There's lawn in my thistle!! Help

[Billbill84]

Hey all,
Yep, title sums up my yard.Have you ever seen a lawn littered with that ugly, overtaking thistle weed? There's simply too much to sit there and pick it all and it always sprouts back up all over couple days later. Is there something I can spray that won't kill the grass just the thistles???? It's affecting my marriage lol.

 

[Jeff Handy]

WeedBGon concentrate, in a pump sprayer.
Once a month on all thistles.
They have a deep perennial taproot, hard to kill.

Or Roundup everything til dead, wait three weeks and spray again.

Then wait another month and spray again.

Then new seed or sod, and keep spot treating with WeedBGon as needed.

 

[Billbill84]

WeedBGon concentrate, in a pump sprayer.
Once a month on all thistles.
They have a deep perennial taproot, hard to kill.

Or Roundup everything til dead, wait three weeks and spray again.

Then wait another month and spray again.

Then new seed or sod, and keep spot treating with WeedBGon as needed.

Yeah I definitely don't want to kill grass I have a huge yard very nice grass and about a billion ugly clumps of thistle. Even hands and knees picking didn't work. Mowing over just creates more and my grass is almost due for a cut

 

[user 4883]

You may want to consider a lawn company to get it under control and then from there you can manage it. A particular company I used to get my lawn under control will retreat for free if no results are seen within 14 days of treatment.

 

[Sparky617]

Fall is the season, at least here, for reseeding your yard. Seeding now will only result in the new grass dying off in the summer heat. Of course if we don't get enough rain and/or you don't dump thousands of gallons on it the grass will go dormant in the summer heat.

I went with Tru-Green for a number of years and this year switched over to a local guy. We need to aerate and reseed every fall as the fescue takes a beating in the summer heat. I've contemplated going to a hot season grass like Zoysia, my neighbor went with Bermuda so I'll likely be going to that as it is nearly impossible to keep out.

To get rid of this stuff you're going to have to resort to chemicals. Improving the soil by top dressing it with compost will help. But I wouldn't do it in the spring. You'll just provide a great seed bed for crabgrass. In the fall get a bunch of commercially prepared compost delivered by the truck load. Spread it over the yard and reseed. In the meantime bring out the big guns either DIY or professional to treat the yard to get the weeds under control. Tell your wife this is a transition year for the yard. Unless you live in a place with cool summers trying to rebuild a yard in the summer is a losing proposition.

 

[oldognewtrick]

Every spring you see the masses flock to the garden centers buying grass seed and fertilizer. Fall is the time if year here in the mid-south to make changes to lawn care. Like Sparky said, summer heat will waste most of the spring progress.

 

[Billbill84]

Ok so this time of year in my thistle war I must resort to chemical warfare and then some deeper retreating/seeding next fall. Thanks for all the info guys!
I guess I'll start with Jeff's suggestion of that weedBgone stuff and do some tests and see how it affects my lawn. Any other suggestions for lawn friendly ammo are welcomed

 

[oldognewtrick]

I've been using Spectracide this year, doesn't seem to hurt stuff I want to keep.

 

[Eddie_T]

I have never tried it on thistle but I use a generic 2,4-D.

 

[TraceyBlack]

Such a remedy as a herbicide kills thistles

 

[rokosz]

@Sparky617: take a look at Centipede grass. my bro is outside of Raleigh. Roundedup the entire existing front lawn and replaced it with 17 pallets of the stuff. His soil as I recall is very clay. CatGrass doesn't seem to mind it. I haven't seen it since i helped lay it out. Apparently all the neighs ooh and ahh. As i recall it checks a lot of boxes: drought-tolerant, weed suppressing, spreads readily, easy maint/lo fert.
You can see it already laid in the pic: Even those (very) dry looking sections came to life and spread with some early, regular watering in. Laid in April.

I use Dow(?) Weed-B-Gone. Don't know if the NYState formulation is hobbled (like VOC/oil paints). Works ok, just gotta be patient. But there is one weed that just laughs at it. (I don't know what it is buts not Thistle, its a ground runner with tiny yellow flowers and then tiny strawberry like frjuit). I hate using chemicals so I spot spray. Then cycle through a week later looking for later sprouters. This season its Hairy bittercress and Violets. Violets are tough, most I hit are wilting, don't know if its permanent.

Isn't thistle kind of broad laying? make yourself a little cone of some sort, cuff the plant with then douche with Glyphosphate of your choice. You might kill a little of the surrounding, but you're probably patching anyway. How does Thistle spread? air? animal droppings? stuck to your shoe? Kill it before it propagates!

 

[rokosz]

Aaaccch, Centipede Grass. not Caterpillar! sorry. And apparently not so drought-tolerant

https://www.pennington.com/all-prod...es/all-you-need-to-know-about-centipede-grass

 

[Sparky617]

Aaaccch, Centipede Grass. not Caterpillar! sorry. And apparently not so drought-tolerant

https://www.pennington.com/all-prod...es/all-you-need-to-know-about-centipede-grass

The two that seem to be used around here are Bermuda and Zoyzia. A nearby house in the neighborhood has a nice looking Zoyzia that looks like regular fescue but does brown out all winter. But once it greens up in the spring doesn't require much water and stays green during our hot and sometimes dry summers.

 

[mabloodhound]

I've had Zoysia in my back yard for 15 years and it does spread and blocks weeds. It is still brown this spring (as always) and I'm in SE Mass. but it will turn green soon.