Controlling wild onions and garlic in the lawn

     During the winter months, area lawns are troubled by many weeds; however, wild onions and garlic are particularly troublesome. The two are very similar in growth habit and appearance, and most importantly, are controlled the same way.

     Wild garlic is a cool-season perennial weed with slender, hollow cylindrical leaves. The plant derives its energy and resilience from underground white bulbs, which bear offset bulblets. It's the bulb and additional bulblets that make wild garlic so challenging to control. It occurs in lawns, fields, pastures, and athletic fields and produces a distinctive garlic odor when crushed or mowed. Wild onion is often found on the same sites as wild garlic. You can distinguish the two by looking at the roots. Wild onion does not produce offset bulblets.

   Many lawn and garden enthusiasts spend hours trying to remove the bulblets by hand. In the case of wild garlic, you are almost sure to leave a piece of the bulb or bulblet in the ground, which will likely produce another plant. The difficulty in controlling it comes from the fact that it reproduces from the bulbs and by seed. Also, the fact that wild garlic and wild onion bulbs can live in the soil for years doesn't help either. For this reason, control requires a long-term commitment to winning the battle with wild garlic and wild onions.

    As for control, the best product available is Image, which contains the active ingredient, imazaquin. The herbicide is labeled for use only in established bermuda, centipede, St. Augustine, and zoysia.  Image can cause injury to other turfgrasses, including tall fescue. It also is active on, annual sedges, yellow and purple nutsedges. When using Image, do not apply to lawns hat are emerging from winter dormancy in the spring as well as to newly planted or sprigged turfgrasses.

    For tall fescue lawns, use an herbicide containing 2, 4-D, which is common in broadleaf weed control products such as the Bayer Advanced and Ortho products. They are available in many formulations, and can even be purchased in a ready-to-use version. As with all pesticides, please observe all label directions and safety precautions.

    So, the next time you're faced with a yard full of wild garlic and wild onions, don't panic. Several options are available for control, and the battle is one that can be won with patience and diligence.

Wild onions infest lawns. Peter Dziuk, Minnesota Department
of Agriculture, Bugwood.org. 

Wild garlic is similar to wild onions, but it produces underground bulblets. Ohio State Weed Lab, 

The Ohio State University, Bugwood.org.