When the weather is warm, it starts. Coarse wild grass is growing rampant in the previously well-groomed lawn, which conventional weed killers cannot get rid of. Find out here how to effectively combat millet in the lawn.
How does millet get into the lawn?
Numerous types of millet spread explosively through wind, water, birds, and contaminated lawn seed. The coarse wild grass has the unpleasant property of germinating very quickly and overgrowing the noble grasses in the lawn. You can recognize millet in the lawn by these characteristics:
- The grasses germinate at temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius (68F)
- New seeds are infested over the entire area
- Millet colonizes bare spots in existing lawns
- The flowering period extends from June to October
- Predominantly prostrate growth of roots and shoots
All millet species are annual plants that die off in winter. However, the seeds overwinter in the lawn, only to strike again next spring.
This effectively prevents the emergence of millet
It’s a race against time because millet that has accumulated on the lawn cannot be stopped even with chemical agents. To prevent this from happening, comb the weeds out of the lawn in good time with the scarifier. Here’s how to do it:
- Mow the lawn in March/April from temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius (50F)
- Work the lawn lengthways and across the lawn in two passes with the scarifier
- Sow and roll out lawn seed in bare spots
- Then fertilize with Soil Activator and water thoroughly
This process should be repeated in September as part of the autumn lawn care, in conjunction with fertilization that emphasizes potassium.
Liming acidic lawn soil scares millet
Rampant millet prefers to settle where the soil is acidic. A simple pH value test shows how your lawn is doing. If the result is below the ideal value of 6-7, the lawn should be whitewashed. We recommend a mild algae lime that can be used all year round.
Depending on the test result, lime the lawn at a rate of 100 to 300 grams per square meter ( 10SF). Ideally, the rat has been scarified or aerated shortly beforehand, as it is then particularly receptive.
Thanks to this measure, the pH value increases to such an extent that millet does not even settle.
Tips
As long as more noble grasses than millet thrive in the lawn, you can still counteract the invasion by scarifying in midsummer. The device is adjusted in such a way that the knives do not touch the ground.
Instead, they lift up the roots and shoots of the millet that are lying low in order to catch them later with the lawnmower. This technique is far less laborious than weeding each millet individually.
