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What Are the Herbicides for Wild Onions?
What Are the Herbicides for Wild Onions?. Wild onion is a fast-growing weed with waxy leaves and a pungent odor that can make any lawn and garden smell terrible. To control and prevent the growth of wild onions, you need to build up the health of your lawn while simultaneously using herbicides and other weed-removing processes. Unfortunately, there...
Wild onion is a fast-growing weed with waxy leaves and a pungent odor that can make any lawn and garden smell terrible. To control and prevent the growth of wild onions, you need to build up the health of your lawn while simultaneously using herbicides and other weed-removing processes. Unfortunately, there is no preventative herbicide on the market for wild onions, so your best approach is an aggressive one to tackling this weed.
Organic Herbicides
If you have a small amount of wild onion growing in your yard, you may want to try vinegar as an organic herbicide to spot-treat the weeds. Because wild onion leaves have a waxy coating, you may need to take a scouring pad to scratch off the protective layers before spraying vinegar on them. Another alternative is to mow your lawn and then spray vinegar as an organic herbicide.
Non-Organic Herbicides
Effective three-way broadleaf herbicides for wild onion include ingredients like 2,4-D, dicamba and mecoprop. Some examples available are Bayer Advanced Southern Weed Killer for Lawns, Spectracide Weed Stop 2X Weed Killer for Lawns, or Spectracide Weed Stop for Lawns Concentrate for Southern Lawns. Other effective non-organic herbicides are metsulfuron methyl (Manor), imazaquin (Image) and imazapic (Plateau). With repeated applications, these herbicides will control wild onion and wild garlic.
When To Use Herbicides
The best way to control wild onion from spreading is to treat your lawn with herbicides in November, late winter and early spring. In early spring, be extra vigilant about using herbicides on wild onion growth so it does not have a chance to grow more bulbs.
How to Use Herbicides
Unfortunately, wild onion is extremely difficult to control, even with herbicides, because it grows from bulbs underground that are very difficult to kill. When using herbicide to kill a small patch of wild onions, you will need gloves to protect your hands and to dip a scouring pad in herbicide to scratch off the protective layer of wax on the leaves and let the herbicide penetrate the wild onion's leaves. For larger swaths of wild onion, use a lawnmower before spraying the herbicide. Be sure to clean your mower's blades afterward to prevent recontaminating your lawn, and give the herbicide at least two weeks to work before mowing your lawn again.
