Scutch in lawn

rampantbunny

I'm aware that there are lots of posts on this topic already but quick question to something I haven't seen discussed yet.
What I've read in multiple places is that use of glyphosate weed-killer is effective in killing off the plant. It may need to be applied multiple times during the growing season but it gets the job done.
But I've also seen recommendations to dig out the scutch grass even after killing it with glyphosate.
A large portion of my lawn has been taken over by this grass. I've sprayed it once and it looks dead so I've started to dig it out but I've realized that digging will take ages. Plus I could miss some of the rhizomes as I dig..and the grass grows again.
And so, my question is; if I spray and respray, taking my time over the next number of months, is digging the plant out still required?

magicbastarder

glyphosate will also kill off the rest of your lawn, not just the scutch. it's a systemic herbicide. but it should kill the scutch, roots and all.

rampantbunny

magicbastarder wrote: »

glyphosate will also kill off the rest of your lawn, not just the scutch. it's a systemic herbicide. but it should kill the scutch, roots and all.

Noted that glyphosate will kill healthy desirable grass but where I plan to use it aggressively there is very little of that left. In other areas I have simply spot-sprayed. Lawn looks horrible at the moment...covered in yellow patches.

rampantbunny

magicbastarder wrote: »

glyphosate will also kill off the rest of your lawn, not just the scutch. it's a systemic herbicide. but it should kill the scutch, roots and all.

Something I forgot to confirm previously; when scutch appears dead, is the next logical step to dig it out or should I wait a while (how long) to see if it comes back?

I've begun to dig out some, not going too deep or too wide in anticipation of the weedkiller doing it's job and killing the roots. But I don't want to drop in new top soil with grass seed only for scutch to reappear.

I've attached two photos to give an idea of what I'm dealing with. Lawn1 is v.bad in places, Lawn2 is further from the scutch source but over a period of a week I spot sprayed (a lot) to try prevent it turning as bad as lawn1.
Lawn1.jpg
Lawn2.jpg

Dr4gul4

rampantbunny wrote: »

Something I forgot to confirm previously; when scutch appears dead, is the next logical step to dig it out or should I wait a while (how long) to see if it comes back?

I've begun to dig out some, not going too deep or too wide in anticipation of the weedkiller doing it's job and killing the roots. But I don't want to drop in new top soil with grass seed only for scutch to reappear.

I've attached two photos to give an idea of what I'm dealing with. Lawn1 is v.bad in places, Lawn2 is further from the scutch source but over a period of a week I spot sprayed (a lot) to try prevent it turning as bad as lawn1.
Lawn1.jpg
Lawn2.jpg

You need to find out why it's appearing, assuming grass seed growth was uniform, something or some critter is maybe chewing on your grass roots.

Is it always in the same spots where it re grows ?

rampantbunny

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

You need to find out why it's appearing, assuming grass seed growth was uniform, something or some critter is maybe chewing on your grass roots.

Is it always in the same spots where it re grows ?

No, this is a relatively new lawn coming into 3 years old. I did notice some scutch growth last year but didn't take steps to nip it in the bud.

To the left of the Lawn1 picture, there is no fence between me and a neighboring property. This property is full of meadow grass that doesn't get cut often and so I can only assume seeds are blowing in from there.
It's heavily concentrated beside this property and as I move away and into lawn 2 it is lighter but it is spreading at a rapid rate. I've planted a laurel hedge just this year with a wind-breaker fence but it will be a while before the laurel is tall enough to prevent spread of seeds.

rampantbunny

Knowledgeable folk at a local garden center tell me that scutch grass will disappear if I mow the lawn regularly. I told them that this has not been my experience to-date but I was quickly quietened with 'well you don't have scutch grass then, it's something else'.
I've not seen that kind of advice on any forum or google search yet...I must have been looking in the wrong place :rolleyes:

I spent Sunday digging out 5 wheel barrows of dead scutch from one lawn...still some more to dig. I'm telling neighbors I'm burying landmines to stop their dogs crapping all over the place.

I've top soil coming next week. Plan then is to aerate, scarify, and top dress (watch out for my other post) the lawn. I will keep an eye out for fresh scutch and spot spray again as before. Hopefully this time I'll be looking at much smaller plants rather than the usual sprawling tufts. I'm probably dreaming but I'm at war with it now..no going back.

FlipperThePriest

Interested to hear about your progress. Thinking of doing something similar. I have about 15 spots of the stuff in my front lawn, some bigger than others.

rampantbunny

zippy84 wrote: »

Interested to hear about your progress. Thinking of doing something similar. I have about 15 spots of the stuff in my front lawn, some bigger than others.

If you have 15 spots I would be optimistic that you could handle this pretty easily. Apparently scutch\couch can spread underground upto 1m per season - so, tackle it as early as possible.
I'm looking at between 1 to 200 spots. Some areas are just scutch and nothing else. A tractor mounted rotavator would be great but instead I'll kill it all off, before covering with new soil and grass seed.

I'll post back when I have made some progress. I have two other projects I need to tackle though which means this is a third priority and could take some time to complete out.