Questions? Write me at fullcirclegardener @ cableone . net.
Dandelions Everywhere: The Experiment One Year Later
A year ago I told you that I have dandelions everywhere
in my yard and I was looking for a non-chemical control
method that would be family friendly in hopes of ending the invasion. I
ended up setting up an experiment in my back lawn to try one common (pulling) and one not-so-common (boiling water) weed control method. See my post here for all the details.
The above photo is from the location of my experiment. There is no visual difference between this spring and last spring. :( When it was all said and done, not one of the four treatments were effective in killing the treated dandelions over the long term (except for the dandelions that I was able to pull out the entire root.) In all I would say, try something else. :{ Now I'm off to see what I can try this year. :}
It is tough stepping into a mess that you didn't create for yourself! We ended up deciding to hit it hard with a weed & feed (following recommended application amounts & time intervals) this year with the hope that we will get the upper hand and be able to manually pull survivors and invaders there after. Good luck! Let us know if you find a really successful non-chemical treatment.
Hand pulling does work. You have to be very dedicated about pulling every single plant for two years. You have to patrol your yard for dandelions every single day during spring/summer/fall for these two years during the times when the dandelions are flowering. If you don't have time to pull plants one day, then you must at least pick the flowers off them. You will spend hours every week doing this. We did this for two years. The second year there were many fewer flowers than year one. This is year three and there are very few dandelions. Our neighbors have hundreds. We have pulled about 10 so far. The first year, we pulled bags upon bags stuffed full of dandelions. It was a lot of work. But it is effective. Our neighbors on both sides both swear by round up but they both have hundreds of dandelions every year. Because of their infested yards, we will still have to pull dandelions a little every year but it will just be a case of maintaining a few plants because we have a narrow strip of woods between our yards. One of my neighbors wants to have all lawn between our houses instead of a woodsy break but I refuse because then their will be no barrier between our now dandelion free yard and his dandelion infested yard.
One obvious defect in your experiment is that you did not pull every dandelion for at least two years straight. Dandelions are a two year plant so a first year plant does not flower and will be easy to overlook. Also, from what you wrote, it appears you did not dedicate hours a week plus daily patrols to pulling every single dandelion plant for two years straight. Unless you do that, you cannot conclude that pulling does not work.
I have moved into a property with an even worse dandelion problem, and this makes depressing reading!
ReplyDeleteIt is tough stepping into a mess that you didn't create for yourself! We ended up deciding to hit it hard with a weed & feed (following recommended application amounts & time intervals) this year with the hope that we will get the upper hand and be able to manually pull survivors and invaders there after. Good luck! Let us know if you find a really successful non-chemical treatment.
DeleteHand pulling does work. You have to be very dedicated about pulling every single plant for two years. You have to patrol your yard for dandelions every single day during spring/summer/fall for these two years during the times when the dandelions are flowering. If you don't have time to pull plants one day, then you must at least pick the flowers off them. You will spend hours every week doing this. We did this for two years. The second year there were many fewer flowers than year one. This is year three and there are very few dandelions. Our neighbors have hundreds. We have pulled about 10 so far. The first year, we pulled bags upon bags stuffed full of dandelions. It was a lot of work. But it is effective. Our neighbors on both sides both swear by round up but they both have hundreds of dandelions every year. Because of their infested yards, we will still have to pull dandelions a little every year but it will just be a case of maintaining a few plants because we have a narrow strip of woods between our yards. One of my neighbors wants to have all lawn between our houses instead of a woodsy break but I refuse because then their will be no barrier between our now dandelion free yard and his dandelion infested yard.
ReplyDeleteOne obvious defect in your experiment is that you did not pull every dandelion for at least two years straight. Dandelions are a two year plant so a first year plant does not flower and will be easy to overlook. Also, from what you wrote, it appears you did not dedicate hours a week plus daily patrols to pulling every single dandelion plant for two years straight. Unless you do that, you cannot conclude that pulling does not work.