[Forge]

Anyone out there know of an application for turf that will kill epiphytes? I have a new maintenance contract whose backyard lawn looks like a fern grotto. They evidently came with the sod that they laid a couple years ago and have bred like rabbits. I have tried the standard weed killers which have no effect, they don't want to replace the lawn nor pay for manual removal, (there are literally 100's if not 1000's.)

[phototropic1]

Charge them lots of money for the brilliant idea of having a fern grotto!

I'm kidding, of course.

By the way, what are these epiphytes?

[Forge]

epiphytes are plants that do not require soil, but draw nutrients through the air or water. The particular fern-like plant that is in the lawn is most commonly found growing in the moss of mature bigleaf maples.

[phototropic1]

Thanks Forge. I actually know what epiphytes are, but I realize my question made it seem like I didn't. I was mainly interested in knowing what kind of epiphytes are growing in the lawn. I'm in the South, so I'm familiar with Spanish Moss and Resurrection Fern, but am interested to know what you have growing up there.

[Forge]

The particular epiphyte that has infested this lawn is licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

I have spent hours looking for a solution online, but all I find are conservation groups that are trying to replant it or harvesting techniques for its rhizomes which are an alternative to antihistamines and taste like licorice.

[Forge]

For those of you needing to eradicate those of the ferny-kind, I have finally found that two applications of Weed-B-Gone Max mixed to a double strength will kill the licorice fern, IF, and only IF you don't cut it for at least 3 weeks. If you do mow it down, it seems that it does not absorb the chemical fast enough and starts shooting new fronds again.

[GLAN]

I was going to say that keeping the chemical on the plant long enough, that would mean not cutting the lawn.

Seems you need a chemical that will translocate to the root system.....as in Roundup.......did you consider roundup doing a wand application?

A while back I had planted a pennisetum that spread seeds all over the lawn.....2 years ago I got rid of the plants and just last summer I decided to do something with the plants in the lawn.......I did a wick application of roundup.......followed that up with another application......then spot seeded.

The results this year was impressive......only about 1/3 returned. I do the same thing this summer and be done.

[Forge]

I did finally resort to not cutting it, I had them turn off the sprinklers to slow the grass down so it wouldn't get too tall.

I discussed Roundup with them, but they didn't like the idea of having to reseed the vast majority of their backyard after just spending the money on sodding it. Instead I spent a couple months dumping gallons of chemicals into their backyard...personally I would have just cut 'em out and resodded.