Poa, we all have it, we all hate it. Outside of rounding up in the summer and redoing it, the only other control would be to get ethofumasate (Prograss in one of the brand names). It is a selective pre and post emergent that will kill poa, among other weeds. The label recommends application in late summer/early fall, and overseeding at the same time. Now it is expensive, and not the easiest stuff to apply, and it can harm some KBG cultivars, but it is one of the only ways to control poa annua. If you call around maybe you can find a company that will apply it for you, but that might just be wishful thinking. Good luck.

would it be wise to apply round up now? you mention doing it in the summer, but in the summer it seems to fade/die off anyway, so I thought I should either round it up now (using the glove/round-up technique), or wait it out, hope summer temps cause it again to fade, and then round-up (again glove technique) next spring - real early perhaps, before the KBG wakes up. Then I could also re-seed at the same time? I know fall is preferable for re-seeding, so maybe I should do all of this in the fall? My concern with rounding up is simply that I am afraid of the results I will get - I dont want tons of brown spots, that may actually look worse than dealing with patches of lighter colored grass.

thoughts?

thanks again.

If you round up now, then in two weeks you will have brown dead patches wherever you applied it. If you are ok with that, you can round up now. The thing is poa has been dropping seeds for a few weeks now, so odds are there are plenty of poa seeds in your lawn, just waiting, like a ninja, to germinate. Poa is a winter annual. It germinates in late summer/early fall, goes dormant over the winter, and starts dropping seeds in the spring. It is supposed to die in the summer, but from what I have seen it usually doesn't all die off. More often than not it just stops producing seeds. So what should you do? Since you have KBG, and theoretically it will fill in a dinner plate sized bare area in one season, why not just get rid of the poa, and hope the KBG fills in those areas. If you have isolated patches of poa, use a coffee can, put it around the poa, use the round up in the can. This will isolate the good grass from the round up. Then in two weeks, get rid of the dead poa, and loosen up the soil in the areas to make it easier for the KBG to spread. If the poa is diffuse throughout the lawn then I would probably wait till late summer to do an ethofumasate treatment and overseed.

I thank you for the advice, and I believe I will do the latter - given the amount of poa in the front lawn this year. Do you know, being from Connecticut I believe, how I could go about getting an ethofumasate treatment here where I live (LI)? For now, I plan to wait out this period of 'unsightliness' until the warm temps help to blend the poa into the kbg. Sucks for now, an embarassing eye sore which makes me queezy. But not much else I can do. Too many spots, I think, to apply the round up and see all the brown spots that will take its place.

thank you again. any further help/advice from the forum is much appreciated.

I don't know if it is something a lawn care company would provide, you would have to call them to see if it's something they will do, just don't let them talk you into service you don't need. It might be good to do two applications prior to overseeding. Here's the label if you want to look it over.

http://www.backedbybayer.com/BAYER/CropScience/BackedByBayer.nsf/9F4DB0DA3B03DBD5852573220063D615/$FILE/Prograss%20432-941%20011227A%20SRL.pdf

Here's the nut!

>"I tried last year to dig out severel problem areas, and then patched the bare spots in with plugs I dug out from my back lawn. Though that seemed to help for last year, I fear I may have actually made things worse, perhaps by disturbing the soil."

Yes, disturbing the soil!
Poa seeds remain viable in the soil for MANY years.
You know they are there, so .... do NOT dig, core aerate or dethatch anytime in your future. Just say NO. Let a sleeping dog lie.

Round Up the area/spots, over lapping the area a little bit due to any poa annua underground rhizomes and inter-twined blades with the KBG and apply a pre-emergent to this area - never disturbing the soil. Using a combo product, like say Scotts Turf Builder with Halts is ideal for this purpose. It will prevent any germination while encouraging the KBG to fill and spread into the void with the added fertilizer.

>"but in the summer it seems to fade/die off anyway"

And this is your clue!

You are familiar when this happens in your area every year. Since poa annua dies when drought and heat stressed, so help it! Do NOT irrigate prior.

Yes, your KBG may want to go dormant, and if it does, it will recover. Not to worry.

When you notice the poa being stressed and browning out, (August???) THIS is when you apply the fall preM, before soil temps drop to favorable temperatures for germinating additional poa annua.

Once your fall preM is down, you can water. After Labor Day, feed it ... bombs away. Labor Day, Mid October and around Thanksgiving. Fall IS the best time to fertilize and you want that KBG to fill in those voids.

And FYI
Halts - Pendimethalin has a 90 day residual
Dimension - Dithiopyr " 120 "
Barricade - Prodiamine can last 8 months when applied at the heavy rate.

You have a longer growing season on LI than I do in Chicago.
2 or 3 apps will be needed depending on the product you use. Come spring, forget the forsythia. That's great for crab grass. Apply earlier for poa annua. Better early than too late.

Kill the poa annua and feed the KBG ... it will fill in. Click link below for visual proof. KBG is outstanding at this! *YOU* too can do it also!

Here is a link that might be useful: P. Annua Repair