Pearlwort is a common weed that can be found on lawns. It has small white flowers and tiny seeds that spread quickly making it a real menace and difficult to get rid of once it becomes established!
In this post, we’re going to explain how to get rid of pearlwort in lawns, what it looks like and how to identify it and some tips to stop it from coming back. Let’s get started.
What is Pearlwort?
Pearlwort is a type of perennial mat-forming weed that has tiny white flowers with small narrow leaves that grow very close together. However, despite having thin leaves, Pearlwort leaves have a thick cuticle which means they’re hard to kill with weed killers.
They often form a green carpet on the soil surface and as such it’s often confused for moss.
It’s found primarily in the northern hemisphere around the coasts or areas with high moisture. You’ll also usually see it on lawns that get watered a lot like golf courses.
It is spread by tiny seeds, often on the bottom of shoes or when you mow the lawn so it’s important to remove it by hand or with a spray rather than mowing to get rid of it.
How to Remove Pearlwort From Your Lawn
Pearlwort grows fast and spreads quickly which can make it difficult to get rid of once you spot it growing in your yard.
There are a number of different ways to get rid of pearlwort in lawns. Here are a few that have been successful at doing so:
Removing it by Hand
This may be the most time-consuming removal method but if you have a small section of your yard affected it can work well. Manual removal involves digging up and pulling out pearlwort by hand.
Thankfully, their roots don’t go very deep so this removal method will work well. Just be sure to get all of the roots!
You can also use a garden fork to dig up the ground where the weed grows to ensure that no pieces of root remain.
Removing it with a Weed Killer
If you don’t want to get your hands dirty you can use a weed killer to kill the pearlwort. This is recommended if you don’t have too many weeds in your lawn. Simply spray the pearlwort and it should go away within a few days.
It’s important to get a selective weed killer that won’t kill your lawn at the same time.
Something from this list here will do the trick.
Treating the Whole Lawn
If your lawn has a large amount of pearlwort or if you don’t want to get rid of the weed by hand then you might want to get something that can treat the whole lawn. Going round spot spraying the individual weeds is a surefire way to miss some and this weed will grow back very quickly if you don’t treat the whole lawn.
For this, you’ll need a selective weed killer concentrate as you’ll be covering a large area.
We’d recommend something like this one.
Apply the weed killer with a garden sprayer, watering can, or according to the directions on the label of your selected product. Also, make sure that it fully dries before you or your pets go out on it.
How to Prevent Pearlwort from Growing back?
To stop Pearlwort from returning it’s important to ensure that you never let the weed go to seed. If it does, don’t throw them out or dump them in a landfill site as they can survive and grow for years!
This is why we recommend that you get rid of the weed by hand if there are only a few plants growing in your yard. This way you’ll know for sure that you’ve got rid of it all and that there aren’t any pesky seeds hanging around to return later.
It’s important to keep your sward dense as if there are gaps it can allow the pearlwort to take
Summing up
When looking after your lawn, it’s important to remove pearlwort as quickly as possible to avoid letting it go to seed. Once it does, it can be notoriously hard to control. Looking aft
Luckily, there are a number of ways in which you can get rid of pearlwort in lawns and the best one for your situation will be whichever is fastest and easiest for you.
Whichever method you choose, always make sure that you never let the weed grow back as it is very persistent.
You might need to reapply weed killer again to keep it at bay every couple of months.