5 Tips on How to Get Rid of Creeping Oxalis in Lawn

Creeping oxalis sprout from tubers deeply rooted in the soil, so eradicating the menace of creeping oxalis may prove to be a challenging task. This type of oxalis spreads along the ground while producing roots and tubers as it spreads. It is essential to learn how to get rid of creeping oxalis in lawn if you want to achieve a lush lawn.

In this post, we share various methods that you can employ to get rid of creeping oxalis in your lawn. Let’s have a look at them.

Tips on How to Get Rid of Creeping Oxalis in Lawn

1. Hand Pulling

There are various ways you can get rid of creeping oxalis, and one such method is by pulling them off the ground by using hands; a hoe or spade can also be used to dig up the oxalis.

Be sure to remove the weed while still young to prevent dispersing the seeds while hand pulling. Ensure you uproot the roots to kill the weed completely.

2. Apply a weed killer

A suitable weed killer will come in handy if the creeping oxalis is scattered sparingly in your lawn. Perhaps going for a weed killer meant for use on the grass to avoid killing grass in your lawn would be a better idea.

3. Fertilize your lawn

Regular fertilizing your lawn (about 2 to 4 times per year) will enrich the soil in your lawn with sufficient nutrients, which will make your grass healthy.

A well-maintained lawn will weed out unwanted weeds such as oxalis automatically.

4. Increase Mowing Height

Ensure you maintain a suitable cutting height in your lawn; Mowing at a standard height ensures that grass grows thick, plus the rooting system will develop properly; this ensures that the grass utilizes the available nutrients, thus starving weeds.

5. Water deeply

When watering your lawn, ensure the water reaches the deepest parts of the soil. Be sure to water your lawn at specific intervals to outdo weeds in the lawn by facilitating the grassroots to penetrate deeper into the soil.

Oxalis Killer for Lawns
Watering Lawn

Oxalis Killer for Lawns

Apply glyphosate spray to wet the foliage of the weeds thoroughly. When controlling creeping oxalis in lawns, I advise you to use a selective turf herbicide containing MCPA and bromoxynil such as Yates Buffalo Pro Herbicide; this is the most versatile chemical because you can spray it on most of the common varieties of lawns.

Vinegar is a natural herbicide that you can spray on weeds to get effective results; It would be best if you apply vinegar with a spray bottle, pump sprayer, or brush; however, ensure you keep it away from plants you want to stay in your garden, as it cannot differentiate between weed and beloved perennial.

You can also count on other household items to get rid of creeping oxalis in baking soda; Mix up two tablespoons baking soda, a squirt of dishwashing liquid, 500ml water, and spray on the oxalis area, preferably on a hot day. Repeat to weaken re-growth until it disappears.

Best Oxalis Killer

The best oxalis killer in-plane landscapes is a herbicide containing glyphosate. This herbicide works wonders for spot treatment of oxalis. Apply glyphosate spray to wet the foliage of the weeds thoroughly. Target oxalis seedlings and young plants for best results.

If the oxalis plants in your lawn are scattered throughout the lawn, spot treatment with a recommended post-emergent herbicide may provide adequate control, but for larger oxalis infestations in the lawn, pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicides may be necessary.

Check out these weed killers:

1. Bonide (BND0613) Chickweed, Clover and Oxalis Weed Killer 

2. Ortho Weed B Gon Chickweed Oxalis Killer

Also read: How to reverse herbicide burn to lawn

Death to Oxalis

Most gardeners would want to use highly effective products such as Death to Oxalis to burn the leaves of oxalis. Death to oxalis works by burning the leaves, which then die off. The resultant effect of this is the weakening of the bulbs by starving them.

It’s not systemic, so it needs to be used each time new leaves appear. It only works on pink, purple, or white-flowered oxalis, not the creeping yellow-flowered type.

If you have oxalis around your succulents or perennials, you can give Death to Oxalis a try. This product burns oxalis leaves, which then weaken the plant and eventually starve it. It doesn’t work on creeping oxalis, however.

Related: How to destroy toadstools

How to Get Rid Of Creeping Oxalis in Lawn (FAQs)

1. How do you handle oxalis?

Spraying using a suitable herbicide is one of the quickest methods you can use to deal with the menace of oxalis in your garden or lawn.

However, you would need to be a little cautious to avoid unnecessary overspray. Be sure to get rid of oxalis in your lawn completely to prevent it from re-emerging.

2. How do you deal with oxalis without damaging the grass?

Use herbicides labeled for broadleaf weed control in lawns; these products can kill weeds effectively without damaging the grass.

You would need to spray the oxalis sparingly while taking great caution not to affect the grass.

3. Is it possible to identify creeping oxalis?

Creeping Oxalis are easy to identify. They have light green color with heart-shaped leaves. The leaves resemble those of clover.

The flowers are pretty small, measuring about 3-4 mm in circumference; they are also yellow with a total number of five petals.

4. Does oxalis make a good ground cover?

Oxalis species can create an adequate ground cover for shady areas around your garden and lawns.

Although It can pose challenges to remove, creeping oxalis can have many advantages on your lawn.

Creeping Oxalis poses a significant challenge when removing it because the tendrils break off and regrow at later stages.

You can remove creeping oxalis by hand; alternatively, you can dig out areas infested by this weed if the affected area is pretty tiny.

The techniques we have examined in this post on how to get rid of creeping oxalis are pretty effective in getting rid of creeping oxalis in your lawn; however, prevention is the only known way to deal with this type of menace.

Regular fertilizing and watering your lawn will make it healthier and less susceptible to the infestation of creeping oxalis.

Author

  • Ricky

    Hi, I’m Ricky. I’ve been involved in lawn care and landscaping from when I was 15. To be honest, I didn’t like the idea of pushing mowers, collecting grass clippings, and maintaining flowerbeds at the time. But having seem the passion my parents had for gardening and outdoors and the effort they put in maintaining the health and beauty of our landscape, I couldn’t help but not only admire their hard work but also I became a part of it. As someone who loves to spend time with nature’s best, I find myself learning a lot more about gardening and outdoors on a daily basis. Not to mention I love to share the knowledge I’ve gathered over the years with my readers at We Mow Dallas. To be clear, I don’t have a Master’s degree in gardening or anything like that. Everything I’ve learned about gardening, landscaping, and lawn care spring from passion and engagement with my parents. And with a ton of free information out there, plus the ability to run tests and determine what works best for lawn care and landscaping, every day is an opportunity to learn and implement something new. My goal with We Mow Dallas is to teach you exactly how to maintain your lawn and landscape. And since I walk the talk in reality, you shouldn’t hesitate to join me in this wonderful world of landscaping and lawn care.

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