Daffodils, like any other flower bulb, are beautiful when they grow and bloom where you want them to. Once daffodils become invasive and start occupying space in your lawn where they’re not supposed to be, the sunny yellow blooms of daffodils will start to look too bright for your eyes. Getting rid of daffodils on your lawn now becomes the right thing to do.
There is a proper way to remove unwanted daffodils from your lawn. If you think removing daffodils is just as easy as pulling them off the ground, you are greatly mistaken. If treated improperly, daffodils will still haunt you in the next growing season. If you’re looking for ways how to get rid of daffodils in lawn, we’ve got you! This article will give you several ways that are easy and proven effective.
Supply the daffodils with things they don’t like
In order to defeat your enemy, you first have to know your enemy. The same rule applies to getting rid of daffodils. If you know how daffodils thrive on your lawn, you’ll gain ideas on what growing conditions they like and what they don’t like.
How can this knowledge help you get rid of daffodils? With this knowledge, you’ll know what conditions can kill the daffodils. Supply the daffodils with what they don’t like, and they’ll slowly hate growing in your lawn.
a. Shade the daffodils from sunlight.
Daffodils thrive best when planted in full sun, especially during their growing season, which is in spring. So, to get rid of unwanted daffodils, prevent them from getting any sunlight. However, daffodils are pretty tough. They can tolerate partial shade or dappled light.
What you can do here is completely block the daffodils from the sunlight. During the growing season, put a black plastic covering over the growing bulb. This will completely block out the sun and prevent the bulb from growing.
b. Overwater the bulb when it’s dormant.
It is important that you have knowledge of the daffodils’ life cycle. Daffodils have different growth requirements per season. If you gain knowledge of how daffodils thrive every season, you’ll know what things to remove from them so they stop growing.
Daffodils are spring-flowering bulbs. This means they grow and bloom in spring. This is when they need the most water that they can get. What you can do here is withhold watering so the daffodils will struggle to grow. After the blooming season, the bulb goes dormant in the summer.
Daffodils prefer well-drained soil because their bulbs are prone to rotting when supplied with too much water. To kill the bulb in summer, overwater the daffodil. In fall, the bulb develops roots before it enters winter chill dormancy. Do not supply any water to the bulb during these seasons.
c. Mow the lawn after the blooming season.
After the blooming season of daffodils in spring, the flowers will wither but the foliage will persist for 6 weeks to store energy and food for the next growing season. It is important that you prevent this from happening if you want to stop the growth of the daffodils in your lawn next spring.
If you have lots of daffodils to deal with, mowing is a much more practical way of removing them. Cut all the stems to the ground immediately after the daffodils bloom in spring.
Dig out unwanted bulbs.
The most common method of removing unwanted bulbs from lawns is to pull them off the ground. However, most of the time, when we pull plants off the ground, roots still remain in the soil. This is the case, especially for already-established plants. It would be difficult to pull up the daffodils that have already grown on your lawn for years.
Roots or bulbs that are not removed from the ground will sprout new plants again in the next growing season. The best way to make sure that the bulb won’t sprout new daffodils again in the spring is to dig out the bulb and remove it from the ground. Use a hand shovel and dig at least 6 inches wider than the bulb. Dig deep enough to get all the roots and the bulbs.
Use herbicides as a last resort
If you’ve already tried all the methods mentioned above and the daffodils still persist, then you can use chemicals as your last resort. Since herbicides contain chemicals that are not environmentally friendly, this method should only be your last resort after you’ve tried all possible methods and still failed to remove the daffodils.
Herbicides are widely used by gardeners to remove unwanted plants. However, improper use and overuse can lead to several problems. Spray a glyphosate-based herbicide on the daffodils in the spring. Do this on a hot and dry day. Spray directly on the foliage so the chemicals can travel all the way down to the bulb and kill the roots.
How To Get Rid Of Daffodils In Lawn: Final thoughts
Bulbs are tough to kill. Digging, spraying, and covering may have to be repeated for up to 3 growing seasons to completely get rid of unwanted daffodils on your lawn.
So, if you want to get rid of them, start now. Delaying the task will just help the daffodils get established and become much tougher to deal with. Overwatering, cutting the foliage after blooming, blocking sunlight, and spraying herbicides are all methods for removing unwanted daffodils growing from your lawn.
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