How do you deal with grasses (weeds) in daylily beds?

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Charley

As long as the grass and weeds have not infiltrated the centers of the daylilies, as Charley suggests, you will have to weed them out of the beds and mulch heavily. Every time a weed comes back and through the mulch, you should dig it out and keep the bed mulched. Unfortunately, if grass or weeds are mixed in with existing clumps of daylilies, I would suggest taking them out of the ground, hose off the roots and remove all of the grass and roots, and replanting them.

Thanks so much.

Thanks so much. And I do love them😊

, fellow Hoosier! It is not easy to keep weeds out. I have been on my knees digging out wild violets a lot this year.

I have also been known to just dig up the clump of daylilies, separate the fans as much as possible, wash them very well to get as many of the weed seeds out, and then plant in a new spot.

It certainly is a constant battle no matter what kind of plant you have.

Hi!!!

For broadleaf weeds in daylilies, you can use Confront herbicide or the slightly cheaper generic equivalent 2-D. You only use
about 3 teaspoons in a gallon of water, and it really does work! One drawback is that if you spray when scapes are forming,
the scapes will curl. Certain weeds need a sticker to adhere to weed leaves, so I used dish soap.

For ANNUAL grasses in daylilies like crabgrass, foxtail and annual bluegrass, you can use Grassout Max. This product claims
that you can also use it in vegetables. I don't think it works on nut sedge or fescue, but I really haven't used it yet... I do fully
intend to use it on a few tomatoes within a few weeks just to see! Grasses in my garden are just barely starting to show up now.

Thanks so much for the info.

If you have a mower that throws the grass out onto the lawn, make sure when you are mowing near the daylily/flower beds that the direction of the mowing always throws the clippings out away from the bed. The mower not only throws clippings, but also every weed seed that is in that area. If you have a mower that catches the clippings, do not use the clippings to mulch the daylilies. You would be applying thousands of weed seeds to the bed. It's OK to place the clippings in a compost pile so long as you monitor the pile to make sure the internal temperature reaches at least 150 degrees F. to kill the majority of the weed seeds.
I only use pine bark nuggets to mulch. I never use pine bark mulch or hardwood mulch to mulch my beds. "Mulch" in a bag contains many weed seeds that will germinate and grow. Some of them may be weeds that are ones that you never had before---and wish you had never been introduced to them. "Nuggets" are much cleaner. They are a bit more expensive, but well worth the extra cost.

Welcome. . Weed,mulch,weed,mulch, . Daylilies are worth it!!!

Charley, you are so funny! Seriously, though. The one failing to mulch every year must be planning on weeding or spraying herbicide. In fall, I experimented with Clethodim to kill quack grass that had all but extinguished my Elizabeth Salter, among other things. (A certain grower that sells clumps sometimes has quack grass hiding in those clumps! They say not to separate fans but now I wish I had. A few years later, quackgrass infestation!) Anyhow, the daylily seemed to be fine and the quackgrass was at least discouraged. I'll test it again before widespread use. Anybody else used Clethodim for grass in DLs?

And I have moved my infiltrated daylilies away from the area, separating them down to single fans before reclustering and replanting in a fresh spot. Bermuda grass is also horrible. I like deep edging to keep it out of beds. Learning the hard way!

And violets! Ugh. You snooze, you... 2-4D? And Preen! When those little seeds- from the pods above ground and the subterranean asexual pods- are stratified by winter and then germinate.. OMG! I snoozed. I'm still weeding.

Weed, mulch, weed, mulch. I don't use chemicals, I've always been averse to exposing myself to all that junk. So... there is only the hard way! But that's what gardening is all about. It's no fun to just look at it. It's the constant working with it that gives satisfaction. And weeds go through seasons. This year's weed to eliminate is black Swallowwort. Last year ( and actually, usually) it was Lily of the Valley. Ten years ago it was New England Astor. Two years ago it was Blackberry bramble. But Nature abhors a vacuum. Whatever you remove, something new will come to take its place.

thanks so much for all the helpful information!!!!

Weeding Works! It is a lot of work, but well worth it, because if you do it right the job gets easier. If you never let the weeds get to the fruiting stage and spread more seeds, each year there will be less and less until it gets to the point where the only weed seeds that germinate are the few the wind or birds bring in. I used Preen for a few years. I do not use it any more because it does some damage to the plants in the beds. It stunted my daylilies causing some to take four years to bloom after planting rather than the normal one to three years. It affected their roots. I don't like working with chemicals anyway. Too many of them have not been sufficiently studied for effects on humans and other wildlife.
Weeding needs to be done in early Spring when the seeds are germinating, weed seedlings are small and can be easily removed (roots and all), and the weather is cool so you do not sweat yourself to death. Unless you have seriously raised beds, weeding is done on your knees. Invest in a really good kneeling pad. Amazon has a good one:: I have the extra thick one that has two sections joined together--each section has a handle so when folded together they form a handle to carry it around. I have had it for almost four years now. It's dirty, but otherwise shows no signs of wear. Throughout the summer keep an eye out for weeds and pull them. A newly made bed always has the most weeds because the newly worked soil has lots of weed seeds. If you decimate their ranks in the Spring, and keep ahead of them producing seeds, in a few years the job will get much easier.
Another thing to have is a great pair of gloves. The best for work or gardening is: Atlas Thermal fit gloves (also available from Amazon). The palm to under the finger area is coated with rubber---real rubber. There are many other gloves like this on the market, but they are coated with artificial rubber that breaks down in less than a year or reacts to various things that makes the rubber melt and get sticky and nasty. These gloves are a bit more expensive, but well worth it. My first pair lasted four and a half years. I probably could have gotten another year out of them, but opted to get new because a small hole had developed that let dirt in. I had to wash my hands every time I used them. I did the math and it works out to cost a little over a dollar/year to have the best gloves.
I hope this post helps you.

great info on the gloves. I'm going to look them up right now.

Thanks so much

When I was in Southern India a number of years ago, I saw them tapping the rubber trees. It reminded me a whole lot of maple syrup production.

Yes , gloves are a big help

I am glad to read that eventually the weeding pressure will lessen. So far, the quack grass has been the worst!

touchofsky said:As long as the grass and weeds have not infiltrated the centers of the daylilies, as Charley suggests, you will have to weed them out of the beds and mulch heavily. Every time a weed comes back and through the mulch, you should dig it out and keep the bed mulched. Unfortunately, if grass or weeds are mixed in with existing clumps of daylilies, I would suggest taking them out of the ground, hose off the roots and remove all of the grass and roots, and replanting them.

I just found this thread. Lamentably, my two pots of Ming Toy are liberally mixed with various weed grasses. The foliage of Ming Toy is narrow and grassy-looking, so I need to dump the clumps out and use the hosing-off method.

That's now on my list, after pilling away the banks of creeping Charlie that grew over the black plastic on which my pots were sitting.