Problem with quack grass

[Jackandwhitey]

Has anyone found a solution for quack grass. I just tilled my garden and was told I spread the quack grass by doing this. I was told quack grass will sprout from every piece of root. Is this true? How can I get rid of it. It is really bad in my rhubarb.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Quack grass is awful. Yes, just a single piece of root can sprout! Amazing stuff really. We don't use spray, we just pull it up when it shows up.

 

[Jackandwhitey]

Thanks for your reply, I guess I will be doing a lot of pulling this summer.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Your welcome!

 

[elibar90]

we have that here too, I dig up my flower bed every year as well as trying to pull it good luck nasty stuff

 

[elibar90]

o after tilling I go through with a metal rake and get alot of it out but there is still pulling but it gets better every year
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[Jackandwhitey]

How many years have you been fighting the quackgrass? It seems hopeless. If it were just a garden, I would spray an herbicide and wait three weeks before planting. Since it's in perennial flower beds and and a rhubarb patch I don't see how I will ever get rid of it. Thanks for replying.
Peggy

 

[elibar90]

4 years but if you get on it in the spring then pull the rest of the year it isn't to bad

 

[Jackandwhitey]

I am concerned because I used a mantis tiller on it. I was told all the root pieces sprout. It sounds like I have really spread it through my garden. It is really thick in my rhubarb patch. I have spent so many hours trying to pull it out of there. I am thinking of using an herbicide on the quack grass that is around the boundaries of the patch. I read that Ortho's "Grass B Gone" will kill it. I thought if I sprayed on the edge of the patch maybe it will follow the roots and kill the grass that is among the rhubarb. Thank you so much for replying.
Peggy

 

[StephieSky]

I am concerned because I used a mantis tiller on it. I was told all the root pieces sprout. It sounds like I have really spread it through my garden. It is really thick in my rhubarb patch. I have spent so many hours trying to pull it out of there. I am thinking of using an herbicide on the quack grass that is around the boundaries of the patch. I read that Ortho's "Grass B Gone" will kill it. I thought if I sprayed on the edge of the patch maybe it will follow the roots and kill the grass that is among the rhubarb. Thank you so much for replying.
Peggy

If you don't mind bleached rhubarb you can use a deep straw mulch to smother the quack grass. Don't use grass clippings! They probably have dormant grass seed in them. I use a lot of wet straw to smother problem weed patches in the garden. 3" deep when wet, cover with a matt at least 10" wider than the problem patch in all directions. Just leave it on there and once you pull it up for a peek and the grass is pale limp and dead or dying I toss on a soil mix and work it down. Killer compost.
In rotation crop areas I just till the whole mass down into the soil in late summer or spring depending on what I'm planting.

Sorry, my brain shorted out lol You have to trim down the quackgrass leaves so it can't get sunlight. Keep them trimmed or buried and the rhizomes will starve.
I also use one of those self sifting cat litter boxes in my garden. It has the box for the litter, an insert tray with a mesh grid and another litter box. I dump my root veggies in the littler box and sift out the soil which also catches webs of invasive roots to be tossed out on the walkway in the other litter box to dry up in the sun before they go in the burn barrel.