Yet Another Cycling Forum
Random Musings => Miscellany => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Chris N on 25 July, 2016, 09:44:53 am
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Any suggestions for a broadleaf weedkiller for a relatively small (but rapidly spreading) patch of violets in my lawn? Thanks. :thumbsup:
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My first thought is why you want to weedkill a pretty plant. You'll be killing daisies next ;)
My second is that most violet cultivars are annual or biennial and therefore should not need to be killed. But that's not universal of course.
Roundup (glyphosate) would work if you must - just spray the leaves and cover the surrounding grass with something the spray can't penetrate so you don't get the grass too.
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Something with Triclopyr or 24D in it.
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My first thought is why you want to weedkill a pretty plant. You'll be killing daisies next ;)
Anywhere else in the garden, if hacking it back or digging it up doesn't work, it can stay. On the lawn, if you're not grass then gtfo.
My second is that most violet cultivars are annual or biennial and therefore should not need to be killed. But that's not universal of course.
I meant to type wild violets - either Viola odorata or sororia. They are perennials.
Roundup (glyphosate) would work if you must - just spray the leaves and cover the surrounding grass with something the spray can't penetrate so you don't get the grass too.
Would work, but I'd like something a bit more specific - hence my request for a broadleaf weedkiller.
Something with Triclopyr or 24D in it.
Ta. :thumbsup:
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Viola spp are characteristic of base rich and poor fertility soils; therefore if you add some fertiliser to your lawn you will likely disfavour viola spp and also enhance the growth of vigorous grasses, ie you will provide conditions to favour grass growth and disfavour viola spp thereby getting rid of viola spp without recourse to herbicides
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Viola spp are characteristic of base rich and poor fertility soils; therefore if you add some fertiliser to your lawn you will likely disfavour viola spp and also enhance the growth of vigorous grasses, ie you will provide conditions to favour grass growth and disfavour viola spp thereby getting rid of viola spp without recourse to herbicides
Which is roughly the opposite of what we (Warwickshire Wildlife Trust) do to encourage wild flowers on our grassland nature reserves. Reducing nutrient levels discourages the vigourous grasses. Wild meadow flowers don't compete successfully with vigorous grasses. There's more to it than that, but...
I've been gently encouraging dog violets in the lawn for several years. That's mostly about mowing around them when in flower, to let them set seed. As weeds, they're benign, like herb robert, but unlike the hawkweeds, our local wood avens, the wretched green alkanet and several others.
You evidently have a problem with your violets. Can you identify what sort (deliberately vague) they are?