Tall fescue is an unattractive and difficult weed to control in bluegrass and perennial ryegrass lawns. Tall fescue is a wide-bladed clump grass commonly used in pastures. In a lawn, the textual difference of fescue from bluegrass is obvious because of its clumps.

This unsightly difference in uniformity ruins the appearance of the lawn, causing us to classify pasture type tall fescue as a weed. One of the reasons it is so undesirable is not only because of its leaf texture, but also because of its growing habit.

Tall Fescue has a very wide leaf blade in comparison to Kentucky bluegrass and Perennial Ryegrass that is found on most cool season lawns. The exceptionally wide blade makes it stand out in every place it grows and makes it even more visible. It also typically grows in clumps and patches across the lawn.

Tall Fescue has a very wide leaf blade in comparison to Kentucky bluegrass and Perennial Ryegrass that is found on most cool season lawns. The exceptionally wide blade makes it stand out in every place it grows and makes it even more visible. It also typically grows in clumps and patches across the lawn.

Tall Fescues have been the subject of much improvement and breeding. The resulting turf types make a good lawn if they comprise 100 percent of the lawn. Unfortunately, many of our bluegrass lawns contain the old pasture type Tall Fescues which destroy the look of a lawn.

Tall Fescue is commonly misidentified by homeowners as Crabgrass. To the untrained eye, the two could be easily mixed up, but they are completely different grass types with different control methods. There are selective control options for Crabgrass, both pre-emergent, and post-emergent, unlike Tall Fescue. That is why proper identification is necessary to make control decisions.

TALL FESCUE CONTROL METHODS.

Since Tall Fescue is a perennial grass that lives through the winter, pre-emergent annual grass {Crabgrass} controls are not effective.

1. You can dig out the clumps and re-seed or re-sod after removal. To be effective, all roots must be removed. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to do.
2. You can spray Tall Fescue clumps with glyphosate (Roundup) anytime they are green and growing, but this will kill the intermingling bluegrass. If you plan to re-seed the areas, the ideal time to do this is August 15th through October 30th. If you plan to re-sod, you can spray the chemical in a rectangular pattern, so you can replace the dead grass with a roll of sod.

TALL FESCUE PLANT DESCRIPTION

Tall Fescue is a coarse, clump-forming, cool-season perennial grass, characterized by its relatively wide, dark green, coarsely ridged leaves. This species reproduces by seeds and short rhizomes (underground stems). Clumps can expand by producing new shoots (tillers) from the base of existing stems. The dark green leaf blade is thick, flat, ridged on the upper surface due to coarse veins, and shiny on the lower surface.

To know more about weed control, visit our weed control service page or you can directly call us at 1-800-365-8873.