promptly lets all the weeds sprout up.
growth speed is fast, i've just been spraying it out of the paths etc. one bit has grown about 30cm in the last week or so. i missed a bit in last weeks mow and its now poking out the top of a shrub. the other issue is it smoothers a lot of the grass types. so only weeds grow up in the spaces. often it just ends up a kikuyu and weed lawn.
tweake,
Mar 29, 5:42pm
tordon is a brand name. which tordon herbicide are you referring to?
rogerk1,
Mar 29, 11:17pm
A section next to me got it off some earthmovers - of that I am certain. Then, of course, my section was invaded. I dug a trench 12" wide and same depth along boundaries, and sprayed there as well as on the invaders. It took about two years to get rid of it. Cannot remember the spray - may have been tordon. or dalipon, or. ?
rogerk1,
Mar 29, 11:18pm
Just checked - it was dalapon - terrific stuff if you can still get it.
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