Cogongrass is the worst trespassing works I ’ve ever encountered – and I ’ve seen some bad ones .
Brazilian pepperhas its dread power of invasion … air potatoesdrape themselves over acres of Mrs. Henry Wood … Florida betony(though aboriginal to my menage province ) seems to eat a garden bed in seconds …
… but cogongrass win my top touch as the worst trespassing plant . Ever .
See that picture ? That ’s what cogongrass does to a field . allow it get a foothold in any lawn , garden , pasture or even candid woodland , and cogongrass will take over . So , why do I call it the “ risky invasive works ? ”
Here ’s why .
Why Cogongrass is the Worst Invasive Plant
Now carry with me , those of you who are outside the Southern United States . I can make a case that Cogongrass is the forged incursive mintage in our domain , but I ca n’t say it ’s the bad everywhere . Plants take over different climates . In the Midwest , as an exercise , you ’ll be fighting completely dissimilar invasive mintage , such as vernacular buckthorn .
Yet down here , we ’ve catch vigorous species from all over the semitropic and tropic worldly concern that have cringe in and attack , and out of all those , I ’m calling out cogongrass as the worst for multiple reasons .
1: Cogongrass is a Lousy Grass for Animals
imagine you ’ll just graze goats or cows to make lemonade out of the cogongrass lemons you ’ve been given ? Nope . you could count out that exercise .
Again , according to UF :
“ Cogongrass has been used in Southeast Asia as eatage because it is the prevailing vegetation on over 300 million Acre . In these areas it was found that only very young shoots should be crease or ignore for hay . At this stage , the leaves lack needlelike stop and razor - comparable leaf margins . For about four week following a prescribed burn , crude protein of regrowth is corresponding to bahiagrass . stark protein of mature fend seldom attains the minimal 7 % level take to sustain cows , make subjunction essential for livestock product . Cogongrass yields are relatively broken , even under with child fertilization , and unremarkably do not exceed 5 tons per acre . ”
2. Cogongrass Forms Dense Monoculture Patches
Cogongrass seems to be allelopathic , poisoning other specie and becoming the top plant life quickly . It also simply choke off out the challenger .
mark off out this video recording I post late showing how cogongrass has eat on big ball of land southwest of Ocala :
3. Cogongrass is a Fire Hazard
Cogongrass burns hot and fast , which is one of the ways it keeps its dominance . The gravid surreptitious root structure lives through the fire , allowing the cogongrass blades to regrow – but competing plant are roast alive .
4. Cogongrass Will Eat Your Garden or Food Forest
essay to get Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and plants set up alongside a cogongrass infestation is very hard . The openhanded root system of cogongrass exact water and nutrients for itself and will quickly out - compete your crops and even your trees , starving them of mineral and piddle .
5. Cogongrass Makes Running Bamboo Look Tame
The pointed rhizomes of cogongrass can drive through hard grunge , nursery charge plate and even right through your sweet potato ( I know this from experience ) . I ’ve get word from a Quaker who work for the land that the rhizomes can travel as far as 15 infantry from the mother plant .
As UF writes intheir article on cogongrass :
“ There are many reasons why cogongrass is such a prolific invader . It is a strong - time of year , repeated Gunter Grass species with an encompassing rhizome beginning system of rules . In fact , at least 60 % of the total plant life biomass is often found below the soil surface . In accession to the rhizome root system , cogongrass adapts to poor soil conditions , and its fires burn so hot that they wipe out nearly all aboriginal species . Cogongrass is drought tolerant and has prolific tip - dispersed come production . Additionally , it can arise in both full sun and highly shaded areas , although it is less tolerant to shade .
Cogongrass diffuse through its creeping rhizome arrangement and seed output . The rootstalk can penetrate to a deepness of 4 feet , but most of the antecedent system is within the top 6 column inch of the soil surface . The rootstock are responsible for recollective - terminus survival of the fittest and brusque - distance spread of cogongrass . Long - space bedspread is accomplished through seed production . come can travel by current of air , animals , and equipment . ”
smutty material – and very punishing to eliminate … which is my next point .
6. Cogongrass is Very Hard to Eliminate
Once you ’ve got cogongrass on your property , getting rid of it is a big deal . The rhizomes are tenacious and stimulate them all pull is tough . It also overspread via seed and will kill up here and there in other places if you let it bloom . I ’ll write more on killing cogongrass later in this post .
For now , how do you eff if you ’re deal with cogongrass on your property ? name cogongrass is easy once you ’ve seen it once and know what to look for .
How To Identify Cogongrass
If you opine you might have cogongrass , the easiest manner to tell is to look at the leaves . Cogongrass leaves have offset mid - rib , meaning that the central line running down the blade of grass is further to one side than the other .
Here ’s a scanned last - up I made of the offset midrib on cogongrass :
The offset mid - costa on the second blade of cogongrass is n’t quite as pronounce as the offset on the first image . I think it was hoping I ’d mistake it for St. Augustine . No such portion , malefic grass !
Another renowned feature of cogongrass is its jointed rhizomes with sharp detail on the new growth :
And here are what cogongrass blossom / semen head calculate like :
Armed with these trope , you ’re ready to name cogongrass in the wild … or in your roseate garden .
Now that you know what it looks like , how do you get rid of cogongrass ?
Killing Cogongrass
I have a wicked confession to make .
I bought and used RoundUp(TM ) to ascertain cogongrass . It ’s the only time I ’ve done so on my property . I hate herbicide and all they stand for … but cogongrass was going to bring home the bacon if I did n’t take drastic beat .
Here ’s how it played out .
A few years ago when I launched my ( now defunct ) nursery , there was a small dapple of cogongrass in my back yard near where I plan to put my potted plants . I did n’t do it how to identify cogongrass back then . In fact , I did n’t even know what it was . I was blissfully unaware of the patch and how quickly it could disperse .
The state examiner came by , catch the patch and state me I could n’t get a nursery license unless the cogongrass was completely eradicate and she recommend repeat treatments with glysophate ( the fighting ingredient in RoundUp ) .
I ask her if there was a room to get rid of cogongrass without toxic chemicals . She told me I could maybe dig a pool there , but that was about it .
obdurately stick to my rationale , for the next few weeks I decided to attack the cogongrass with spade and pitchfork . I begin digging and chasing rhizomes , only to have blades bug out up and new patches emerge nearby . I realized that I was n’t go to beat the material quickly enough to get my nursery started , so I finally gave in and purchase RoundUp . After the first diligence , most of the cogongrass died . A few patches reemerged , then I sprayed again .
finally it was gone and the examiner approved my nursery plans .
Now , however , since I quit using weeedkiller , cogongrass has popped back up here and there around my yard and intellectual nourishment wood , growing faster than I can pull it . I warned the new property owner and confess my RoundUp usage when I sell the family , so she ’s keeping an eye on the cogongrass now ( I go for ) .
Once it get in , it ’s intemperate to pass over out .
till it repeatedly can pop it off , as can painstaking double - digging – but for ascendency that wo n’t break your back and possible take month or twelvemonth , you ’re stuckwith this stuff . Ack .
And that , my gardening ally , is one more ground why I fence cogongrass is the defective invasive plant !
