Dandelions will pop out new flowers a few days after you mow the current ones down. They also sometimes send short flowers up so mowing doesn't always cut the flowers.

You can probably minimize seeds from the dandelions in your lawn, but they travel really far with a slight wind, so if anybody else within a couple of blocks has any, you can get seeds no matter how diligent you are about keeping the ones in your lawn from going to seed.

If you mow high, water deeply and infrequently and fertilize once in the spring and twice in the fall, the KBG should fill in and crowd out the dandelions over time.

Dandelions are actually biennial - so the dandelions that you pick the flowers from may be back next year. But they don't spread other than by seed.

BP - definitely planning on doing all that.

Andy - interesting, I did not know that!

I am still curious however, if we mow them before they 'go to seed' if they can still root and get worse or if we mow the heads off before they go to seed if that keeps them from taking root...? Anyone know?

The ones that are already in the lawn have already taken root. Mowing before they seed will keep new ones from germinating. Some plants also propagate by way of specialized roots (rhizomes and tillers) or above ground stems (stolons), but dandelions don't.

The only way dandelions create more dandelions through their roots is if you try to pull one out by the root and the root breaks off just below the surface, the root will sometimes sprout several new dandelion plants in that spot. But they won't spread.

I think christine was wanting to know, and this is my question as well: If I mow dandelions, will the flower head still go to seed after being cut and then still spread dandelions in my lawn?

If you cut the flower heads off, they won't go to seed. It's possible that the flower is already pollinated and if it's not chopped up, it could possibly still go to seed.

If the flower heads are below the blade, they'll still go to seed. Dandelions continue to make new flowers every couple of days, so if you cut all the flowers off today, there will be more in a couple of days.

Trying to control dandelions by cutting off the flowers is nto going to be the most successful approach.

Please I and the original person asking this question understands all the flaws in just cutting the heads off. That being said please only if you know the answer to the specific question being asked respond.

If I cut the head off of a flowering dandelion and leave it intact laying in the yard is it for sure to produce more dandelions, Unlikely, or perhaps less likely than if allowed to go to seed.

I like to get out and practice my golf swing. I do it by beheading dandelions with my golf club. I have been doing it in my yard for a couple of years. I am surrounded by woods that are almost free of dandelions.

I cant help but wonder if all heads were removed while flowering for a number of years the plants producing flowers would eventually die off and I would be dandelion free?

Thanks.

Wow, old thread!

Cutting off the flowers of most flowering plants will keep them from reproducing, but will also encourage the plant to branch and spread as much as it can. And dandelions can get pretty hefty.

We use the same tendency on things like dahlia, marigold, and zinnia (and many, many others) Deadheading immediately after bloom but before seed production there produces large, bushy plants that, paradoxically, grow far more flowers. I've seen single dandelion plants with four or five simultaneous blooms from removing earlier flowers.

Removing all your dandelion heads consistently through the season will, if you do it perfectly, keep any of those dandelions from reproducing. In most environments, they won't survive the winter, so they're gone.

However, dandelions are everywhere and seed easily, copiously, and over long distances. More will drift in quite happily from other lawns, parks, and so on.

Even though I don't allow a dandelion to survive long on this property, they still seed into the gardens fairly regularly. On the up side, they're an easy kill--and I actually don't dislike them. The flowers are cheerful.

Just to be clear, I believe morpheus is confirming that if you take out a dandelion flower with your 6 iron, the flower will not continue to develop viable seeds while sitting there on the lawn. It'll just dry up and die. Scattering dandelion flowers isn't the cause of your outbreak.

Well, the flower will die and no seeds will be produced. The plant simply uses that energy to sprout a new flower, or set of flowers.

It's one of those cases where it theoretically works until you forget or miss one dandelion that goes to seed. Then it theoretically fails big time.

I am always hunting the dreaded (Cheerful ???) yellow head. . . I pluck it off, stuff it in a bag to go to the trash can, then I scratch and poke down to the ground and remove any new comers I see. My son just used weed n feed (He still doesn't listen to me) and the next day all his heads were dried puffs. . . I think the weed n feed is steroids for them. . . they put out one last ditch effort to reproduce before the plant dies. . . just my theory. . .

But Morph is correct in deadheading. . . I notice I have some pretty hefty dandies lurking out there.

Many herbicides work by forcing rapid-fire growth of the plant, in essence tapping off the resource of the plant and forcing it to grow itself to death. As noted, this can also cause rapid development of the seeds, but on the up side those seeds aren't likely to be viable. It takes a lot of energy to charge up a seed, and the plant simply didn't have the reserves or the incoming energy to do it.

I've failed in seed collection simply by collecting a day or two too early. Since I don't intimately know every seed pod of the tens of thousands in the gardens, I compensate by over-collecting and always trying to take seeds that are just about to fall on their own. I'm not always successful, so my germination rates tend to be in the 80% range.

Fun sidenote: Removal of first buds on your annuals will generally result in a bulkier plant that compensates by blooming even more heavily. I never have the heart to do so, but it does work when I've accidentally broken a bud while planting. Certainly deadheading as the blossoms fade will result in larger, healthier plants with even more blooms.

If this is true that removed flowers likely do not go to seed, then why is it that within hours of decapitating, that the yellow flowers heads scattered about the lawn turn to fluffy seed heads??

Ya know Vera I noticed something interesting about dandelions as well. I sprayed some with Weed B Gone and they died off quickly, yet the yellow flowers still seemed to turn into seeds. Viable or not I don't know. Those dandelions are amazing. I'm skeptical that a yellow flower can turn into seeds in a matter of hours after cutting off, but I'm going to pick a few tomorrow if I can find some and see what happens!

I've never seen it happen, but haven't performed a study on the subject. I've seen very old zinnia heads, when cut, try to go to seed. But it usually fails, and I wouldn't put any money on seed viability.

Exactly what I see soon after herbicide application or picking/cutting off flower heads!! I ask because I like to bag the grass clippings for mulch, but often wondered about the dandelion heads in the mix. I know a trick though for dandelions that have gone to seed in the lawn, but it can be a little time consuming and your neighbors may look at you crazy....go around with a lighter and light the fluffy seed head up lol....!!

Andy is WRONG! Dandelion is a PERENNIAL. It will come back as long as it has a good root.

Vera, there is not enough heat in the fluff fire to kill the seed. It just gets rid of the fluff.

www.homegrownherbalist.net

Yes, Andy is wrong I know....that's not my concern anyway. If there ARE seed in those fluffy heads when I set them afire, they are not producing anything. What I really want to know is after applying herbacide and the dandelion suddenly "fluffs" are these still producing viable seed?

I sprayed with Weed Be Gon and the next day, nearly every dandelion flower on the lawn turned into a white fluffy seed head. My question is, are those seeds going to be active or are they benign? I don't know whether to continue spraying the rest or cut the lawn and wait a month and spray everything before they produce flowers.

If you put down a preemergent in the early spring then it doesn't matter. Either way I wouldn't worry about it. You are not going to end up with more dandelions because you spayed them. You will end up with fewer. Spot spray anything that comes up as needed.

danielj_2009 A pre-emergent has no effect on dandelions. Pre-emergents work on annual grasses like crabgrass.

HU-120274311 I wouldn't worry about the fact that the dandelions went to seed. There are seeds everywhere, whether they come from your lawn or a lawn half a mile away. An interesting fact is that the best time to kill dandelions is after they have gone to seed. The plant expends so much energy producing the seedhead that it is left weaker and more vulnerable to the herbicide. Also, many spring dandelion blooms can be avoided by using a herbicide in the fall to kill off the dandelions actively growing in the lawn at that time which will prevent them from being around to bloom in the spring.

@Greg so you're saying the dandelion seeds the OP is worried about are immune from premerg? Premerg isn't for the existing dandelion plant but for any new seeds that come from it.

@danielj_2009 As far as I know, pre-emergent chemicals are ineffective on dandelion seeds. If you read the label of any of the common pre-emergents, they do not list dandelions as one of the target pests. Dandelions are easy enough to control with post-emergents, so it is not an issue. Two applications of broadleaf weed killer, one in the late spring and one in the early fall, will control dandelions very well.

@Greg: You know I never thought about it! It seems some premergs will work but not the common ones. Thanks for the education. Dandelions are so easy to kill, you are right. They can't take hold if you mow high and have healthy grass. I only spot spray the occasional dandelion.