Hawkweed

[picframer]

Met with a prospect today, he has 11,000+ sq/ft, Hawkweed has taken about 95% of his lawn, I have never seen such an extreme. Our area is chemical free spray so I am looking for something Organic, I am going to till evenrthing under however he is spending a lot of $$$ to have a nice lawn again and I want to cover my butt making sure it's dead as this stuff is crazy aggressive

[swstout]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by picframer Met with a prospect today, he has 11,000+ sq/ft, Hawkweed has taken about 95% of his lawn, I have never seen such an extreme. Our area is chemical free spray so I am looking for something Organic, I am going to till evenrthing under however he is spending a lot of $$$ to have a nice lawn again and I want to cover my butt making sure it's dead as this stuff is crazy aggressive Not knowing anything about Hawkweed, my curiosity peaked, I wnnt to Google. Hawkweed isn't a weed, it's an invasion. One article said control can take as long as 5 years. It said to cut and bag the plants as soon as cut (damages plants seed as soon as injured), carefully dig up the roots completely (even a small remnant of root will sprout again) and bag it. Burn the plants and roots. Herbicides are only marginally effective because the plants go to seed as soon as sprayed. I'm glad we don't have them here! Steve

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[picframer]

I have never seen anything like this, over 3 acres of nothing but, now what is interesting is the neighbours on each side have perfect lawns, he said they are importing chemicals and spraying.

So my solution is to till everything under, top soil and sod however I want to somehow try to kill this friggin stuff but my search is in vain, there doesn't seem to be anything.

I guess another option is to remove everything from the site but there is so much of this I am sure there are seeds still around. The client is lying down almost $14,000 plus tax for us to fix this, I want what we do to work.

I have written six fellow lawn care professionals in the USA that have major operations in hope that they may be able to give me some advice also.

[Little's]

Have you thought of burning it all with a torch before you do anything. Like here in California, they burn all the rice fields with torches every year. It seems to work good. I wonder what kind of effect it will have on them?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Little's

Have you thought of burning it all with a torch before you do anything. Like here in California, they burn all the rice fields with torches every year. It seems to work good. I wonder what kind of effect it will have on them?

That is an option and something my son and I were talking about last evening after further research, there are chemicals however aside from not being allowed here the client has two wells and three expensive dogs. Since he is righ on the ocean I considered salt water as I read it will work "quite" often but once again we would have to stat at least 50 feet from the wells. This stuff is thick, I wish I would have had the camera yesterday.

Thanks for the feedback, now I have to find a backpack flame thrower.

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Weed burners do exist:

http://www.flameengineering.com/Red_...e_Torch_K.html


The problem I've found with them is that they do not kill the roots. Also, burning the foliage nourishes the soil and if the roots stay healthy you get an even stronger stand next year.

For burning to be effective, my guess is that you would need to perform it several times over a number of years prior to seed production.

Keith

[picframer]

Originally Posted by StartALawnCareBusiness

Weed burners do exist:

http://www.flameengineering.com/Red_...e_Torch_K.html


The problem I've found with them is that they do not kill the roots. Also, burning the foliage nourishes the soil and if the roots stay healthy you get an even stronger stand next year.

For burning to be effective, my guess is that you would need to perform it several times over a number of years prior to seed production.

Keith

Thanks Keith, we picked up four more today, all very large lawns, all hit with Cinch bug last year, all overtaken with this Orange Hawkweed, these places are not even in the same area, can't seem to rent a flame thrower so I did a rush order out of Kansas. I have four potential client visits every night for the next 8 days, I can only do four a night and we are so busy I can't do them in the day time, 27 of these had Cinch bug last year and all of them want their lawns fixed. Every one I have seen so far is beyond saving which is too bad.

Charging $150.00 for 3,000 square feet and getting it, set a min price of $50.00, unit has already more than paid for itself although it hasn't arrived... Love it when things work this way.

What we will do is burn them, then till, then go over the entire area again with the burner.

As I mentioned Salt water would work however all of these people are on wells so I have to resort to burning and keeping an eye on it.

If I can get them all a healthy lawn and keep it that way, the Hawkweed won't come back based on what I have read but it is a serious plant to contend with.