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.
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.
Factor Number One: Violets Have Two Kinds Of Flowers:
- The delicate purple ones that kids pluck and play around with, and
- The hidden unopened flower buds that reside underneath the leaves which shield from any harm.
The visible purple flowers are usually infertile, while the ones hiding under the leaves are highly fertile, and they can also self-pollinate and fertilize themselves Just imagine they dont have to flower to reproduce this is so weird! Right?
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The Case For Tolerating Wild Violets
Because wild violets have pretty flowers that bloom early and often, not everyone regards this plant as a weed. Many homeowners choose to let these wildflowers grow in their lawns and elsewhere.
There are several reasons for tolerating wild violets in the lawn:
- It makes for a low-maintenance lawn.
- It avoids the use of herbicide.
Will Boiling Water Kill Wild Violets
yes, even though boiling water kills wild violets, but can you imagine using it on a large lawn. Its only feasible on a small scale, lets say your small backyard lawn.
While violet flowers may look beautiful on your lawn -with their mesmerizing purplish blooms, violets are invasive weeds that will vigorously invade your grass if left unchecked.
Furthermore, these are yearly weeds, which means if the issue is not solved, they will be back next year and the year after.
But dont worry, as explained above there are numerous methods you have learnt on how to kill violets In the Lawn.
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At Last An Easy Way To Kill Violets
Never abandon hope is the lesson I impart today. On a recent Grumpy Gardener page in Southern Living, I sadly broke terrible news to a reader whose lawn and garden was submerged with violets. There is no spray to kill violets, I said. The only control is getting down on your hands and knees and digging nonstop for approximately 18 years.
I can hear the chorus coming from dismayed readers. “Why would anyone want to kill violets? They are beautiful and charming native wildflowers.”
That they are. But common dooryard violets are one other thing too. Extremely invasive. In the lawn or the garden. In the sun or the shade. If you see one this year, next year you’ll see a dozen. Then a hundred. Then a thousand. Then a veritable sea of violets will fill your yard from shore to shore. The fiends nearly choked out my beautiful lawn of native mosses. I dug up buckets of them.
These violets spread so quickly because they’re sneaky. They don’t just develop seeds from the pretty, blue, purple, or white flowers you admire in spring. Most seeds come from weird, pale flowers resembling mung bean sprouts that hide at the soil line under the foliage. They sow seeds all summer without the need for pollination.
Each seed that sprout grows a thick root that looks like a tiny horizontal carrot. Even if you dig it, any piece of the root left in the ground grows another violet. This root also makes the violet resistant to weedkillers available for home use.
Until now.
How Do I Get Rid Of Wild Violets
- Barb on Jun 22, 2018Keep pulling/weeding them. Mulch and cover them with newspapers layers and/or landscape fabric. They are beautiful but also highly invasive aren’t they!?
- Donna on Jun 22, 2018Thank you! I will try that. I love them, especially in bloom but they are choking out other plants. I appreciate your help.
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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.
How Do You Get Rid Of Ground Ivy
As pervasive as wild violets, finding the best weed killer for ground ivy can be a tricky task. While you can pull and pull at these weeds, this is not how to get rid of ivy on the ground, as this persistent growth will just come right on back.
So, how do you get rid of ground ivy effectively? Similar to wild violets, we recommend:
- A liquid broadleaf herbicide
- A long-term treatment plan
- Effective lawn care throughout the year
Like with wild violets, what kills ground ivy is an effective, professional application of broadleaf liquid herbicide. This will require more than one treatment a year, from the spring and into the fall. We also recommend waiting to mow your lawns for three days after treatment to best keep creeping charlie at bay.
Additionally, in order to find what kills creeping charlie but not grass, youâll need to boost your lawn care to strengthen and thicken your lawn. With this process, youâll limit the spread of ground ivy while ensuring you still have grass on your commercial property.
When it comes to the question of how do you kill creeping charlie, the more the better. With this in mind, a technician can spray your lawn with treatments whenever they are there to treat the lawn, creating a better potential for controlling this invasive weed.
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Managing African Violet Insects
Fortunately, African violet aphid control is fairly easy.Usually, when you have African violets with aphids, you can use simple warmwater and dish soap to remove them. Alternatively, you can find differentpesticides that will kill aphids on African violets. But for these and otherpests, its always better to try non-chemical methods first. Neemoil is another option.
The best strategy for managing African violet insects otherthan aphids depends on the type of pest involved. Management techniques rangefrom spraying water on pests to limiting irrigation.
For example, if your African violet pests are small blackflies that seem to be running around the soil or flitting about randomly, youare dealing with fungusgnats. The larvae look like small worms that spin webs on the soilsurface.
Fungus gnat larvae feed on the roots of the African violetplants, but the adults do not cause any direct damage. Still, they areannoying. Your best strategy is to reduce the amount of water you give yourAfrican violet to reduce the gnat population.
Another of the African violet pests you might see on yourplant is the mealybug.They suck juices out of the plant leaves, which distorts them. If your planthas mealybugs, eliminate them by spraying on warm water. Alternatively, use analcohol-dipped cotton swab.
Herbicides For Wild Violets
21 September, 2017
Wild violets have pretty, five-petaled purple, blue or white flowers that are an early sign of spring. They are also tough, invasive and fertile weeds that can easily take over your yard. Wild violets are generally found in moist, cool, shady areas, but they are persistent enough to spread into sunny or dry lawns. Controlling or eliminating wild violets is not easy. You can pull them by hand or dig them out, but it’s difficult to remove all of the plants’ rhizomes. A faster method of controlling wild violets is to apply an herbicide.
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Stay On Top Of Things
It may take a couple years to really get a handle on a big crop of violets. Understand that these weeds are very persistent and will try to come back. Dont wait until it is a big problem again to start a major war in your lawn. Plan proactively with a good lawn care program to keep these weeds in check.
It is possible to get rid of violets if you are more persistent than they are. If youre interested in finding out more about how we can provide the weed control treatments, soil testing, aeration, or seeding you need to win your violet war, please dont hesitate to contact us.
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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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Mow Away Your Troubles
If left uncontrolled, yard violets can create a dense mat. If you’re not in a hurry and don’t want to be bothered with manually removing each plant, try frequently mowing the area. Set your mower to as low as possible and pass over the violets every time they regrow from your last mowing. This immediately slows the spread of the weed. Over time, the effort of repeatedly regrowing starves the underground rhizomes and kills the plants. This entire process may take several months, depending on how large the violet’s underground rhizome network is and how much water and nutrients it has had a chance to store up.
Controlling Violets In Beds And Borders
Roundup If the violets are in a spot set apart from perennials and other plants, you can use Roundup . Granted, I prefer not to use garden chemicals, but Roundup is one of the least dangerous for the wenvironment. Its a so-called non-selective weed killer: It doesnt select what plants it kills or damages. So be careful. Use it carefully on a still day when it wont blow and damage nearby plants. And Roundup is not magic. Use it on a sunny, warmer, dry day when it works best. And follow label directions, reapply every few days three or more times as needed.
Hand Weeding Hand pulling or weeding is laborious, but its the best way to control violets. You have to be persistent and do multiple weedings through the spring and summer, when violets are growing fastest. Its also a little tricky since violets have long, thin, spreading roots that are difficult to get all of. And if you leave one little bit in the soil, the violets come back. Unless the soil is very moist and soft, just pulling the violets wont work. Too much of the root will be left in the soil. Use a hoe or weeding tool to hack out most of the violet and then pull and pick any remaining bits by hand from the soil.
Mulching
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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.
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.
Read Also: Getting Rid Of Wild Violets
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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- Works slowly
- Affects only a few weeds
The results after the submission will require from 2 to 4 weeks to see. The weeds turn yellow at first and dry just afterward. Before coating the whole lawn, try it on a specific area it may not function in certain regions or may even destroy healthy vegetation.
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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.
