What Kills Violets But Not Grass
You can use several herbicides to kill violets, and they wont harm your grass lawn. You can use broadleaf killers like Dicamba and 2.4D to selectively destroy the flowers while not killing the grass lawn.
Drive is another suitable herbicide you can use on violet flowers.
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How To Prevent Wild Violets In Your Lawn
To prevent Wild Violets, make sure your grass is thick and healthy so theres no room for these weeds to take hold. Do not overwater to promote the moist soil Wild Violets prefer. We recommend mowing high so your grass roots are strong and deep. We always recommend adding Microclover to your lawn to feed your soil and keep your grass healthy.
Wild Violet Signs And Symptoms
The springtime flowers are usually violet in color, but can range from deep blue all the way to white. Common blue and wooly blue violets can have a purple, blue, or violet color, while confederate violets have white petals that are tinged with violet on the inside. There are also some yellow violets. Each flower appears on its own leafless stalk. This broadleaf plant has waxy, serrated leaves that are oblong and come to a point at the tip.
Underneath the ground, wild violets have thick clumps of underground stems, called rhizomes, which store water and help make the plant drought resistant. These rhizomes are hardy survivors that send forth new shoots when the plant is plucked from above.
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Using Herbicides Chemicals To Kill Violets In Lawn
If larger parts of your lawn have been affected, you can kill the flowers systematically using broadleaf herbicides like Trimecor or Triclopyr. Triclopyr is mostly used by landscaping professionals, while Trimec is readily available at your local stores.
These herbicides will do the trick, but if the lawn is beyond saving, you can always kill the whole lawn and start afresh.
How To Kill Wild Violets
Finding yourself plucking at wild violets for hours? With a commercial lawn, it can feel like an impossible task to kill wild violets growing in the yard, but with the right methods, you can make some headway.
Neither hand-pulling violets, nor granular products, will work well to remove violets. Getting a violet fully out is tough due to its strong roots, and many solutions wonât coat the leaves with enough product. So, whatâs the answer?
When it comes to killing wild violets, we recommend:
- A professional-grade herbicide
- A long-term strategy, spraying multiple times a year
- A focused lawn care program for a thick, healthy lawn.
Wondering what herbicide kills wild violet weeds? For this, we recommend a professional-grade broadleaf liquid herbicide. This will be able to stick to leaves and kill the wild violets. Keep in mind, wild violets have a strong herbicide resistance. This means non-selective herbicides arenât super effective in ridding your lawn of this pesky weed.
However, herbicide alone wonât work. You not only need to spray multiple times a year to ensure you keep wild violets at bay but maintain the health of your grass as wild violets typically pop up in the more sparse areas of your lawn. To keep your lawn healthy, incorporate a solid routine of fertilization, aeration, and overseeding in the fall season.
With this method, youâll help keep wild violets from overtaking your property, alleviating the headache of fast-growing weeds.
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The Easiest Way To Get Rid Of Wild Violets Naturally
Wild violets can be removed by hand pulling or hand weeding, but because they have long, thin roots that spread in various directions, they can be difficult to remove all at once. These weeds also grow persistently through the months, so you might find yourself having to do multiple weedings through the spring and summer months when they are growing the fastest.
If you find the violets growing faster than you are able to remove them, it might be time to apply another solution: making your own herbicide to kill the wild violets. Here are the steps to going about the easiest ways to get rid of wild violets naturally:
How To Kill Wild Violets In Lawns
21 December, 2009
The violet, blue or white blossoms of the wild violet , also known as the common violet, sand violet and Viola papilionacea, spread across the lawn, marring the expanse of green perfection. Removing wild violets from lawns in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9 is difficult. The plants rapidly resprout from the roots after herbicide treatments killing wild violets is a process that requires persistence by the homeowner.
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Controlling Violets In Lawns
The most effective way to control violets in lawns is chemicals. Pulling violets out of turf is almost useless and certainly, you cant mulch a lawn. Most lawns that use a lawn service dont have violets. Thats because lawn services apply a broad-leaf weed killer at the optimum time in summer. This appropriately named weed killer destroys the broad-leafed plants such as violets and leaves the thin-leafed plantslike your grass. If you dont use a lawn service, go your local garden center and check out the various chemicals that you can spread on your lawn that tout themselves as broad-leafed herbicides. Otherwise, simply look for something made for lawns that specifies controlling violets. Follow package directions exactly, especially on the time of year to apply the weed killer. Timing is everything. One note: Violets do best in light shade. Grass does not do well in light shade. Wherever grass struggles, weeds fill in. So your violet problem in your lawn may be because youre growing grass in a place it really shouldnt be growing. Consider trimming up trees, cutting out overgrown shrubs, etc. to allow more light in to the lawn. Or give up on the grass altogether and plant groundcovers, hostas, and other shade-loving perennials.
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Apply Roundup For Lawns
Don’t be discouraged if it takes a few tries to control wild violets. After all, they spread through underground stems as well as by seed, and their waxy leaves can be hard to penetrate. The best time to treat wild violets with Roundup® For Lawns is in the fall, when it will be fast-tracked into the root system as the plants prepare for winter. To kill the occasional pop-up plant, a ready-to-use product is a fine choice. If your wild violet problem is more widespread, though, youll want to turn to a ready-to-spray or concentrate product.
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Violet Control In Lawns
Violets are tough to control in a lawn. They grow from perennial roots, so the plants come back each year if the roots arent removed or killed. Furthermore, the flowering weed produces copious seeds that are scattered far and wide.
Before I proceed with chemical controls, let me mention the Water Weeder, which uses a jet of water to loosen a clump of weeds so you can pull it out of the ground. Totally organic!
FOR FESCUE, ZOYSIA If you choose to spray, I think the best chemical for violet control in fescue and zoysia lawns is triclopyr .
I have seen the effects of triclopyr on violets, wild strawberry and ground ivy in a neighbors lawn. Two weeks after spraying, most of the weeds curled up and turned yellow. With a second spray three weeks after the first one, 90 percent of the weeds were controlled. Fescue grass is the best choice for lawns in partial shade but these conditions also favor violets. That is why violets are such a troublesome and hard-to-control weed. Triclopyr can not be sprayed on a newly sprouted lawn until after it has been mowed a few times. Wait at least three weeks after using this chemical before planting fescue seed. The label also allows use on zoysia lawns plus ryegrass and bentgrass.
NOT ON BERMUDA, CENTIPEDE If you have bermuda, centipede or St. Augustine grass, youll have to continue using other chemicals. Triclopyr is not labeled for use on these grasses.
Water Weeder and wild onions
wild violet
How To Prevent Wild Violets From Coming Back
Many homeowners let a limited number of wild violets coexist with their turfgrass because the flowers are an important source of nectar when little else is in bloom. But once youve stopped a full-blown invasion, heres how you can keep these plants in check.
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Lawn care best practices: Start with a healthy, well-maintained lawn and planting beds. Dense grass and foliage make it difficult for seeds to establish and roots to spread, Shipman says.
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Mulching: Within a day or two after hand weeding, apply a thick layer of mulch to the area you weeded to suffocate any small bits of plant or root system left in the soil.
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Pruning: Wild violets do best in light shade where turfgrass struggles to thrive. Trim trees and overgrown shrubs to allow more sunlight to hit patches of the lawn where the flowers are proliferating.
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Drainage: Moist soil is where wild violets thrive, so improving the drainage of your garden or lawn will prevent these plants from taking up residence. Aerate your soil or mix in coarse organic material like sawdust, sand or gypsum.
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Are Wild Violets Weeds
If you define a weed as any plant growing where you dont want it, you can definitely consider wild violets in your lawn to be weeds.
Wild violets freely self-seed, quickly taking over a lawn or planted bed and are not too easy to get rid of, Shipman says. While they have many benefits to pollinators and wildlife, their aggressive habits can make them a headache for gardeners with a more manicured image in mind.
How To Identify Wild Violet Weed
The first step to controlling wild violets is identifying the plant. They are low-growing plants growing to about four to six inches . They have green heart-shaped, waxy leaves.
However, their most recognizable feature is their flowers you can easily identify the plant by the wild purple flowers growing in the yard. However, some plants also produce white or yellow flowers.
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How To Get Rid Of Violets In Your Lawn
Before we discuss how to remove them, its important to understand what makes them so tough. The answer is two-fold. Firstly, theres the waxy substance on their leaves. As we mentioned earlier, violet leaves are unique among their perennial broadleaf friends. This makes it harder but not impossible to use herbicides. Secondly, they spread through complex rhizomes systems beneath the soil. As such, you can manually remove them, but it takes more digging than you might think. Youll need to be careful which spot treatments you choose, as they may not be powerful enough to kill the violets, but they very well may kill the grass.
What Are Wild Violets
Wild violets are a close relative to annual violas and pansies, Shipman says. They are a persistent, low-growing, broadleaf perennial that thrives in shady spots with moist soil, and they flower prolifically in the early spring. The plants grow between four and six inches tall, forming thick clumps with flowers that attract many pollinators.
These aggressive plants spread via rhizomes a creeping horizontal root that can produce new shoots or seeds. If you look closely, you can often see small, unopened flowers underneath the foliage, Shipman says. These can self-pollinate and produce seeds, a fascinating adaptation that ensures the next generation of plants, even if the opened flowers havent been pollinated by insects. The botanical term for this is cleistogamy.
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How To Get Rid Of Wild Violets Organically
There are several organic ways to deal will violets on your lawn. Lets have a look at some of them.
1. Tolerating And Living With The Wild Violets
Even though its a crazy idea its by far the simplest and the most cost-effective way to deal with wild violets. All you have to do is try and enhance grass lawn wellbeing to give it a competing chance against the weeds.
Furthermore, not everybody considers these beautiful flowers a weed, and if managed properly, you can live with them peacefully.
2. Removing Wild Violets by Hand
Fresh and young violets flowers are relatively simple to pull out by hand. For older flowers, you can use opt for a garden fork to help you dig them out. However, this will only work on a small area or if the flowers are scattered across the lawn.
Plus, it is not easy to pull out the flowers completely with their roots, meaning they will grow back again after a short while. It is recommended that you follow up this method with a concrete plan to enhance the health of the lawn to help choke out new weeds.
3. Using homemade Wild Violet Weed Killer
You can also use a homemade weed killer mixture to kill violet flowers on your lawn. Mix horticultural vinegar and water and spray the solution directly to the flowering foliage. This homemade herbicide is believed to have an 80% success rate on wild violet.
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Violets In Lawns A Pro Or Con Update
For many, the lawn is a sacred place where nary a clover or dandelion dare venture. For others, lawns are becoming more diverse for the sake of bees, or for the sake of giving up on the battle against weeds. Dandelions and clover may be the first to pop to mind when considering lawn weeds, but this was the first time I had seen violets in turf.
From afar, the untrained eye may assume this purple hue in the lawn is creeping charlie, or dead nettle, both common weeds that carry a purple flower.
But upon closer inspection, these were violets! While I treated this as a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, one of our turf professors shared that wild violets are actually one of the most notorious lawn weeds and are difficult to manage.
Violets spread by seed and by rhizome. They come in shades of purple, white, and yellow. Some are bi-color.
Violets attract pollinators and are the primary host plant for the caterpillars of a group of butterflies known as fritillaries. Violets are also the sole food source for the mining bee Andrena violae a specialist bee that only visits violets.
Violets establish well in shady, moist areas where turf is not vigorous and cannot out-compete violets and other weeds. These areas often pose a challenge for turf establishment and so violets may be a welcome option for ground coverage. However, once established they can spread forth from that tough site into your desirable lawn areas.
So what to do!?
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Homemade Wild Violet Weed Killer
Creating a homemade weed killer to control wild violets requires mixing horticulture vinegar with water. You can use a ratio of 80 percent water and 20 percent vinegar. This homemade wild violet weed herbicide has an 80-percent control rate over most broadleaf weeds when sprayed on the offending plants foliage. If the horticultural vinegar doesnt contain a surfactant, add 1 teaspoon of a non ionic surfactant or dishwashing liquid for every gallon of water used.
Use caution when working with horticultural vinegar. It is much stronger than your kitchen vinegar it can cause severe damage to your eyes and skin. Make sure to wear protective clothing when working with horticultural vinegar. Safety glasses, rubber gloves, pants and a long-sleeve shirt will help prevent eye and skin exposure to the vinegar.
Wild Violet Species Identification
From the blue to purple flowers they grow to the underground stems that can cause them to aggressively spread throughout your thick and healthy lawn, wild violets are easy to identify. They tend to be most common in the early spring.
In addition to their deep purple color, theyre also characterized by heart-shaped leaves. But these arent pretty flowers. In fact, theyre among the more challenging weeds to kill. Though they favor moist soil, they can also tolerate drought. And the flowers can drop seeds below the low-growing waxy leaves, which can submerge them in lawns and cause them to spread until there are thick clumps of even more violets in your lawn.
The good news is that they can be controlled and prevented both the flowers and the underground root system. In the forthcoming section, well take a look at how to do it:
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Is Violet Grass Real
One of the most difficult weeds to control in the lawn is wild violet. This native plant may look cute and dainty, especially in the spring when it produces pretty purple flowers. But in reality it is an aggressive weed with an unusual flowering quirk that results in thick mats of leaves that can choke out your lawn.
Managing Creeping Charlie And Violets
Ground ivy often creates a thick mat of vegetation in shade lawn areas.
Lawns in shade areas are rarely very vigorous or dense and thus may be prone to weed invasion. Two of the more common broadleaf weeds invading shady lawns are ground ivy and violets. Both are difficult to control.
Ground ivy , also called creeping Charlie, is a common lawn weed problem. Shady lawns with poorly drained fertile soil are typical sites for ground ivy to develop into a major problem. This plant may form extensive patches as it creeps along the soil and moves into sunny areas. The stems are square and the leaves are arranged opposite of each other along stems. The leaves are round to somewhat kidney shaped with rounded, toothed margins. Crushed leaves have a minty odor. Ground ivy has small funnel-shaped purplish-blue flowers appearing from April to June.
Ground ivy will produce new plants at the nodes of trailing stems.
Violets include several cool-season annuals and perennials that are low-growing plants. These species are very shade tolerant and prefer lawns located on moist, fertile soils. Violets tend to be most visible during cool weather of spring and fall. Leaves of the common violet are oval to kidney-shaped with a heart-shaped base. Flowers may be white, blue, purple, or yellow. All violets reproduce by seed, and perennial violets also spread by creeping roots and rhizomes.
To keep ground ivy and violets from invading lawns, maintain a thick lawn by proper lawn care practices.
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