I guess I must have quack grass then. Definitely a perennial, real clumpy. I just keep after it.

Bonehead said:I guess I must have quack grass then. Definitely a perennial, real clumpy. I just keep after it.

Crab grass comes back year, after year, after year, after year by seeding itself.
The old plants die and serve as compost for the next ones.
If you treat it, or pull it, it will take years of treating the soil with crab grass killer till all the seeds are gone or sterile.

Crab grass is clumpy but so can Quack grass be once it gets a little older.
The root style will tell you which you have.

Frilly, Yes I spray it over the quack grass it will take awhile (days) for it to start dying back, don't worry it will. I think I gave instructions on how I use it father back in this thread. Follow the instructions on the product label.

In daylily beds or other perennial flower beds quackgrass can be very difficult to control. You will need to use a small applicator like a child's paint brush or small sponge, then be extremely careful to apply the herbicide only to the quackgrass leaves. If you contact the daylily leaves with glyphosate, it can kill them, too.

In perennial gardens, a selective systemic herbicide containing fluazifop (fusilade) (Ortho-Grass-B-Gon) can also be used successfully. It is important to apply this only to the quackgrass leaves as it may damage or kill all monocots (daylilies, iris, gladiolus, lilies) once it contacts the leaves. This product can also be used with asparagus (non-bearing plants only; you cannot harvest for 12 months after application), rhubarb, spinach, garlic, peppers, onions and non- bearing trees and vines. Grass-B-Gon is best applied to young quackgrass plants with 2 to 4 leaves; two applications are sometimes required to completely eradicate quackgrass. Apply this herbicide when no rainfall is expected for 24 to 48 hours.

I have been using fusilade II in my daylily (hundreds of daylilies reside here in my garden) that has a wide variety of other plants (including iris and lilies)intermixed to get rid of quack grass for at least six years. I just spray the quack grass sometimes some gets on other plants sometimes use a large piece of cardboard to kind of sheild other plants if I have extra time, none of them have died here in my large garden. I have sprayed the quack grass when it is getting taller which looks bad when it turns yellow once it truns brown it is pulled or cut off. AHS members that have display gardens informed me to use this as many of them use the product. Each year the quack grass is less and less, it sure beats trying the hopeless chore of digging out the quack grass which never did work for me. My back tells me to keep using it, if you like to dig endlessly that is your choice. Have many other things to do will never be using a sponge paint brush way too time consuming. Here is the sprayer I use following the instructions included. https://www.menards.com/main/o...
Perhaps it could impact some plants that I don't grow which might be sensitive to the product.

As you have hundreds, I only have about a dozen and I do not know how many Frilly has I so see why you do not want to dig but at the same time, if it is into the roots of you daylilies, you will never win but keep spending a lot of money, forever.
I want to get rid of it permanently, it can be done and saves a lot of misery.
That is why I wrote dig down to the main root, not some rhizome and treat that, that kills. I did it, also with Canadian Thistle which is nearly as miserable to get rid of.

At that:
How often do you have to treat your flowers?
If you are continually spraying all you are doing is killing the grass that sprouts and will continue to do so without end.
It will save you money if you use Fusilade DX rather than Fusilade II, here are the SDS sheets that show components are the same:

http://www.syngenta-us.com/sds...
http://www.greencastonline.com...

Check number3 on the list.

Anyone tried Ornamec? I don't have quackgrass that I know of but it works great for Bermudagrass and is listed for use on quackgrass.

Ornamec only has six percent fluzifop vs twentyfour in Fusilade.

Geez that ingredient sounds like a girl I once dated.

I only spray once per year as each year there is less quack grass so therefore less to spray. This does work for me the quack grass is now only minor in a few areas with less each season, where it use to be a thick mass in some areas. What I am using is very cost effective as I am still on my first bottle, a little goes a long way and it works plus my garden was not totally overrun with quack grass. Frilly asked for advice so I informed her about what works extremely well in my garden. I am not interested in making changes to what works for me plus AHS display garden members said not to use the DX they have a great deal of experience as to what works.

daylilydreams said: AHS display garden members said not to use the DX they have a great deal of experience as to what works.

What is different as the formula is identical?

RpR said:Ornamec only has six percent fluziflop vs twentyfour in Fusilade.

Thanks. Good to know. I might come out ahead price-wise by switching to Fusilade.

I don't recall the reasoning, think at the time it was possibly because of the amount that was packaged by drums for farmers versus bottled for landscape users. This was quite a number of years ago as it took some time before I decided to give it a try, didn't keep notes on it other than to use II, just took the word of folks that use the product.

RpR said:
What is different as the formula is identical?

maybe the formula as in ingredients is the same but the concentration/mixing is different?

@daylilydreams

I just posted the photo so you could see where it is at right now growth wise. Is it up tall enough yet to spray, ? I know you said previously 'early spring', so it too early? They weed is only about 3 inches or so tall? some websites said to wait until it was like a foot tall to spray it? I am thinking that is a bad idea.- then it will be all up in my daylilies pretty heavily and afraid getting lots of spray-not just a little overspray my harm them? I have about 400 daylilies You understand

Bonehead said:I guess I must have quack grass then. Definitely a perennial, real clumpy. I just keep after it.

If you have gardened in this spot for any length of time you would KNOW if you had the quackgrass. It chokes out everything and grows on runners. It has very strong almost woody like roots that go on forever and tear everything up when you try to pull it. There are links above to photos. Crabgrass will die with roundup, or you can just pull it usually reasonably. Round up does not phase this stuff and it will not pull, it just breaks off and grows back. You can usually dig up crabgrass, but this roots too deeply and you can't get it all. It grows very fast/aggressively.

I actually have good luck pulling it. I find I can get a reasonably large clump pulled by taking it out in small grabs. Tedious work, but effective. I kind of like to see how long the roots are, kind of like spaghetti. I am of the camp that thinks Roundup should be taken off the market, and don't use any other herbicides either. So, my attack approach is to pull or keep it clipped real close (persistently).

Frilly, I try to spray when it is around the size yours is, but have sprayed it at different heights as sometime am busy doing other things and it gets taller. The sprayer I use you can control the width of the spray pattern. You don't have to drench the spray on lightly works for me and if the first year you find it is not dying back enough after several weeks you could just spot. You can always do a small test area to give you an idea of how it will work in your garden in your area of the country.
spray those that are still growing. Like I have written at least twice using a good sized piece of cardboard to help shield other plants. I recently saw on the internet somewhere a sprayer that had a shield built onto the sprayer head to protect other plants. I should have book marked it as it looked like someone was actually paying attention to what gardeners need.

Deb, I use to spend a lot of time digging it up tried for many years just did not work here, our rather heavy soil that has had lots of compost added is likely very different from the soil you work with in the PNW. Things sometimes grow a little to good.

Frillylily said:

maybe the formula as in ingredients is the same but the concentration/mixing is different?

Check the SDS pages I pasted, identical.

Price is probably the reason Syngenta does not want non-farmers using DX, it would cost them millions.
This is for a GALLON.

https://www.google.com/search?...

I did see where someone took a large flower pot and cut the bottom out and put it over the plant they were spraying, you just spray into that then so it doesn't go everywhere, haven't tried it though but it sounds like it might work.

I will keep everyone posted on the progress or lack thereof as I go. As the main ingredient is the same, I ordered a smaller bottle of GrassBGone-going to try it out and see what happens a little before shelling out 75. But I will definitely order the larger concentrate later on if it works reasonably for me. I almost too excited about this working, I was so discouraged. My fingers are crossed for sure!

Deb, in my heavy soil it just doesn't pull out, I find myself digging and it really disturbs my other plant's roots. I lost 3 rose bushes this way. I don't use round up often, but I do sometimes.

I can't wait to see how this goes for me, I also ordered some stuff to spray specifically on nuthedge. I have gotten quite a bit of that and tried pulling and digging, and used round up to no avail. Can't wait to get rid of that too!
I am laying concrete pavers this year to make paths, that will cut down on lots of the weeds. If I can get rid of these horrible weeds, I hope to start working on adding compost into my soil a patch at a time. My soil here is heavy/clay like. It is hard to work in. I think the plants don't mind it though mostly.