# Kill annual ryegrass



## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

I have annual ryegrass popping up and want to get rid of it. What's the best plan? Anything I can do effectively without using glyphosate? If I do go the glyphosate route, can I spot spray as close to the base of each clump so as to avoid any damage to other good grasses nearby such as KBG, PRG, and fescue? Is there risk of run-off and damaging more than the annual rye? Say it does kill it off, how long till some of the KBG can fill in the spot since it had glyphosate on the annual rye?


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Are you positive that's what it is? For example, that it's not Quackgrass or KY-31? If so, do you know where it came from (used seed that had annual rye, for example)?

Annual rye tends to die off in the heat of the Summer, so spraying glyphosate may be overkill. But if you have a manageable amount, you could try painting it with glyphosate.


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## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

Good question @Green. I'm not 100% positive it's annual ryegrass. I was trying to figure out if its that or quackgrass. Might take a closer look today up close at the collar. Pics below.

Background on why I also think it's annual rye: I had an area of the lawn that was all established but sinking into the ground. Hired excavators to come dig it up and fix the problem two springs ago. They found an old tree stump many feet down. They removed it and backfilled all of the original soil in with large aggregate stone at the bottom to help with drainage. We're talking many feet down. They then top-dressed it with fresh loam and seeded. But they seeded with Scott's Contractor's mix! It had annual rye in it. That season it didn't really establish well except for weeds and the annual rye. It was terrible. So I then hired another company last fall to start fresh with that area. They decided not to glyphoste it all but rather ripped it all up with a bobcat and put down more fresh loam and hydroseeded it. It came up better but mostly KBG with some mix in there. It just didn't really establish super well and fill in. Now that I'm seeing weeds I'm thinking maybe its just was compacted and that made it harder to fill in. I've also never soil tested just this area of the lawn. Maybe I should isolate a test for it. So I think some of the annual rye was still in the soil from before and its just coming back again in the spring.

Should I spoon feed urea (0.25-0.5/M) to see if it helps to promote growth and spreading of the KBG to fill in? Should I do that and spot glyphsote the annual rye?

Here are some pics:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I don't see clasping auricles that annual rye or quackgrass have.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

g-man said:


> I don't see clasping auricles that annual rye or quackgrass have.


And does annual rye have hairs like that?


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## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

Thanks for the feedback @g-man and @Green

Here are a few more pics. Hoping to get more clarity on what this is.


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## jha4aamu (Oct 16, 2017)

sort of looks like tall fescue. dont quote me on that though because thats 100% guess work


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## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

I've attached a few more pics. Is there something I should be doing to better get a pic of the way the leaves are rolled or folded and a look at the ligules? Should I peel bake each leaf right when it shoots off?


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## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

In addition to the new pics, I wanted to come back to one of my questions: could I just spot spray these clumps with glyphosate and if I do so, how much peripheral damage should I expect? I'm trying to understand if I really need to heavy paint all of the leaf blades of each clump vs. I can stick the nozzle of the glyphosate directly in the center of the clump to avoid hitting desirable grasses next to the clump? It guess it depends on how glyphosate works. I have the Home Depot bought pre-mixed jug with the battery powered spray nozzle.

For example, could I do something like this:










Or do I need to really back off and get all of the blades wet like this:










Thanks!


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

I think I have the same problem. In the spring I get a big flush of what I think is annual ryegrass. My local turf expert says just to cut low and it will die off with the warmer temps but I hate seeing it every spring. If I were to hit it with 
Glyphosate it seems like I would have a lot of dead patches to deal with after it dies. 
Here's a pic of mine.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

With glyphosate you need to get the foliage wet and allow it to be absorbed into the plant.. I think even the most careful spray applications will kill 8" around your target grasses center.


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## All Day NPK (Feb 17, 2019)

Thanks @Stuofsci02. I read somewhere else that people use PVC pipes to isolate the spray to that small of an area to avoid peripheral damage. Would that an a viable option or would it likely result in not much effect on the target weed?


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

All Day NPK said:


> Thanks @Stuofsci02. I read somewhere else that people use PVC pipes to isolate the spray to that small of an area to avoid peripheral damage. Would that an a viable option or would it likely result in not much effect on the target weed?


Yeah that could work.... not a bad idea...some people will just paint the leaves...


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