Annual bluegrass is a weed of the bluegrass family. Specialists attribute it to lawn weeds.
Spread
Distributed around the world, except the deserts of Central Asia and the Far North, but is better known in Russia.
It grows in any soil, but grows more often:
- in wet and moist meadows;
- on ruderal places;
- in places of cattle grazing and trampling places;
- on pebbles and sands next to the river;
- on soils with lots of nitrogen.
Description of bluegrass annual
The plant has a stalk with a height of 5 to 40 cm with narrow light green leaves up to 4 mm wide. The inflorescence is a small spreading panicle of a pyramidal shape up to 7-8 cm long. It blooms from May to September, and bears fruit from the beginning of summer to mid-autumn. Propagated by seeds. There are about 450 seeds per plant.
Economic value
Annual bluegrass is an important grass in agriculture, because cattle often graze in the fields with it. Indeed, bluegrass has a number of nutritional properties and is a delicious livestock feed. But the plant is small, so it is not very profitable as feed.
Since bluegrass grows very quickly, it is often added to inexpensive grass mixtures as a lawn coating. But experts do not recommend using it as a lawn grass, because with its fast growth it slows down the growth of other perennial plants. Therefore, he is recognized as a weed.
Manual Weed Control
Manual weeding is an effective measure to combat annual bluegrass, albeit a little time-consuming.
20 days after sowing the lawn, you need to weed the plant, since its root system is still poorly developed. At the same time, try to place the shovel deeper in order to completely remove the bluegrass root systems. After weed removal, the damaged soil is compacted and watered.
Experts advise weed control after every lawn mowing.
Chemical methods of weed control
To date, herbicides are used in weed control. To combat the bluegrass on an annual lawn, selective herbicides are used, for example, Lontrel-300 or Magnum and others. They help to destroy weeds, but do not damage the lawn. Moreover, they destroy not only the ground part, but also the rhizomes of the plant.
Rules for using chemicals effectively:
- use only on warm and calm days;
- spraying only dry weed grass;
- before using herbicides, you do not need to change the lawn coating;
- after weed control with chemicals, mowing the lawn is necessary only after 2-3 days.
Some drugs have their own specific properties, so before using them, you need to carefully study the instructions.
Impossible to deal with weeds at one time. Typically, some products are designed for re-spraying.
How to plant bluegrass?
If you still decided to plant a lawn from a bluegrass annual, then you need to prepare a place for sowing and know some simple rules.
Preparing a place for sowing bluegrass:
- Soil preparation. The selected area for the lawn is loosened and weeded. If the fruit part of the soil is less than 15-20 cm, it is necessary to pour a little sand. Also fertilize for fast growth and development.
- Land leveling. Using a chopper and a rake, it is worth leveling the soil, and then ramming the soil with either a special roller or a wooden board.
- Loosening. After tamping, the soil in the area is loosened with a rake or a chopper at a depth of 2-3 cm. Level the soil when lumps of soil or depressions are found.
Lawn sowing
Experts advise sowing 40 grams of bluegrass seeds per square meter of lawn. In order not to appear empty, non-sown areas, you need to sow some of the seeds near and across the lawn cover. We plant to a depth of 2 mm, and along with the seeds, nitrogen and potassium fertilizers are added.
Features of bluegrass lawn care
After sowing, you need to provide good care, otherwise the seeds will be wasted, and the site will remain empty. There are a few simple rules:
- Every day before germination, you need to water the lawn from bluegrass for 10 minutes, so that the soil is perfectly saturated with moisture.
- The first 2 weeks you can’t walk on the lawn!
- In summer, in hot weather, water abundantly.
- Once the seeds have sprouted, you can sow a little more.
- From time to time, do not forget about fertilizers.
So, annual bluegrass is an ambiguous plant. It can be cultivated using in the formation of the lawn, or count as a weed in the garden, where other plants grow.