What type of weed is this and how do I kill it?

[OHB]

Much of my 5 acres is infested with a grass (weed?) that I would like to know how to get rid of. The only real problem I have is in cutting it. It grows as a slender stalk from 1 to 1-1/2 feet tall. At the top the stalk splits in two and each 'branch' is about 2 inches long and covered with tiny black seeds. I need to know what this nuisance grass is and how to kill it without doing damage to the 'good' grass (mostly bermuda). The main irritant is in trying to cut it. My Troy-Bilt simply runs over some of it because the stalks are long enough to bend over without being sucked up into the cutting deck, necessitating a double-cut in some areas. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[beenthere]

Pic? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[robertn]

Look in the phonebook for your local agriculture dept, or University extension office. They help with this sort of thing all the time. You can probably take them a sample, and have a quick answer on how to deal with it.

[em14]

That sounds like Bahia grass which is both a southern lawn grass and hay. It is all over the place here in Florida.
Leo

[OHB]

that it is indeed bahiagrass. That's the good news. The bad news is that there wasn't much on the net about how to kill it without killing the 'good' stuff. Two products (Dupont Ally and one called Blade) were all I found. Both seemed a mite expensive. I guess it's off to the extension office hoping for better results. Will post what I find out.

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> ( it is indeed bahiagrass. ) </font color>

Hmmm, people all over Florida order bahia SOD. Most lawns are bahia. It's funny, because Bermuda is a creeping grass, alot of people want to KILL the bermuda and keep the bahia.

Bermuda should be cut extremely short -- like golf fairway short -- so it seems to me that the Bahia would not flourish very well under those mowing conditions.

[ScottAR]

An enterprizing member of TBN made a "wick" applicator for his lawn tractor.

A wick applicator is fairly common on farms for applying herbicides to weeds.

All that is needed is delivery from a tank to a pipe and somthing that will wick the chemical to it's outside and contact the weed.

Mounting the tube higher than the "good" grass leaves it without chemical and happy if grass can be happy...

clear as mud??