Ag Line: Controlling Winter Weeds
By Wade Parker
County Extension Coordinator

Do you have a weed in your yard that has little purple flowers? This weed is henbit and it is very difficult to control. Along with henbit, you probably have dandelions and other ugly weeds.

What can we do about all those winter weeds in our yards now? Most of these weeds are what we term as "winter annuals." Many of these weeds will die shortly when the temperatures finally warm up and stay there. They are flowering heavily now, which is why you see the bright purples, yellows, and whites in the landscape. Since they are flowering and into a reproductive stage, it is going to be very difficult to kill them. They are completing their lifecycle and will be dying soon anyway. However, if you choose to spray them, atrazine + weed-out is an excellent combination. If you purchase weed-out, read the label and make sure it has "dicamba" on the list of active ingredients. Dicamba has excellent activity on henbit and dandelions. Atrazine by itself will not kill existing weeds. This combination will take awhile to do its job, but is the best combination we have available.

If you choose not to spray, the best remedy is to simply mow them to remove most of the leaf and flower canopy. Vow to use a pre-emergence herbicide late next summer or early fall to prevent them from germinating next year.

One other problem many of the weeds provide is that as they die, they will leave small openings in the canopy of the lawn. This can cause summer annuals such as crabgrass, goosegrass, prostrate spurge, and the like to take their place if a pre-emergence herbicide is not applied this spring.

If you have any questions about weed control in your lawn, please give us a call.

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