In our sister publication, golf Journal, we have discussed the ups and downs of Poa Annua (also known as an annual Bluegrass), as it can sometimes exceed its reputation as annoying, aggressively weed And find uses to insert greens and fairways.
In the landscape building industry, however, PoA is anything but useful, and the ability of this grass -covered weed to adapt to almost any environment is one of the most difficult pests that can be removed for lawn care operators (LCOS).
“It has no place in the home landscape industry” North Carolina.
One of the reasons for its difficult distance is that it is an allotraploid, which means that it has the genetic material of two different types – his plants of mom and father. Wyrick says this means that PoA has programming to act both as a perennial and at the same time for a year.
Wyrick also says that this genetic anomaly it enables Poa to adapt to different environments, depending on whether the functionality is more advantageous or one -year -old is more advantageous. And through a process that is referred to as a transgenerational memory, POA can even pass on information to the next generation under environmental growth conditions, e.g. B. whether the parent plants were mowed or not.
Poa protection
Wyrick says the ability to control PoA Race You have to do because the lawn of the warm and cool season has different options.
According to Wyrick, the lawn of the warm season has an easier time that deals with the weeds by prepared solutions such as Spectical Flo and Coastal. However, the cool season turf is more difficult.
“We are limited on what we can do on the cool season side of the lawn,” says Wyrick. “If you want to make a preliminary, you usually have to skip ventilation and sowing into autumn due to this fact by using a product like Prodiamine or Dithiopyr. There are some post products and some PRE products that are successful or missed.”
Wyrick also says that the use of plant growth regulators to combat seeds in the grass of the cool season and mobing are different strategies that can alleviate part of the problem.
And because Poa germinates in the fall in late summer when the floor temperatures drop below 70 degrees f f, says Wyrick that they start using their election product.
“We use the Poaconstrictor in mid -October and then again around December 1st to try to exterminate these little young plants,” says Wyrick. “In this way you have not set up a large seed bank.”
More than just lawsuits
To be besides an ugly, invasive pestPoA can cause further damage if it is resting. While the weather is heated in summer, the weed can die and leave unsightly brown spots in the landscape and may be waiting to be filled with only another weed.
Outside of the lawn, Poa can also cause problems between the LCO and its customers, as Wyrick says that customers do not always understand how difficult the weed can be to have control.
To remove the most difficult weed. (Getty Images: DNY59 / E+, Boschettophotography / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Without perfect control options, Wyrick is important that it is important to explain your plan to the customer and to determine realistic expectations about what POA will look like, even if the process lasts several seasons.
“We tell people that it is a multi -year process in which the license plates in the soil in the previous year are reduced,” he says. “You will deal with it for a few months, and then we should be able to get pretty good control over it next year.”