Dealing With Ryegrass/Stalky Grass In Your Lawn
Over the past few weeks, we had a few phone calls and emails asking about ryegrass/stalky grass in your lawn and how to deal with it.
While ryegrass can be a necessity on turf with high traffic, it is utilised for golf courses and other sports venues with high footfall. However, it can become an issue when it comes to cutting unwanted ryegrass on your lawn.
What is ryegrass?
Typically found in low-quality batches of seed mixes. Due to its rapid growth, it was initially described to be a good “nurse crop” when in reality, it is coarse in texture and tends to grow faster than better quality turf that people want to see. It also needs a lot of maintenance to keep it looking its best. If you are proud of your beautiful lawn, it could become a bugbear with the constant upkeep. Ryegrass doesn’t tolerate shaded areas very well or dry conditions. Being quite a broad leaved plant, ryegrass has a perception of a weed like plant in the eyes of most gardeners, who swear by fescue and bent mixtures.
The ryegrass issue
Ryegrass is tricky to cut, even with the leading mowers from Allett. For example, a cylinder mower will flatten the ryegrass. Ryegrass stalks are very tough and will survive being cut, even if you rake your lawn first to stand the stalks upright, a cylinder mower with a roller will flatten them down again.The solutions
- Applying a spring lawn fertiliser, high in nitrogen, in March will boost desirable lawn grasses as they come into growth
- Mow regularly, as fine grasses are better adapted to being cut, while coarse grasses are weakened by this treatment
- Rake the lawn lightly with a spring-tine rake to lift up the patches of coarse grass before mowing. This will allow a better cut and aid coarse grass removal. Take care not to mow too low
- Remove individual patches of weed grasses by hand