With the sunny weather over the weekend, Dandelions and Daisies were in full flower on the roadside verges, enjoying the early spring sunshine.
The March Equinox occurred at 23:21 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on March 20, 2011. This marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and fall (autumn) in the southern hemisphere from an astronomical viewpoint.
As their name suggests, the two equinoxes of spring and autumn are the points when day and night are of equal length – at least north or south of the equator, where light and dark are always in balance. Everything starts to gather speed now. The grass is finally colouring up and putting on its' spring growth spurt and the weeds are coming out of their winter slumber.
You normally get two periods of weed activity in a normal year. The broadleaf weeds such as Cat's Ear, Plantains, Daisies, Dandelions to name a view of them will easily over winter in the turf. These need to be killed early on before the second turf weed season starts when you get the Red, White Clovers, Yellow Suckling Clovers and Trefoils appearing in around May time.
A neighbour asked why selective herbicides kill weeds and not the grass. I told him that the biological make up of weeds and grasses is different. The weeds, like trees and shrubs have Cambium Cells. These cells provide support in the main trunk and branches of the tree or weed. The selective weed killer is a growth hormone that mimics the actual growth hormone 'Gibberellins' - the plant hormone responsible for secondary thickening. The weeds absorb the selective turf herbicide and after a while, the weeds go into super growth, with their stems twisting and distorting. The weeds actually outgrow themselves and when their overall structure has literally had it, they die. Grasses do not have Cambium Cells so although they might absorb some of the chemical; it has no affect - if applied correctly in the first place!
One of the other early flowering turf weeds is Slender Speedwell, which exhibits tiny blue flowers. It is a challenge to kill it and early application of a selective herbicide is advisable. Once it has finished flowering, control is said to be too late.
When you see your first Dandelion in fully flower, it is time to apply a selective weed killer on your lawns and that time has now arrived.
Related Topics
Comments