QuestionI live in lower Westchester county. My entire front lawn is infested with chickweed (about 1/5 acre) Is there an organic product that would kill the weed or should I just apply a one-time chemical weed killer like "Bayer", then control later organically? Does lawn seed like "Turf Builder" that claims to need less watering really work?
AnswerSo many questions, so little time...
OK. One by one. Where do I begin...
CHICKWEED: Ixnay on the ayerBay. Growing Grass in nutrient-rich Soil with the proper pH reading, carefully balanced, is the best measure you can take for controlling ALL Weeds -- including Common Chickweed ('Stellaria media' to botanists).
University of California at Davis posts a page on the Chickweeds of California. In the great State of New York, we deal only with the threat of them, Common Chickweed:
www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74129.html
Have a seat. Pour yourself a cup of coffee. This is going to take a few minutes. Listen to what Modern Science has to say about these outdated concepts you want to use at your own house. Yes, the Turf Builder is outdated, the Bayer is outdated and un-pc, the whole concept of 'fertilizer' is so 20th century.
Fact 1 - Healthy Lawns growing in rich Soil don't make happy homes for Chickweed. Weedkiller is murder on your Lawn, your Soil, your family and you. 'One time only'???? How many times would you shoot yourself in the head? How many chances do you get to drive off a brudge? Want to commit suicide? One time only?
I don't have the space right here, and you don't have the time, for me to go into the problems with every single Weedkiller on the shelves. But let's agree at least that if it has a Skull and Bones on the container, or even if it just posts a Warning somewhere, it is not going to be something you would want to, say, pour on your morning cereal. Not even one time only. If so, consider the Song Sparrow that settles on your Grass one Spring morning after you have spiked the Lawn with Bayer Advanced All-in-One Weed Killer for Lawns and gulps the young Chickweed leaves down for breakfast. Lots of birds do that, you know. What do you think is going to happen to that Sparrow?
The Monosodium Acid Methanearsonate in the Bayer is 22 percent Arsenic compounds. The 2,4-D Dimethylamine Salt and miscellaneous ingredients we can discuss another day.
FYI Song Sparrows eat a LOT of Weed Seeds, but in mid-Summer their diet is 90 percent Insects. Birds are terrific at Weed and Insect management. And Chickweed is a popular snack not only among native Birds, but with the Canary/Gouldian Finch/Zebra Finch crowd, too. (If you can think outside the box for a minute, don't consider it too far fetched to maybe someday letting the Chickweed live and let live, because it is a rich, healthful source of nutrients for Birds.) Why else would they call it CHICKWEED?
Fact 2 - Concentrated chemical fertilizer is NOT good for Soil. TurfBuilder comes in several products, but they are all based on the same concept of chemical fertilizer. Therefore, it is NOT good for Grass.
Here's why.
Concentrated, chemical fertilizer is BY DEFINITION a Chemical Salt. You can see how this would be unhealthy for Grass. Who wants to salt their own property? That's why no company would call its fertilizer 'Salt'. But it's salt. Plain and simple.
And of course that's why they warn you not to use too much of it -- fertilizers 'build up' over time to the point where everything gets sick. Synthetic fertilizer is also a one-shot deal. Here today, gone in 2 hours and total history by tomorrow in most cases.
Sure, the Grass looks lushly verdant right after it goes down. But it crashes within days and needs another fix. No can do. That Grass will burn if it's fertilized too much.
Concentrated N-P-K Fertilizer -- the powdered stuff in large bags -- isn't healthy for the Soil, either. Soil is a stable balance of Nature -- billions of Bacteria and Protozoa, Nematodes and Fungi, organic chemicals generated by roots and microbes as they live and die down there. When a 19th century scientist invented the N-P-K formula 150 years ago, no one knew there was such a thing as root exudates, mycorrhizae or even GERMS! Darwin had not published Origin of the Species. Abraham Lincoln was a young politician. People were dieing of Anthrax in France. You could buy slaves in the U.S. There were no light bulbs. No telephones. No electric or gas stoves. It makes no more sense that intelligent, educated, affluent Americans would base their Lawncare on mid-19th century beliefs than it would they all cook on a wood stove and heat our homes with coal.
I know this must sound critical here -- but truthfully, YOU are an example of one of the ENLIGHTENED MINORITY simply because you clearly prefer to use 'an organic product'. You're willing to make a big effort on this -- I KNOW you have better things to do with your time, and every minute is scheduled for Important Things. This is an Important Thing to you. Thank God. Most of the country SHOULD know better, but they don't. Maybe today, we'll reach 1 of them.
So we'll continue with our little biochemistry lesson.
'Natural' Fertilizers -- not the super-strong polluting N-P-K kind, but things like Fish Emulsion and Bone Meal and Manure -- improve Soil slowly. They nourish microbes. Not Grass roots. Which is what you really want to do. Put an Organic Fertilizer down, and you are growing a microbe culture.
Yes, the N-P-K analysis has low numbers -- something like 2-0-0, say, or 8-3-1. Nothing like a container of Peters Blossom Booster, 60-20-30 or whatever. Many people assume this means the Organic fertilizers are 'weak'. They have so little N, so little P, so little K.
In fact, a Natural Fertilizer releases nutrients at a pace that plants like. Slowly. So the microbes can graze to their heart's content. Warm Soil, faster release. Cool weather, very slow release. Nature's way.
Chemical Fertilizers -- this is something most people do not know -- WIPE OUT the microbial life in the soil and make it sterile. Then you have no microbes. Now you're in trouble.
Just think about it.
Plant roots secrete substances out of their roots that attract the aforementioned specialized 'mycorrhizae' of Beneficial Fungi. The Fungi are little factories that make Plant Food out of the soil. The plants are in direct contact with the Fungi. The Fungi send them nutrients, the Plants send back nutrients, they work together. This is not something that happens once in a while sometimes. This is ALWAYS how they work. Ditto, bacteria -- good microbes.
If you put Urea Fertilizer on these microbes, they die. It kills them. Urea is made of Ammonia and Ammonia is toxic. It's not a pesticide, but it kills them anyway. It injures Earthworms and other arthropods in the Soil that are part of the food chain and Nitrogen and Carbon cycles.
Goodbye, food chain.
Now you MUST use Urea Fertilizer powder. Everything that mattered is DEAD or ESCAPING. Plants have no where else to get food except from those bags of white powder you use. They can only get that now and then. Between applications, they are hungry, and less healthy.
Another problem: Since they wipe out the Natural Balance of the Soil, they open up the opportunity for BAD Fungi and Bacteria to seize the chance to attack plants.
This happens to Grass all the time. Bad Fungus 'X' used to be kept in tiny numbers by Good Fungi 'A' and 'B'. Now A and B are history. There are just a few left. Not enough to stop X. And you get Diseases on the Lawn: Blackspot, Brownspot, Striped Smut, I could go on and on.
Let's go back to your original problem.
Let ME tell YOU how badly you want to avoid a population explosion of this plant. 5 weeks to Seed-making maturity. Average number of Seeds per plant per lifetime: 2,200 to 2,700. 40-year-old Seeds have been found to be viable. Flowers self-pollinate. This is one resilient, invasive Weed. Reports U of C at Davis, 'When growing without competition from other plants, Common Chickweed can produce approximately 800 seeds and it takes 7 to 8 years for the Seed bank (supply of viable seeds in Soil) to be 95% depleted, insuring an infestation for many years. Because of its ability to produce large numbers of Seeds under cool temperatures, Common Chickweed rapidly colonizes any cool, moist area before Winter or Spring crops can become competitive.'
What CAN you do about this Chickweed?
Well, there is that silver lining about feeding the Birds.
But you don't want a Lawn packed with Chickweed. A few, maybe. But not the whole Lawn.
First, do things that are BAD for Chickweed. Low mowing -- the kind that people do on Colonial or Velvet Bentgrass Lawns, which are naturally VERY short, OR in their Cool Season Grass Lawn -- is GOOD FOR CHICKWEED, i.e., BAD FOR GRASS. This is a ground-hugging Weed. The more light you give Chickweed, the better it feels. The better it grows. The better it Seeds. Mow HIGH. If you are growing Tall Fescue, mow at 4 inches. One recent test wiped out ALL the Crabgrass in a Tall Fescue stand by the end of the Summer just by keeping it a minimum of 4 inches. I don't know what kind of Grass you have (you are welcome to followup and we can go down this road) but that's the story with Tall Fescue. Mowing can do wonderful things for Grass and terrible things to Chickweed, Crabgrass and other invaders.
One solution U of C at Davis offers homeowners is worth attempting in conjunction with other control measures: 'Cultivation, including hand weeding, will effectively control chickweed if done early.' This cannot be relied on in New York, and not just because there are so many of them. U of C at Davis writes that hand weeding 'is most effective if the Soil is dry and plants are small. Cultivation when plants are large and Soil is moist can lead to spread of the Weed through re-rooting.' Our Soils are not dealing with the water shortage they have in California. The moisture here will make it almost impossible to hand weed Chickweed out of your life.
I just had to mention that in case you happened to read it.
Do consider however that there are Fungi that occur naturally in your Soil and that are hostile to certain Weeds, and MAY include Chickweed. The 'Garden Organic' website, run by the Henry Doubleday Research Association, offers the suggestion that 'the Fungus Peronospora media may be an important agent in the natural control of Common Chickweed.' Unfortunately we do not have any research to date that has been published to confirm this, nor do we have a place to buy it if you have none in your Soil. But it's something to look forward to.
What we DO know is that Fungi turn Soil Alkaline. And Chickweed likes to grow in Nitrogen-rich, Acidic Soil. That's a good reason to keep Fungi around. So don't use any Fungus killer, or the Chickweed will be even more cozy in your Soil.
There's a good reason to keep Beetles around, too. Some like to eat Chickweed Seeds, which experts say 'are consumed by several species of Ground Beetle.' So don't use any Grub Killer or other Pesticides on your Lawn, because you'll lose all your Ground Beetles. (They love Grubs, too.)
Most of the microbes down there are actually BENEFICIAL. Only a very small percentage are hostile to us or our preferred plants and animals. The Good Fungi enjoy living the good life on your Lawn at the expense of any Chickweed in their path. Long story short:
'Common Chickweed seedlings with 2 to 6 leaves are relatively susceptible to flame weeding and the Seeds are killed by Soil solarization. Seedlings are very sensitive to UV-B radiation.'
'A layer of compost or cover crop residue spread over the Soil will reduce Common Chickweed emergence. Leachate from composted household waste inhibits seed germination. There are indications that shallowly incorporating chopped Straw after cereal harvest reduces seedling emergence. This may be due to the release of toxins as the Straw decomposes. Seedling numbers increase, however, following applications of Organic Manure.'
You can read the full report:
www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=16
Finally, in his book 'Teaming with Microbes', garden writer and author Jeff Loewenfels describes how he won his battle with this Weed.
'Chickweed thrives when there is too much Nitrate, which is what you get when you put down a commercial Lawn fertilizer.' Translation: No Turf Builder.
Loewenfels says that when he stopped using commercial Chemical fertilizers on his home Lawn, Chickweed 'completely vanished'. Loewenfels figures this happened because the Chickweed plants 'no longer got their fix of high Nitrates and had trouble germinating, their Seeds buried under mulch and not exposed to light because we don't rototill.'
This is way too long, so I apologize. Bottom line: (1) Your Nitrogen fertilizers are fertilizing the Chickweed; stop using them and expect a grace period of recovery. (2) Mow your Grass as tall as specified by experts -- and do not rely on your landscaper for this information, they have a set height they like to use for all Grass and they are very happy with that. (3) Put down a nice big dose of Corn Gluten Meal to inhibit germination of Chickweed Seeds asap. (4) To bring pain and suffering to established Chickweed, have your landscaper dig them up asap, on a regular basis, and DISCARD (don't even compost these -- they might survive) the leaves. (5) Get a birdbath and keep your local Birds happy. They are great bug killers and weed killers and you don't have to pay them. Plus they fertilize your Lawn while they're eating. (6) Top-dress your Lawn with hay (grows Good Fungus which probably retards Chickweed growth and then top it off with some good Compost (NOT Manure -- too much Nitrogen, they will like that very much).
Get your Soil tested and apply Lime -- this will encourage more Fungus underground.
I know, you are probably wondering who in their right mind would want to grow Fungus on their Lawn. Marketing is not my forte. Ask me all about Chemicals and Botany. Wish I had more space here.
I will be away on a trip this weekend but please followup next week with any comments or if you like tell me what Grass you have (Tall Fescue would be great but we can try this experiment with Bluegrass etc) and I'll tell you all about mowing it.
Good luck, and please keep me posted even if you throw this away, I'd like to know what happens.
