Return to the Vegetable Gardening Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
nut sedge...........
| | |
Posted by
rober49 5 (
My Page) on
Mon, Jun 23, 14 at 17:49
| after 10 days away this is my vegetable patch. there was a lot of rain while I was gone. I'm thinking about potting some tomatoes & writing the garden off this year while I wage war on the nut sedge. there are tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, & squash in that mess. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| OMG, I would cry. I'm sorry. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| That's nuts! I honestly don'tg know what to say. I'm torn between telling you to try and salvage the garden this year and just telling you to give up, solarize the soil, and try again next year. I don't know what I'd do if I were in your situation. And I thought my Cananda thistle problems were bad... Rodney |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| If you can run a mower and maybe a tiller down the middle of those rows, you'll make a bunch of mulch and, ideally, get rid of a lot of tubers that will come back to haunt you next year. You'll also let the sunlight in. But yes, your veggies are fighting for nutrients. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
i don't think solarizing will work. i had an area covered with 4 layers of cardboard & 4" of sawdust & it came right thru it.
there's also a big asparagus patch that I'd hate to lose. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| first of all, nutsedge LOVES LOVES LOVES moisture so if you had a source going while away, it will explain why it took over your garden. Go online and look up Sedgehammer. This stuff will absolute kill that nutsedge in 15 days and all you'll have to do is watch it die. Thing I don't know is whether it is safe on edibles. I'm sure you can find that. It really works, I've use it and my nutsedge problems have all but gone away. It comes back some where we have a rainy spell but is small enough that I can just pull it. You need bigger guns for what you have, lol. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| No, bossy. Sedgehammer must not br used anywhere near edibles. And it can contaminate the soil for as long as three years. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| "maybe i'll move" Oh rober, I'm sorry but that made me LOL. Do you own the house? What about raised beds? I wanted to garden over a badly neglected lawn that had was mostly dandelions and other native weeds. I didn't want weeds in my beds, didn't want to have to mow and edge around the beds. I started by weed whacking the area down to dirt. Made the 4' X 8' beds out of 2X12's and filled them with soil. Around the beds we laid down weed barrier fabric then covered the whole area with rock. Grass is gone. Weeds are gone. It's been 6 years and none of it has come back. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| Constant vigilance! :) I agree with Dan, get in there with a tiller, then go throughand remove by hand as much as you can. Sure you will miss tubers and have to repeat the process a few times, but right now you have young plants inthere that have not made little nuts yet, and getting rid of them is important. Then put down your mulch with a nice light-blocking base like cardboard. Any sedges that come up through that are much easier to pull. If I can clear a whole 50' x 70' area of bermuda grass, I bet you can get a handle on that! But weeding is not a once-and-done task even if you are waging chemical warfare. Once I started viewing weeding as an enjoyable part of gardening my whole level of satisfaction with the garden went up a notch. I also started tackling it with more mulch, because while I do enjoy weeding, there are only so many hours in a day. :) |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| what about asparagus? if i mow everything 1st can i till over asparagus? the crowns are 8"-10" deep. i have a 41" hydraulically powered tiller that hangs off of my case garden tractor so i can till weekly & maybe plant some buckwheat & alfalfa in august. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| well I've started reclaiming my garden. after trying different techniques I'm finding that stabbing horizontally 1-2" below the roots loosens the plants enough to yank them. I'm starting at sunup & working til it gets too hot. I'm doing a 3 row swath at a time. at the end of the 1st pass I had a 3' tall x 4' round mound. I can't compost this mess so I'm going to let it dry & burn it. I think I might get some satisfaction from watching this crap burn |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| Good for you for not giving up on your garden. The plants I could see under there looked pretty darned good. Hopefully, the work will make them all taste that much better. ;-) |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| Way to go! I'm rooting for you! (Pun intended) |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
started the process of weeding in the asparagus patch 1st. this stuff is deeply entrenched. it's almost like it's one single organism. hand weeding is my only option around the asparagus but I'm writing off the rest of the garden. I'm potting some tomatoes & peppers. the rest I mowed & tilled & will work on the rest of the summer & fall to get this sedge under control. my thinking is that this will save me a lot of effort in years to come. this stuff is unbelievably tenacious. on the lower end of the garden I have a row of straw bales to prevent erosion. the sedge has traveled under it & up threw it. I've read that after repeated weeding the tubers ( nuts ) will eventually lose the ability to reproduce. so my plan is to till the garden & try solarization
for 2 weeks, till, solarize for 2 weeks, till.....repeating all season & a heavy planting of buckwheat & alfalfa in the fall for a green manure. i'll also use limited chemical warfare in hard to work areas. also-I'll never use leaf or ground tree mulch from local municipalities. I'm sure that that's where this crap came from. if anyone has any other techniques I'm open to suggestions. http://www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fruits/veg/pubs/GFVGA 2007/documents/Johnson-11.pdf |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| If you're really giving up on the garden, chemicals might be the way to go. Compared to other methods, it gets to the root more effectively. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| I agree chemicals is the best option. Do your research on those offered and consider wicking the chemical instead of spraying. Requires far less chemical and alows repeat applications without loading soil with chemicals. Burning everything removed sounds perfect. Maybe even dance around the fire if noone is watching. |
RE: nut sedge...........
| | |
| I also have a source for fresh chicken poop. it might be hot enough to burn the sedge. |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in.
If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Vegetable Gardening Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play
before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you
will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your
post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in
order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising
policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit
our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we
will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here
