permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Golden,
   
  I wasn’t sure about the correct English denomination. It is Quecken in 
  German. I think we probably have all three: crabgrass, Bermuda grass
  and Kikuyu grass. The one that has spread most, which I called 
  crabgrass (but may be Bermuda grass), has extensive whitish rhizomes
  underground which will turn brown and woody when old, runners on the 
  surface, green blades with a bluish taint and, if I have observed 
  correctly, tiny black seeds. I forgot, the rhizomes have nodes; if one
  of these nodes stays in the soil, a new bundle of grass will grow
  from it.
   
  Dieter Brand
  Portugal

  
Golden Love <goldenlove@cruzio.com> wrote:
  Hello Dieter,

I think what you have is Bermuda Grass. Crabgrass does not have underground
rhizomes, if any at all. It is more like a bunch grass and has wider leaves
than the Bermuda Grass.

Golden Love
Love's Gardens
Creating and Maintaining Sustainable Urban Landscapes
California Licensed Contractor C27 363672
127 National St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone (831) 471-9100
Fax ( 831) 471-9200
goldenlove@cruzio.com

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dieter Brand
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 6:42 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] crabgrass eradication

Steve,

I know that crabgrass goes dormant in fall and starts growing
again when the weather gets warm in the spring, but I was of
the opinion that it grows from the rhizomes, apart from
the seeds that is. I can't really proof this, but when digging 
out rhizomes from my vegetable garden last March, the green
blades had only just shown above the surface, while a large 
network of rhizomes reached at least 1 foot underground 
with older pieces which had gone almost woody. It would 
have been impossible for the rhizomes to grow in the few 
warm days we had until March. And there is no reason 
why the tiny seeds should germinate at a depth of a foot 
or more. Perhaps, the difference can be explained by the 
climate. We only occasionally have light nighttime frost
in the winter.

By the way, referring to an earlier post of yours, it is quite
easy to dig out crabgrass from loose garden soil if you 
use a spading fork (if that is the term used in English, it is 
called Grabgabel in German) to loosen the soil near the 
crabgrass, then you can carefully pull the whole bundle 
of rhizomes out of the ground at one go. Never use a spade. 
A spade will cut the rhizomes into smaller pieces which will 
each grow into a new rhizome.

Dieter Brand
Portugal



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