That looks like yellow Nutsedge

http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/yellow_nutsedge_41/

 

No clasping auricle so not quack. Barnyard or Orchard grass.

 

@bosox_5 @Wolverine

Here's what it looks like in July - hoping it might help identify.

 

I don't think it's nutsedge, but if you take a stalk and cut it and look at the cross section it will be triangular if it is a sedge.

Looks like annual ryegrass to me. Lots of farmers use it as a cover crop to retain nutrients and prevent erosion. It only spreads by seed but when it gets that long it's no surprise that it is going to seed and spreading that way. There is no good way of chemically removing it (that I know of) from cool -season lawns. Pre-emergents will prevent the seed that it's producing from germinating.

 

Does it die in the winter? Have you tried tenacity? I think it might be Nutsedge, too. After applying pre-emergent earlier than usual, I don't have them typically sprouting now.

 

I don't think it's nutsedge, but if you take a stalk and cut it and look at the cross section it will be triangular if it is a sedge.

Looks like annual ryegrass to me. Lots of farmers use it as a cover crop to retain nutrients and prevent erosion. It only spreads by seed but when it gets that long it's no surprise that it is going to seed and spreading that way. There is no good way of chemically removing it (that I know of) from cool -season lawns. Pre-emergents will prevent the seed that it's producing from germinating.

@CarolinaCuttin the stem is not triangular - it is circular and rolled like the annual ryegrass you mentioned. Figure 6 on this page: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/annual-ryegrass

@greencare I believe it dies off in the winter (it goes from green to pale straw color). I haven't tried tenacity, yet.

Maybe Switchgrass?

How might we keep the ornamental grasses where they belong (out of the lawn)? :lol:

Any and all thoughts/Qs/concerns are appreciated - thanks, all!

 

Let me see if I have this straight.
You are intentionally growing a grassy weed, either in clumps or in a larger sward, which grows up tall and spreads lots of seed. And now that it has grown up tall and spread seed all over, some of which has not landed precisely where you'd like, you're on a quest to figure out exactly what it is so you can use a selective post-emergent?

This is like Bill Clinton asking the dry cleaner's place which product he should use to remove the evidence from his intern's blue dress without damaging the fabric. The answer is the same: don't let it get there in the first place.

How might we keep the ornamental grasses where they belong (out of the lawn)? :lol:

Possible solutions depending on how far out of the lawn you mean. :lol:
1. Kill it all. Spray those patches with glypho to make them fried-chicken-dead. End of that stuff in your lawn.
2. Dig it up and put it in the trash, or in a compost pile. Preferably somebody else's compost pile. Not mine.
3. Enclose your lawn in a giant dome or Chernobyl-style sarcophagus such that there is no wind or animals to carry the seed to inconvenient places. However, because those stalks with seed heads lean over quite a bit, the patches will have an ever-increasing (albeit slowly) radius.
4. Keep your lawn on lockdown with pre-emergent (prodiamine or other) where you don't want it popping up. You will still have to deal with individual plants that have already popped up beyond where you want them. Manually pull if feasible (few enough in number and shallow enough roots to pop out easily?). Or you could carefully wipe the individual plants with a non-selective such as glypho.

I feel like solution #4 is possibly the most viable long-term if you insist on keeping that stuff around. :lol:
Pre-ems like prodiamine are cheap as chips. Selective post-ems for controlling grassy weeds tend to be expensive, and manufacturers may not bother testing & labeling them for effect on ornamental grasses.

I'd guess it's something in the Miscanthus genus if that helps.

 

This is like Bill Clinton asking the dry cleaner's place which product he should use to remove the evidence from his intern's blue dress without damaging the fabric. The answer is the same: don't let it get there in the first place.

@ScottW that had me howling...

 

This is like Bill Clinton asking the dry cleaner's place which product he should use to remove the evidence from his intern's blue dress without damaging the fabric. The answer is the same: don't let it get there in the first place.

@ScottW that had me howling...

:lol:
Time to drop some napalm in there and have a barbecue.

 

@ScottW 10/10 :lol:

Thanks for the Miscanthus genus suggestion.

After careful considerations, I think we'll do a mix of options 3 and 4...

 

New pics. Is the grass spreading laterally underground? If so, would an edging/border going into the ground xyz inches deep help contain? Might need an option #5 (@ScottW)... :lol:

All - thanks for your time!
@bosox_5 @Wolverine @Ellford @greencare @CarolinaCuttin @ScottW @Chris LI

 

THose look like rhizomes; you will have a bear of a time containing it. A garden barrier that goes deeper than the rhizomes will work. If you don't know how deep they go, I would start with a 6-12 inch deep barrier.

Better yet, kill it and plant a different ornamental grass that is less invasive.

 

Better yet, kill it and plant a different ornamental grass that is less invasive.

I was a bit facetious with my earlier comment, but to clarify, this is what I really meant to, or should have said. Otherwise, you will probably be chasing your tail trying to find out if there is a selective herbicide that might work on it, or you will be painting it with glyphosate (lawn areas).