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Ironton, ohio

In a bid to keep the wife happy once season was over I overseeded the pumpkin patch with tall fescue needless to say its a beautiful grassy patch now. What will be the best approach to turn this back to a pumpkin patch come spring? Cut and rottotill? Spray to kill, cut, till? Buy dedicated pumpkin property? How does everyone deal with grass in their patch?

11/28/2020 12:32:13 PM

Grittyville, WA

I have thought a lot about this because roundup seems to me to be detrimental (if you go that route I think you would want to use the least quantity possible... it does bind away important micronumtrients... and if you spill it on the ground I am not sure a soil test would even detect the absence of those nutrients?) I think you'd do great to mow it really short and cover with mulch or newspaper or whatever. Or solarize it but that takes at least an 80 degree day in May. For the no-till route the key is to weaken it and never let it regain strength with diligent burying and covering starting in early March... keep ot buried all spring and then you can finally (incidentally) bury it again when burying vines. The only grass that will cause further trouble than that is the wire type grass... it continually resists every type of effort so it requires physical removal. The good news is that regular old lawn grass isnt that tough. Part of the reason these strategies have worked for me is I am not using pesticides. Bugs are really incredible at destroying plants... once you learn how to trick them into eating the ones you dont want. Probably this works better in a mild climate where they dont all freeze. Lol if you can figure out how to make a woman happy then making bugs happy should certainly be no problem.

11/28/2020 6:02:09 PM

Dillonvale, Ohio

Cut and till it in. It's a good way to add OM to your patch. You may want to add a little urea when you add your amendments because the grass will tie up your nitrogen as it decomposes.

11/28/2020 6:03:35 PM

Syracuse, NY

However, if you don't kill it before you till it in, what's to keep it from growing right back? even grass is considered a weed in an otherwise weed-free pumpkin patch; i have and always will kill it all with any Glyphosate weed killer i get from Tractor Supply @ like 46% @ 8 oz./gallon through my Roundup backpack sprayer and until i dumly let them get outta hand again, i had a great, weed-free and 'just me and my AGs' patch going on, lol; then, what i call 'pig weed' starts its innocent little growth habit...my cover crop didn't take and it's all 'downhill' from there; funny that if you're skiing, that phrase is a GOOD thing! later---eg

11/28/2020 6:39:31 PM

Grittyville, WA

pumpkinpal...think about it maybe a little lawn grass would be preferable to deep rooted & taller pigweed? But... your pb is higher so you win. My 2 cents here can be filed under "general gardening" advice.

11/28/2020 8:02:30 PM

Central NY

Wolf wins.

11/28/2020 8:38:14 PM

Syracuse, NY

Nyeaahhh, 'YES', and 'whatever'; The original question was 'How does everyone deal..." and i did mention i had a cover crop that didn't 'take', which lazily grew in nicely over the summer, here and there, lol - What to do with grass? Same thing, but it'd be generally more expensive than my Dutch White Clover...i have plenty to try again with in '21; just gotta get about 10 pounds of it out of the drop spreader and make a Chia pet to see if it's still any good; not worried about the stored 50 pounds otherwise; I do have a plan - eg

11/28/2020 11:55:29 PM

Grittyville, WA

Wolf wins after Dalton convinces his wife that she won.

11/29/2020 2:19:26 AM

Grittyville, WA

/wins. Thats the part I always forget?

11/29/2020 2:23:12 AM

Syracuse, NY

I can hear it now:
Neighbor: "Nice patch!"
Reply: "Yeah, Fescue";
Neighbor: "What???"
I just saw 'Bad Grandpa', so...eg

11/29/2020 5:58:45 AM

Ironton, ohio

I knew you guys wouldn't disappoint.

11/29/2020 6:08:01 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Sethoxydym will take care of that grass and is not harmful to pumpkins

11/29/2020 8:43:44 AM

Ironton, ohio

Thanks Engels!

11/29/2020 9:02:04 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Wolf3080 nailed it, great advice.

12/1/2020 11:15:54 AM