Ava Veith, Kevin Hensler, & David S. McCall
Abstract
Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) is a low-input residential lawn alternative that is native to much of North America, from the Mexican Plateau to Canada and throughout much of the Great Plains. Previous research indicates weed competition can be a detriment to successful establishment of blue grama, which inspires the following investigation. Our objective is to evaluate the growth attributes during establishment of ‘Birds Eye’ blue grama as a residential lawn grass using post-emergence herbicides. Six commercially available post-emergence herbicides with single or multiple active ingredients were applied to blue grama at three different seedling maturation ages. Plant response to herbicides was quantified by leaf height, leaf count, tiller count, root and shoot weight, and visually estimated injury over three weeks after application. Our data suggest that all herbicides were less injurious to blue grama when applied three to five weeks after germination, with many products causing unacceptable injury one week after germination. Among post-emergence herbicides tested, carfentrazone-ethyl (Quicksilver, FMC GSS) and metsulfuron methyl (Manor, NuFarm US) negatively impacted blue grama seedling establishment the least, regardless of plant maturity at application. These two products can successfully be applied one week after germination to aid in establishment, with limited injury compared with all other herbicides tested.
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