Torpedo grass
 

Looking for help concerning our lawn. We are up north right now but a call from our neighbor about a grass infestation in parts of our back lawn. The "grass" is called torpedo grass. Contacted our lawn care company and were told it just about impossible to eradicate. Even if we resod the area the root ball is deep and it sends runners out above and below ground and would come back again. Cutting or pulling it just spreads it. How we got it, who knows. I believe this stuff is spread from an infected lawn when mowed and carried on to the next one. We are working with our lawn care company to control it and to at least kill what is above ground. Anyone have experienced this and was able to permently resolve it?

Yep................sent a PM.

Hi have the same problem here in Dunedin. What works for me is weekly spray with Atrazine & Weed be Gone w/crabgrass control along with monthly application of Peen weed preventer. Be aggressive with the mix and then cut back as you see it dying. This stuff is all over every EC and CC here in TV. Good Luck

Just bought QuinKill and a non ionic surfactant on line to try and control this. Neighbor has it and its spreading into my yard. If you contract with the big companies they charge you $90 per application with a minimum of three applications with NO GUARANTY. You can also buy a product called Drive XLR in Fruitland Park for ~$140.00 for just the Drive XLR. I got both products for around $60.00. (a pint of each) Active ingredient Quinclorac 18.2% is identical in both. QuinKill is just a smaller qty. Going to try it on the weekend. Hope this helps. Uncontrolled it will take over your entire lawn

Thank you for your responses. I'm 1200 miles away and it may look like an early trip down South. Very disturbing to say the least. I'm more upset about neighbors yards, hopefully it didn't start in our yard!!

Tough to point to the origin but you are probably on the right track with it coming in on the blades of the company mowing your yard. The other alternative is blowing over from the neighbors which is what happened in our instance. I was told short of digging up your lawn, you cant kill it. You can control it by following directions and using what I mentioned earlier. Best of luck.

I had a whole lawn of this pain in the butt grass...and I had to spray with a weed killer, pitchfork it to get the white roots up and then use a four prong pitch fork and basically sift the dirt to get the nodules or bulbs out of the soil. it took a while to remove all i could. if you see the grass through your lawn it runs on a runner and you have to dig it completely up -it can even run under a sidewalk 6 or 7 inches underground, but you must dig up the white root all the way to the end..it is actually a version of zoisia only I think zoisia is a dwarf version and they both have the same growing habits dying down in the winter . You may never get rid of it completely and you must get rid of any you see ...It does take over if you let it go. Good luck!

Eazy solution
 

I do not apply any weed killer to my entire lawn as no matter what you do it will hit plants you do not want to hit. I use liquid weed killers and spot treat only the weeds.
While they claim you can use trimec (24D) on zoysia it does stunt it. In the heat trimec will kill st augustine-HINT
if you have a zoyzia lawn and have st Augustine creeping in spot treat with a strong solution of trimec (1 tbs to a qt) on a hot day. It will damage the zoyzia but kill the st augustine.

What you have is called rocket grass, torpedo grass or??
Anything that will kill it will also kill your desirable grass.

SOLUTION-you buy one of the weed and grass killers. The one I use is 41% glyphophate, I mix 1 tbs to 28 oz water and I use a small paint brush to apply it to the leaves of the weed. The idea is not to hit your grass. The product is absorbed through the leaves-no need to wet the soil.
You do not want to use any of the long lasting products.
I believe the same chemical is in round up. We do the same thing on nut sage which has bu;bs along it's roots-if you pull it you will only have more.

Torpedoe grass is caused from to much water and wet soils.

Not caused by the above. I have one section of my lawn that has some and it seemed to start soon after I moved in. I was having an addition put onto the lanai and some lumber was stored on that section of the yard for several weeks. When the lumber was removed I first noticed the runners. This happens to be the driest section of my yard. Was not brought by lawn service as I did my own with a new mower. Soil is sandy and the zoysia in that area is weakest in the whole yard. I keep at it every year but have not been able to get rid of it

Panicum repens – UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants

Ok, CAN and usually is caused by the above.

Thanks to all who have responded. I thought I was the only lucky one getting a nature gift. Sounds like I have my hands full this time. A person would think a way to forcibly inject a killer solution directly into the soil in affected areas and flood it underground where the root balls are. I can dream.....
Maybe desert landscaping in the back yard.

We live in an area of Osceola Hills with a lot of new homes and many of us have bad problems with torpedo grass. We keep pulling it up and it keeps coming back.

Our plan is to keep pulling it up. That's about it.

Read post #8
 

It does work. As you've found, when you pull it out it only returns from the root that you will surely leave behind.

Glycophoshate, which you can buy as roundup or for far less under it's chemical name, is absorbed from the leaves. You do not need to coat every leaf. I rwill kill not only the leaves but the roots as well. If you want to get fancy, put a card behind the torpedo grass leaf when you apply the chemical. This will prevent your hitting the grass you do not want to damage.

If the grass is healthy and grows thick, it will choke out torpedo grass. There is nothing that UF/IFAS recommends that will kill it.

I am looking for a one handed horticulturalist . On the one hand you can:D

I agree. At least having a healthy lawn give the torpedo grass a run for it's money.

I think a lot of problems occur with lawns that are not properly watered and fed. Especially when the owners are away and cannot monitor rainfall and watering.

I love that every home here has in ground irrigation and that we have very affordable grass cutters that can be hired for around $40 a month. I love how well tended homes and lawns are here in The Villages.

When Allen's Sod replaced some zoysia for me I asked about the torpedo grass in other areas of my lawn. He said most comes with the zoysia sod from south of here. I asked what I could do about it and he told me to just mow it. It's green. And almost impossible to eradicate. He didn't think it is transferred by mowers.

That said, I use Zoysia green for my lawn care and they have done a good job keeping it localized to a section which tends to stay wetter. Apparently torpedo grass likes a wetter environment.

Just as an update, Quinkill application has killed 85% of the torpedo grass without harming our Zoysia. That is in 14 days. I plan to put a second treatment on this Saturday weather permitting to address the balance. I was skeptical at first but it does work.

Zoysia green
 

I was doing my own lawn care but found out that licensed companies can use stronger chemicals than we have access to. We use Zoysia Green. They have been able to knock out the torpedo grass on the side. They are working on 2 places in front. It can be controlled but you need a company that is willing to work with you. You can't do this since you are up north but I always want to be here when they do a treatment so I can point out concerns I have. Good luck, it is a stinker to get rid of.