kikuyu grass invasion

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Peter Warne, Feb 20, 2005.

  1. Peter Warne

    Peter Warne Junior Member

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    Over summer we have seen kikuyu grass creep across all the mulch patches around our citrus trees, other fruit trees and bamboo. Does anyone have an idea for getting rid of it, short of going around and digging it all out by hand? There would be about 80 patches affected. HELP !

    Peter
     
  2. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    dreaded kikyu

    Man, that kikyu is really a hard thing to get over. You can try to outcompete it with more rampant but potentially useful or beneficial species. PLant lots of cuttings of sweet potato, or perennial peanut or annual legumes or combinations of the above, and "disfavour" the grass by cutting it off/pulling it out whenever it pops up its head. This technique sometimes works well in conjunction with a sheet mulch approach, where you suppress the grass with layers of newspaper and cardboard and other mulches to prevent it from photosynthesizing. Some friends of mine are having some success with this technique by first cutting it so there is a bed of mulch on top of the grass, then they lay that black weedmat stuff down for oh, 6 months or so. It is still really important to plant up every square foot asap after removing this layer though, because one little piece of root of kikyu will soon become a luch verdant field...
    Probably not here, but someone is bound to tell you to use a herbicide, but I'm not sure that even that would work, even it wasn't a really bad idea.
    Sorry I can't be of more help. Hopefully some bright spark out there has the real answer...
     
  3. makehumusnotwar

    makehumusnotwar Junior Member

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    i reckon concrete would work.

    i'm playing the same battle with kikuyu and especially couch grass. in fact, the DPI could use photos of our place in the next "noxious weeds and bloody annoying grasses" guide.

    i've tried sheet mulching, with newspaper and cardboard and thick hay, but once the damn grass finds even the tiniest hole - it's everywhere. especially during summer where it's growing back as you're pulling it out.
    currently for some of the larger patches i'm trying solarizing with black plastic left down for a couple of weeks or so - at least that'll give me a head start.

    good luck with the grass, but more importantly - your sanity
     
  4. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    black plastic

    humus, I would recomend you leave that plastic on there for longer than a few weeks. A few months might do it. :lol: :roll:
     
  5. makehumusnotwar

    makehumusnotwar Junior Member

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    hi richard - yeah, i meant a couple of months but for some reason said weeks. though this time, i think i'll just keep checking it to know when to lift it. last time i left the sheet down for over 6 months as i forgot about it, then had a lot of trouble actually finding the thing. even more trouble trying to remove it in one piece. EVERYTHING had grown up, around and over it. especially that damn invincible pumpkin vine.

    another point for those trying solarization - be careful how you remove the plastic at the end. snakes tend to like the protection, and even if they don't bite you, can often cause serious cardiac arrest followed by abundant profanity as you're falling over backwards down the hill away from them.
     
  6. Peter Warne

    Peter Warne Junior Member

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    Yeah, Humus - insolarisation with the dreaded black plastic sounds like the best in terms of ease of application. I'm just a bit worried about the effect on surface feeding trees like citrus. There must be a risk of overheating them and sterilising them along with the kikuyu and other grass. The solution which comes to mind is to put a layer of mulch on first, then the plastic. Meanwhile I'll go on thinking about it. My favourite permaculture activity.

    Peter
     
  7. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    I open myself up to criticism from the purists - but here's my thoughts on this subject:

    I have some moderately large areas on my place that were severely weed infested when I got there - and were rapidly becoming bigger. Weeds included annuals and perennials (kikuyu and couch included).

    At first I used the newspaper under sugarcane mulch technique. Very effective, but I became worried by the interest shown by termites in eating the paper. FOr this reason, in areas closer to the house I weighed up my options, bit the bullet and used some glyphosphate.

    I whipper snipped first, sprayed a week or 2 later, then a couple of weeks after that laid down a moderatelly thick layer of sugarcane mulch. Anything that comes through - which is rare - is removed organically (normally by hand).

    I am comfortable with my decision to use the glyphosphate in that:
    - the area was not subject to runoff into water sources
    - the effort, cost and time involved with other methods - not to mention the likelihood of failure
    - procrastination was just seeing the weeds spread to other areas and become a bigger problem
    - the final result is a positive one, maintenance not involving poison

    I know a similar thread has occurred previously re: use of glypho and I don't mean to open taht debate - I just think that sometimes such concessions are well and trully reasonable.
     
  8. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Is the grass coming from outside your "compound"?

    I don't have kikuyu (unless it's called something else here), but I have other kinds of running grass that would be a real nuisance if it didn't have such competition from the other kinds of wild grasses! :D

    I have dramatically cut down the weed infestations in my cultivated area, but the running grass comes in from the neighbors on all sides (I only have an acre). I am planning on setting up a chicken moat (a 3'/ 1M wide poultry wire tunnel) around my perimeter. It has proven to work on other properties, as the chickens delight in eating anything green that dares to enter the moat. Of course, that doesn't kill what is WITHIN the property...

    But if you have large properties, this probably wouldn't be effective.

    Sue
     
  9. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Go the Chook patrol! :lol:
     
  10. Cly

    Cly Junior Member

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    Kikuyu.......*shudder* I haven't been able to Master it in the past, thankfully I don't have to deal with it at present. What annoys me is that Kikuyu is used to 'improve' pastures for cattle on quite the scale.

    The chicken moat is a fantastic idea btw! Necessity is the mother of invention :)
     
  11. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    I didn't catch it the first time, but why are you using BLACK plastic for solarizing? Generally, you use clear plastic for that, watering well first, laying down the plastic, securing the edges, then letting the sun heat up the area under the plastic. I know black plastic heats soil, but the clear plastic has show to heat it up DEEPER. Cook the stuff out of existence! At the end of the warm season, remove the plastic & mulch heavily or plant a green mulch.

    I also noted concern for citrus trees & their shallow roots. How about making a circular wire chicken moat around the drip line, inserting chickens ("chooks" is a funny word!), and solarizing outside the chicken area? Just a thought -- I haven't tried it, but the theory is fairly sound.

    Sue
     
  12. peter hardwick

    peter hardwick Junior Member

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    kikuyu grass invasion

    Two things about kikuyu that are its achilles heel: it's sun loving, and it's a vigorus summer grower (comparatively dormant in winter).

    If you block our sunlight to kikuyu it dies out. If you get a good thicket of winter annuals you can force it out during its' slow time.

    A lot of permaculturists I know also achieve excellent results with legumous shrubs planted in the spaces between trees i.e. pigeon pea, acacia (short species) starving kikuyu of sunlight as well.

    In one rowed orchard system that I planted we achieved fantastic results controlling kikuyu using an annual meadow displacement method (starving kik' of sunlight). In autumn we planted a high density of lupins (4 times recommended rate), immediately followed by cowpeas in spring (high rates sowing rates as well). N.B. If doing this again I'd also include annual cereals to soak up the nitrogen released by the legumes. We also applied lime and rock phosphate to correct mineral deficiencies and slashed the kikuyu back hard before sowing. It's all in the timing with this method, especially with rain with surface sowings (just sowed some lupins with what little rain we've recieved this autumn)!!

    The problem with this annual meadow approach, is that it is only an interim solution (same with glyphosate) to buy you time until you set-up a perennial, low maintainence solution, a mixed species perennial meadow (I'm favouring paper daisies and plectranthus for beneficial insects, and warrigal greens etc for self-sowing food) or legumous shrubs (usually temporary fill-ins - 3 or 4 years - until fruit trees etc are established).
     
  13. peter hardwick

    peter hardwick Junior Member

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    kikuyu grass invasion

    Just another afterthought on this: the annual meadow displacement method works for me, but I have noticed that some people have problems with the reliability of surface sowing annuals. It's worth checking weather forecastes to ensure rain for a few days when sowing.

    Also, many permaculturists prefer ducks for weed control among citrus trees in preference to chooks, as the ducks don't scratch up surface roots.

    And temporary black plastic mulching to kill kik' - leaving down for say 3 months - (never leave on there permanently!!) seems to work really well on a small area for an effective kik' wipeout. It's ok to rotate over an area of an acre or two - reusing the same piece of plastic over and over again. And after you lift the plastic you can immediately sow it with annuals/ perennnial herbs etc. NB If you lift the plastic and leave bare soil you'll quickly end-up with a broad-leaf weed problem. Of course plastic like this is not as environmentally friendly as the use of annuals or poultry, because you eventually have a disposal problem, but it's probably still less toxic than glyphosate (?)

    Some people use a frog friendly glyphosate mix (never use the old mixes with very nasty detergents) for initial one off application to get rid of kik'. It's also worth considering the ethics of the manufacturer - one glyphosate manfacturer produced the infamous Agent Orange used in Vietnam (and I will never buy their product for that reason alone). Kikuyu is very sensitive to glyphosate and some people use it at a lower dilution than recommended by the manfacturer (though strictly speaking this is illegal in Australia). Personally I never use glyphosate for kik' control (prefering softer solutions), but I can see the ease of use advantages with a LOT of qualifications (i.e. especially never next to a waterway or anywhere adjacent to sensitive natural habitat !!). Also, it's sobering to remember that stuff said about the safety of glyphosate has been dodgy.

    Frankly, I can understand why some people will not go near glyphosate!
     
  14. Pete

    Pete New Member

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    You don't have a Kikuyu excess you have a pig deficiency :lol:

    Seriously if you could find a way to protect your trees just one pig would clear that grass in a day. ...ok so it would take a month to flatten the moonscape again afterwards but hey ....look no grass.
     
  15. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Someone needs to start up a Rent-a-Pig business! :lol:

    Sue
     
  16. Paul Darrington

    Paul Darrington Junior Member

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    this reply is overkill

    Having bought our 2.5 acres only a year ago, we're still in the stage of 'grass replacement' - replacing the various grasses for leguminous & flowering perennials & deep rooted herbs.

    I've probably spent more time thinking about solutions to this, than any other problem.
    But many on this forum have more experience than I. So take from this what makes sense & disregard the rest.


    Tackle the grass before planting tree's.
    I've found it much harder to replace grass in area's where young fruit tree's already exist.
    Secondly, the sooner you replace dominating grasses with beneficial legumes , the better. Your tree's will perform better, being planted a year later, into well prepared soil, amongst beneficial ground covers.
    Rather than a year earlier, amongst thickly rooted grasses that suck up all the moisture!


    Design landscape to be mower friendly
    Mowers are not a part of the permaculture system, but they're near essential for the first few years!
    It's doubtfull that you'll replace all the grass on the property in the first year - so you will have grass to mow, or face an overgrown grass jungle!

    Sow dominating groundcovers (cowpea, lucerne, chicory) as soon as earthworks is finished. - but remember that grass seed will still shoot up & eventually take over.
    Always try to establish a dense legume tree canopy as well - this is your best bet against grass taking over.
    (yes pigeon pea & cassia's will germinate from seed when direct sown, if reasonable rainfall & minimal grass competition).

    When earthworking in the early stages, try to minimise unmowable slopes (dam edges/banks, swale edges, small swales or 'bumps')
    i.e. aim for a gentle slope right to the waters edge around ponds & dams, and ensure it is finished smoothly so as it's mowable.
    (this can be done by towing two timber pallets chained behind the ride-one, after the earthworks)

    There is no huge concern of grass establishing on smooth, flat, mowable land - thats easily controled.
    BUT, when grass establishes on swale edges, dam edges & other unmowable slopes - you've got a problem.

    This is a picture of our terraces - note the unmanagable grass growing on slopes between each terrace...
    [​IMG]


    Newspaper or cardboard sheet mulching just wont work on steep slopes & edges.
    This is the only area where old carpet should be considered (full of chemicals). Readily available in long peices, it can be layed over slopes, making a great geotextile that mulch will stick to (on slopes).
    Cover with sawdust (woodchips slip & slide down slope), or just plant many sweet potato cuttings to cover carpet.
    You should plan to take this carpet up in ~2yrs time - or as soon as the area is densley shaded. - so plant lots of tree's - permanent fruit tree's, & densley fill the gaps with legume tree's.

    I prefer to terrace 'rice paddy style' (big 3m wide swales), rather than lots of small fiddly swales..
    Lots of small fiddly swales cut into a slope works great on paper & once a dense canopy has formed with thick groundcover...
    But trying to eradicate grass on such a slope is a nightmare! - impossible to mow, being a mixture of slopes & small swales, very difficult to sheet mulch being on such a slope.
    So if planning to cut many small swales on a slope - eradicate dominate grasses first - replace with non dominant annuals like millet or rye.
    then cut the swales & then sow with thousands of pigeon pea, chicory, lucerne, sweet potato, cowpea etc. - Don't give grass the slightest chance to move in.


    Replacing Grass by sheet mulching
    think long & hard about local mulch resources...
    grass clippings are free & abundent if in suburbia... stock pile this to be ready for sheet mulching. it will anerobically ferment & help decompose the grass your mulching over.
    Newspaper, in my opinion is better than cardboard boxes (alwayse covered in stickytape). You can ussually pickup 30 odd bundles from a newsagent or the newspaper distributor.
    Lay the newspaper thick! real thick & over lap many times.
    Remove grass around trees - as this is where the grass always pops up.
    Mulch heavily.
    If thinly mulched, after 3 months when grass beneth has died, plant out sweetpotato cuttings densley - to suppress any grass that pops up.


    Replacing grass using rotary tiller
    I was keen to takle large area's or grass - so we bought a rotary tiller (Husqvana D70 is only one to buy).
    It works best on a shallow setting - to minimise subsoil damage & earthworm carnage.
    Then raking the de-rooted grass into furrows (on contour) which will decompose. (or rake into big mounds at each spot where a tree will be planted)
    Sow a cover crop straight away into the bare soil (as the microbes are being sunburnt!)
    It is likley that grass seed will come up with this cover crop,
    slash it before it goes to seed, then till on more time.
    Now sow your mixture of permanent ground covers. - leave the grass mound/furrows to decompose.

    My brother on the rotary tiller - note the tall grass around tree in background - the unmowable zone - problematic
    [​IMG]


    Replacing grass bit by bit using chicken power!
    I must say, i would have rathered buy chickens & a small fence, rather than the rotary tiller.
    Fence of a small area, depending on the number of chickens you have.
    Overstocking the chickens & supplementing them with grain is the quick way to move along & erradicate the grass.
    A 1.2m fence & a few starpickets is all you'll need (just make their moveable night house completley fox proof)
    Pick up 20 or 30 old hens cheap from a free range poultry farmer. (make sure they know how to forage!
    many "free range chickens" rarley forage in the grass, as they're fed so much grain from a trough! - so choose wisely)
    When feeding them, scatter it all over the ground - make them forage - and it also prevents them from eating too quickly!
    when area is devoid of grass, move the pen along (should only take 1/2 hr) & plant out the bare ground.

    This method can be as slow of quick as you make it. it will cost in feed, but it saves you sheet mulching or the cost of a tiller.


    Learn to live with the grass
    Maybe grass is not so bad after all?
    ask any earthworm or microbe, & he/she'll tell you that pastures are a choice place to live!
    Grass generally has a very thick, but shallow root system & sucks up a lot of moisture (mainly when allowed to grow tall)
    When grass grows around tree's, one would think that it forces the tree to send deep roots in search of water - beneficial to the tree's long term health.
    But the general concensous is that grass is no good around tree's - easy solved, just mulch heavily around tree's - or use hesian potato bags, or even big squares of capret.
    [​IMG]
    the edges of this mulch line can be problematic if planning to mow grass between tree's.
    so use Geese, guniea pigs, or olde type southdown sheep (minature sheep) to graze between ESTABLISHED or gaurded tree's - and you eliminate that problem too!

    Using Guinea Pigs to mow grass between tree's
    This is purley theory - I have not tried it, but intend to.
    The guinea pig is the only reliable grass mower that will not destroy young tree's (that i can think of).
    They breed like crazy, are great with kids, but are prone to predetors..
    hence, a snake proof fence is needed, along with a dense canopy, to protect them from predatory birds (very densley planted pigeon pea).

    Hmm, that idea just failed - how can one establish a dense canopy of legume tree - without erradicating the grass first!

    Using Geese or Minature sheep to control grass between tree's
    Geese are considederd the 'brushcutters' of fowl.
    I guess you could let them free range amongst tree's that are over 0.8m high - say 2yr old seedlings.
    They will not effectivley keep grass down unless stocked high enough & may also need to be supplemented to some extent. (extra cost - but better than mower fuel)

    we have a traditional type of 'minature' sheep, quite rare in Australia; the 'olde english 'babydoll' southdown.
    they stand approx 25 - 30" high & will browse on most tree's, unless leaves are out of reach.
    So tree's should be approx 1m high or so, before ranging sheep amongst orchard.
    So far, we have not found them to chew the bark of tree's, like goats would.
    They are extremley effective at evenly mowing grass (even tough grasses), littering the orchard with masses of manure pellets!
    (dung beetles should be introduced to orchard - which aeaate the soil by tunneling).

    This fence is 0.9m high - these sheep are full grown!
    [​IMG]


    So What to sow as perenial ground covers?

    Sweetpotato & Comfery - large leaves & dominant
    [​IMG]


    Chicory & clover - chicory is easy to establish & has deep taproot
    [​IMG]



    Remember - a thick tree canopy is the long term solution beating grass - along with dominant shade tolerant ground covers.
    So the construction of an automated nursery to raise thousands of legume tree's should be high on the agenda! well thats my solution.
    [/img]
     
  17. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Um, I'm in the glyphosate-is-a-really-bad-idea camp, but with rabies, which, thankfully, is in remission.

    Paul! Nice work on control! Thanks for reviving this thread with valuable input!
     
  18. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    RABIES?????

    Sue
     
  19. teela

    teela Junior Member

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    Great pics Paul. Seems like you've been busy on your block. Your brother is a hottie! Hmmmmm now if I was a few years younger and not married I'd be sayin he can leave his shoes under my bed anytime.
    And those sheep....I've never heard of them before. Their lambs must be so tiny and cute, do you have anymore pics of them? Do you need to get dwarfs in to shear them?
    Ok back to the subject of Kikuyu......at the risk of being shot down in flames, Glysophate is very effective, make sure the grass is happy first, perhaps do it in spring after good rain, then one hit and it's gone.
    This is a good choice if it's in a difficult to get to area, down a steep slope or in my case right near the road.
    Chow
    Teela
     
  20. Tas'

    Tas' Junior Member

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    Re: this reply is overkill


    Wouldn't it be easier to keep the guinea pigs in hutches and move them around, like using a chicken tractor or dome, rather than worrying about a snake proof fence and dense canopy?
     

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