Nut Grass vs Tomato

rutabagaboy · September 18, 2009

Nut Grass is one tough and determined cookie. Take a look at this:

Nut Grass vs Tomato.jpg

The root entering the photo from the left and exiting out the right belongs to a tomato plant that was already well established at the time the nut grass shoot decided it wanted to go straight to the surface ... and did so - directly through the tomato's root!

ddsack · September 18, 2009

That is one scary grass ... pretty much goes where it wants to, eh? I'm not familiar with it here, unless it goes by another name. Hopefully the cold winters keep it away!

rutabagaboy · September 18, 2009

You are pretty safe. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperus_esculentus

Note especially the section on REMOVAL.

ddsack · September 18, 2009

Fascinating! So you can make cake from the tubers like the Egyptians did, or use it for fishbait like the Brits do! Hmm ... maybe you should be growing IT instead of tomatoes?? Nah, just kidding!

rutabagaboy · September 19, 2009

Nut Grass is the prevalent vegetation in some parts of this community garden. There are gardeners who are more tolerant of it than I am.

Blueaussi · September 19, 2009

Tolerant or exhausted?

I had a patch of nut sedge in the yard of the house I used to live in, I tried everything to kill it, but nothing worked. Since it was the only thing that would grow under an oak tree, I finally let it be and just kept it trimmed. Then I got two young, hyperactive dogs. Not even nut sedge could stand up to the Puppies O'Thunder! Of course, nothing else could, either, so the backyard went to sand very quickly.

rutabagaboy · September 19, 2009

Nut grass flourishes in wetter ground, so one way to control it is to dry out the soil - not always practical, particularly if you don't control the watering as in a community garden. Another is to patiently and carefully dig up the nuts - hard, slow work enjoyed by few. Poisoning will work, but is not permitted in the garden. And dogs are not allowed either. So I do my puppy impression by religiously scraping off the nut grass vegetation with a hula hoe whenever it appears with the aim of depleting the energy stored in the nut to the point that it dies. I do the same for Bermuda grass and it seems to work pretty well - over the long haul.

Wi-sunflower · September 21, 2009

While the variety of Nut grass / Nutsedge you have may not grow as far north as Minn, I do believe there are other varieties that will. We have Yellow Nutsedge and I think another variety here in Wi and yes it can be invasive and hard to kill.

IF you can keep it cultivated before it shows the topknot seeds, you have a chance of slowing it down. Yes it will keep coming back from the nuts, but every time you cultivate it, it depletes the nut's energy. Doing the black plastic solarization may also help if you have the time to leave it on long enough. While it looks like a grass, it's really in the sedge family when it comes to chemicals that MAY control / kill it.

For some hard to kill stuff, Round-up alone won't always do the job. Especially if the plants are on the larger or more mature side. Hubby will often combine the Round-up with another contact-kill chemical to help get the job done. I'm not sure what tho as he is the fertilizer / chemical part of the farm. I'm more the greenhouse and variety person.

Carol

piegirl · October 3, 2009

Looks similar to a horrible 'grass' I found growing in a daylily bed. When I went to dig it out, I found that the shoots had pierced several daylily tubers. Been a big campaign to dig out the entire bed, looks like heck but so far it hasn't reappeared. piegirl

rutabagaboy · October 8, 2009

I carefully dug one up today

NS1.jpg

Because the light and shadows are pretty stark at this time of year, I hung the 'nut' on a light background to show the detail of the nut (it is upside down). It is the size of my thumbnail. When you pull up a plant by its foliage, the 'root' between the foliage and the 'nut' breaks, leaving the 'nut' well-rooted in the ground and able to put up new foliage.

NS2.jpg

Then I cut the 'nut' in half.

NS3.jpg

Unfortunately, my camera renders high-contrast white as pink.

September 18, 2009	#1
rutabagaboy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Near Sacramento, California Posts: 322	Nut Grass vs Tomato Nut Grass is one tough and determined cookie. Take a look at this: Nut Grass vs Tomato.jpg The root entering the photo from the left and exiting out the right belongs to a tomato plant that was already well established at the time the nut grass shoot decided it wanted to go straight to the surface ... and did so - directly through the tomato's root!

September 18, 2009	#2
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,231	That is one scary grass ... pretty much goes where it wants to, eh? I'm not familiar with it here, unless it goes by another name. Hopefully the cold winters keep it away! __________________ Dee **************

September 18, 2009	#4
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,231	Fascinating! So you can make cake from the tubers like the Egyptians did, or use it for fishbait like the Brits do! Hmm ... maybe you should be growing IT instead of tomatoes?? Nah, just kidding! __________________ Dee **************

September 19, 2009	#5
rutabagaboy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Near Sacramento, California Posts: 322	Nut Grass is the prevalent vegetation in some parts of this community garden. There are gardeners who are more tolerant of it than I am.

September 19, 2009	#6
Blueaussi Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Zone 8a Posts: 1,205	Tolerant or exhausted? I had a patch of nut sedge in the yard of the house I used to live in, I tried everything to kill it, but nothing worked. Since it was the only thing that would grow under an oak tree, I finally let it be and just kept it trimmed. Then I got two young, hyperactive dogs. Not even nut sedge could stand up to the Puppies O'Thunder! Of course, nothing else could, either, so the backyard went to sand very quickly.

September 21, 2009	#8
Wi-sunflower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,591	While the variety of Nut grass / Nutsedge you have may not grow as far north as Minn, I do believe there are other varieties that will. We have Yellow Nutsedge and I think another variety here in Wi and yes it can be invasive and hard to kill. IF you can keep it cultivated before it shows the topknot seeds, you have a chance of slowing it down. Yes it will keep coming back from the nuts, but every time you cultivate it, it depletes the nut's energy. Doing the black plastic solarization may also help if you have the time to leave it on long enough. While it looks like a grass, it's really in the sedge family when it comes to chemicals that MAY control / kill it. For some hard to kill stuff, Round-up alone won't always do the job. Especially if the plants are on the larger or more mature side. Hubby will often combine the Round-up with another contact-kill chemical to help get the job done. I'm not sure what tho as he is the fertilizer / chemical part of the farm. I'm more the greenhouse and variety person. Carol

October 3, 2009	#9
piegirl Tomatovillian™ Honoree Join Date: May 2006 Location: Lincoln, NE Posts: 791	Looks similar to a horrible 'grass' I found growing in a daylily bed. When I went to dig it out, I found that the shoots had pierced several daylily tubers. Been a big campaign to dig out the entire bed, looks like heck but so far it hasn't reappeared. piegirl

October 8, 2009	#10
rutabagaboy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Near Sacramento, California Posts: 322	I carefully dug one up today NS1.jpg Because the light and shadows are pretty stark at this time of year, I hung the 'nut' on a light background to show the detail of the nut (it is upside down). It is the size of my thumbnail. When you pull up a plant by its foliage, the 'root' between the foliage and the 'nut' breaks, leaving the 'nut' well-rooted in the ground and able to put up new foliage. NS2.jpg Then I cut the 'nut' in half. NS3.jpg Unfortunately, my camera renders high-contrast white as pink.