How to deal with Poa Annua

Last week I talked about how to deal with Rescuegrass, but there is another grassy weed that is just as bad this time of year that goes by the name Poa Annua.

A lot of people confuse Rescuegrass and Poa Annua, but they are pretty easy to tell apart if you see them side by side. Poa Annua is a smaller weed, it is a lighter shade of green, it has thinner blades, and it also has small white blooms on it this time of year (see the picture in the video).

The way you deal with Poa Annua is very similar to Rescuegrass. Poa Annua is also a winter weed, so it is crucial to get the fall pre-emergent right to minimize breakthrough. Like Rescuegrass, the post emergents available for Poa Annua are pretty limited. There are a lot of products labeled for Poa Annua, but many of them just don’t work. We typically get good results from Certainty and Revolver, but its not 100% kill rate.

So to deal with it, just like with Rescugrass, your best bet is to wait it out. Keep it mowed down, and as the temperatures rise in the coming weeks it will die off. The next step from there is to get your pre-emergent down this fall!