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.
These Delicate Blooming Plants Can Be A Challenge To Banish From Your Yard Here’s How To Rid Your Lawn Of This Pretty Yet Pesky Perennial
There are many types of wild violet species, some native and others European and Asian invaders, but all grow primarily in the northern regions of the U.S. You can recognize these flowering perennials by their early spring blossoms and heart-shaped, waxy leaves. Most commonly the five-petaled flowers are deep purple, but they can also be white, speckled or yellow.
This tenacious little plant might be considered a bothersome weed by some, says expert gardener Em Shipman of KidsGardening.org.But overall, it has many benefits to humans, animals and pollinators. Read on to learn all you need to know about this common weed and how to keep it from taking over your lawn.
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What To Use To Kill Ground Ivy And Violet
My go-to weed control here is the active ingredient Triclopyr. 2-3 applications this fall will go a long way towards you regaining ground.
This High Yield product works great and is affordable. The mix rates are:1.5 Tablespoons of concentrate 2 Teaspoons of non-ionic surfactantThese are mixed into 1 gallon of water.This makes an emulsion that you can spray across 1,000 sq ft of area if you are blanket spraying, or use it for spot sprays and spray until the leaves of the weeds appear wet but not dripping.It may take a few applications and as long as your outside air temps are still over 55F during the day, you can re-apply 14 days later for a double knockout.Here are a list of other weeds you may be seeing that this product is labeled to control, some better than others .
Notes: It is very important to agitate this mix thoroughly and constantly. Even while you are spraying, be sure to shake the emulsion often.No watering for at least 24 hours after application. No mowing for at least 5 days after the application.
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Are Wild Violets Safe To Eat
Wild Violets are safe to eat! Do make sure you correctly identify any and all plants that you forage before eating them. Violets are often used as a garnish on wedding cakes or other desserts. Flowers can be crystallized with sugar or used on their own. Violet jelly, liquor, syrup, vinegar, and tea are all common uses. Leaves and flowers together are often eaten on salads. Leaves can also be added to soups or stews. Violets provide both vitamins A and C.
When To Get Rid Of Wild Violets
Using herbicide to eradicate wild violets is best undertaken in the fall. At this time, the herbicide will be transported down to the taproot as the plant stores nutrients for winter. Thus, you have a good chance of the herbicide killing the plant down to ground level with a fall application. If you use herbicide in the spring or summer, it might only temporarily kill the surface leaves, allowing the plant to rebound.
- Garden fork
- Work gloves
- Protective clothing and breathing mask
- Pump-style garden sprayer
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Stop Wild Violets In Your Maryland Lawn
Weeds are the worst. And a weed like wild violet in grass is a nuisance. You know it. We know it. But if youre seeing spots that dont look right or random flowers popping up where they shouldnt belong, you might have wild violets. Proper lawn care and working with a lawn care service partner who knows how to handle difficult-to-control weeds can make a big transformation in your Central and Southern Maryland lawn. Not sure if the weeds you’re seeing are wild violets or what you can do to stop them from spreading? Call Natural Green. We tackle weeds all the time, and wild violets dont scare us at all. We regularly test new selective herbicides to ensure we find ways to tackle your worst weeds and ensure your lawn looks amazing. Are wild violets slowly taking over your lawn? Wed love to help. Get started today with a free quote. Together, well prepare a customized plan for your Central or Southern Maryland lawn so you can make an educated decision and get rid of weeds for good.
Dont Let Violets Overtake Your Lawn Call Farison Lawn Care
Violets are tricky, but proper lawn maintenance with Farison Lawn Care can help. A comprehensive lawn care program with weed control applications such as the one that Farison offers can help keep your lawn healthy and better able to ward off weed infestations. Call or contact us online to schedule a lawn maintenance program today! For more tips and ideas on maintaining a gorgeous lawn, be sure to visit our monthly blog and follow us on , , or !
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Consider Different Turfgrass Blends
Turfgrass mix is almost always blended because the diversity makes your lawn more resistant to disease, drought, and infestations. However, if your lawn is especially prone to wild violets, you may want to ask your lawn care professional about adding more fescue to the mix. Compared to other common grass blends, like Kentucky bluegrass, fescues are better at withstanding violet infestations.
Create An Environment That Is Best For Your Lawn
Take a soil test for your lawn and add the necessary treatments to correct soil pH and other deficiencies. Youll often find violets growing in soil with very low soil pH, which grass doesnt do so hot in. After you get a good handle on the violet populations, core aerate your lawn. This will relieve soil compaction and improve drainage which your grass plants will prefer.
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Killing Violets In The Lawn
Getting rid of violets is no easy task. Hand-pulling violets wont get you very far due to their strong roots. Its very difficult to pull a violet without leaving at least some of the root in the ground, meaning its going to grow right back. Granular products dont work well on violets, either. Thats because not enough of the product will coat the leaves. Even if youre lucky enough to get a few flakes on the leaves, its not going to be effective enough to work.The key to killing violets in the lawn is a professional-grade broadleaf liquid herbicide that will stick to the leaves and ultimately knock wild violets back. This must be coupled with a long-term strategy, including spraying multiple times a year, particularly in the fall when certain products are able to be used in cooler temperatures.
In addition to spot treating the violets repeatedly from spring through fall, youll also want to focus on a lawn care program that encourages a healthy and thick lawn. Because violets thrive in sparse lawns, the thicker your lawn is, the more likely it will choke out these pesky weeds.
Thickening your lawn can be achieved with a program that incorporates regular fertilization, looks at improving the soil with necessary pH corrections, and includes aeration and overseeding every fall.
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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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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 Get Rid Of Violets And Creeping Charlie In The Lawn
Allyn HaneNews
Whats up yall – welcome to the very middle of October. Im on the road to the GIE Expo this week but wanted to take some time and drop some tips on you. For you cool season folks Im seeing more and more reports of wild violet and creeping charlie.Especially if you have gotten through your aeration and overseeding and are back to mowing regularly all that watering and fertilizing you have been doing has also encouraged these weeds and now its time to get on top of them.
The good news is: the very best time to get after these two common viney weeds is the fall time when outside air temps are above 55F during the day .The warmer the better, but as long as temps during the day are getting up over 55F for most of the day, you can get on these guys and stunt them pretty well.And that is the first tip: Patience. These two invaders have lots of underground support structures that make them harder to kill. Multiple applications will be needed and now is as good of a time as any to get started.
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Removing Violets By Hand
Wild violets frequently commandeer lawns that are not well kept. As such, its important to keep up with yard maintenance. This will not only guard against future violet outbreaks but plenty of other weeds as well. A good lawn care program can also prevent insects and other pests. In short, keeping a healthy lawn protects a whole variety of problems. But back to violets. Its perfectly acceptable to dig them out, but as we mentioned earlier, they have rhizomes. Therefore, you need to dig horizontal under the soil, not straight down, to really remove as much of the root system as possible. Dont be discouraged if it takes several years to completely remove violets in this way. Youre not a bad gardener youre just up against one tough weed!
A Closer Look At Wild Violets In Lawns
As broadleaf perennials, wild violets may be the prettiest weeds out there with their purple flowers, but they counter that trait by being super annoying once they invade your lawn.
And once they root in your grass, they tend to crowd out good grass to make room for more of themselves. Not cool.Obtaining wild violet control means understanding the weed youre fighting and then using proper strategies to eliminate it.
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How To Kill Yard Violets
Wild violets may have pretty purple or blue flowers, but these annual weeds can quickly become an eyesore when they invade your yard. If you don’t control them as soon as they appear, yard violets will slowly spread through their underground rhizomes and take over more of your gardens. Use a combination of methods to kill these invaders.
What Causes Wild Violets
Wild Violets grow best in shady, moist, and fertile soil. They spread via underground root systems and seeds. Seed pods grow in small capsules at the base of the plant that look like they might bloom into flowers. Wild Violets form large colonies, connecting via their underground roots: rhizomes. They often occur in newer developments that were previously wooded or in established yards with forests nearby.
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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:
How Can You Prevent Wild Violet From Growing
Practicing good lawn care is one of the best wild violet prevention techniques. This includes mowing your lawn on a regular basis, as high as possible, and leaving the clippings on the grass to decompose. This will provide both nutrition for your grass and also stimulate new growth.
If youre looking for a weed-free lawn, it is best to lay down a good fertilizer during the fall months. This will provide your lawn with the nutrients it needs over the winter to come back lush and green as soon as spring arrives.
Mulching also helps, if you do it within a day or two of hand weeding. Additionally, because wild violets thrive in moist soil, aeration and de-thatching techniques will help keep your lawn less moist and compact.
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Use The Right Herbicides
Youll be hard pressed to try to wipe out a violet infestation with your four-step, hardware store, bags of lawn products. Violets will require multiple applications of liquid selective broadleaf herbicide throughout the year. Each time you treat, youll notice you wont entirely kill violets, but rather knock them back some. Professional lawn care companies will have an array of weed control products that they change throughout the year for maximum effectiveness. Some of these materials may not be available to the public for purchase. If the lawn is predominantly violets, you may even want to consider completely killing off sections of your lawn with a non-selective herbicide, such as Round-up, and starting from scratch. This may take a couple applications as well before violets are controlled.
How Get Rid Of Wild Violet: A Complete Guide
Do you have a patch of pretty little purple flowers in your yard? If so, you may have wild violets. Wild violets are very common in the contiguous United States, but have been found in many other countries all over the world.
Wild violets look like pretty flowers but do not be fooled! They grow quickly, taking over flowerbeds and lawn areas if left unchecked. Not only are they difficult to remove once established, but they also spread easily through their seeds which can be carried by water or animals like birds and turtles.
For these reasons it is important to learn how to identify wild violet plants as well as exactly what needs to be done in order to get rid of them for good!
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Why Are Wild Violets Hard To Control
Some people consider wild violets to be flowers they are beautiful and a close relative of viola garden flowers.
However, they are very aggressive in nature and very stubborn to get rid of which is why they are considered to be weed plants.
But why is the wild violet so hard to control? Three things make the plant a nightmare for homeowners:
- The underground rhizomes and stolons : two of the mechanism through which the plant spreads aggressively.
- The waxy leaves: make it hard for herbicides to stick to the plant.
- Self-fertilizing flowers: aside from rhizomes and runners, wild violets also spread through seeds. The worst part is some of its flowers are self-fertilizing meaning that they can reproduce even without the plant blooming.
How To Control Wild Violets
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A few wild violets can add a charming splash of color to your garden or lawn, but these weeds can spread quickly and dramatically when left unchecked. You can control violets using both chemical and organic measures, but you should know that both methods will require time and dedication.
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