Doveweed is the weed that beats good weed control programs, and it does it with timing. It germinates late, well after the spring pre-emergent everyone applies has started running out of steam, and it looks enough like a grass to escape notice until it has formed dense mats. By the time most people identify it, it is August and it is everywhere.
Identifying it
Doveweed is not a grass, though at a glance it reads like one. Look for:
- Thick, fleshy, succulent stems that root at the nodes where they touch soil
- Leaves that are narrow and lance-shaped, shiny, and noticeably thicker and more rubbery than grass blades
- A slightly bluish or darker green tone that stands out against centipede
- Small blue to purple three-petaled flowers in late summer
- Growth in dense mats that spread outward, smothering turf
The rooting-at-the-nodes habit is important. It means every fragment left behind can start a new plant, so pulling it or mowing through it can spread it rather than reduce it.
Where it shows up
Doveweed loves wet. It concentrates in the areas of a lawn that stay damp: low spots that hold water, ground with poor drainage, areas under a leaking or overlapping sprinkler head, shaded ground that never dries, and compacted soil that sheds water into one place.
That is a diagnostic in itself. A doveweed problem is very often a drainage or irrigation problem that has been going on long enough to show up as a plant. If you kill the doveweed without changing the moisture conditions, you have created bare ground in a wet spot, and something else will move into it.
Why it is hard to control
Three reasons stack up.
Late germination. Doveweed needs warm soil, warmer than crabgrass. It germinates from late spring into summer, weeks after a March pre-emergent application went down. By July, that barrier has degraded and doveweed comes up through the gap.
Waxy, thick leaves. The succulent leaf surface sheds herbicide. Poor coverage plus poor absorption means partial control and a plant that recovers.
Node rooting. Even a knocked-back plant regenerates from surviving stem sections in contact with soil.
The pre-emergent timing that works
This is the key adjustment. A single early spring pre-emergent application will not cover doveweed. What works is a sequential program: the normal spring application timed for crabgrass, followed by a second application later in spring as soil temperatures continue climbing, to have a barrier in place when doveweed germinates.
Follow the label on total seasonal application limits and re-treatment intervals, because those exist for good reasons and vary by product. And be careful with product selection on centipede, which is more sensitive than most turf.
Post-emergent reality
Once doveweed is established, expect repeat applications rather than one-and-done. Coverage matters enormously given the waxy leaf, so applications need to genuinely wet the foliage and the label will tell you whether a surfactant is appropriate.
On centipede in particular, be careful. Centipede is sensitive to several common broadleaf herbicides, and applying something that is not labeled for centipede, or applying in high heat outside the label temperature range, will damage the lawn along with the weed. Read the entire label. If it does not name your grass species, do not use it on your grass.
Fix the conditions or it comes back
This is the part that determines whether you are solving the problem or renting a solution.
- Drainage. If water stands in that area after a rain, that is the actual issue. Regrading, a swale or a drain line does more than any herbicide.
- Irrigation. Check for a head watering that area twice, a leaking valve, or a zone running far longer than it needs. Doveweed patches sit under overlapping coverage remarkably often.
- Compaction. Compacted ground sheds water to low spots and grows thin turf. Aeration at the right season helps both.
- Shade. Ground that never gets sun never dries. Thinning limbs helps.
- Turf density. Thick, healthy turf is the best weed control there is. Doveweed establishes in gaps.
What not to do
Do not pull it and leave fragments behind. Do not mow through a heavy patch and then across the rest of the lawn, since you are distributing rooting stem pieces. And do not respond to a thin, weedy wet area by fertilizing it, because you will feed the weed at least as much as the grass.
If you have a recurring patch you cannot get on top of, it is usually worth having someone look at the moisture situation rather than the plant. Let us know and we will take a look while we are out.