Chick Weed Invasion

[Cricket]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum as I just found it today. I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions I have regarding Chick Weed.

I spent the best part of last year trying to control this horrible little weed. Hours upon hours of digging and pulling have been for want seems like nothing. This year it's back and worse than ever. Is this a perennial weed or just a stubborn little annual? How can I control it? Poisons are not an option as I have pets. Where is it coming from? I've never had a problem with it before last year. It seems to grow almost over night in some areas of my gardens. :evil:

Cricket

Hi Cricket,

you don't say where you are, but if you mean the same by chick weed as what I mean
by chick weed, I have almost given up on it. We have pets (cats) too and they distribute
the seeds by getting them stuck in their coats. I pull some sometimes, but as it is one of
the less offensive weeds here I only do so when I don't have more offensive weeds to
deal with ...

To me it's a perennial, but I'm in the tropics. It is probably easier to control if you can get
to it before it goes to seed, but we have it mostly in the lawn and it grows fast here.
Our neighbor says that chickens like it, so if you have the option to get (or borrow) some
chickens, that might help.

Maren

Up in Canada we have it too - it seems to propagate by both seed and roots - and the roots are so fine that it is impossible to yank out. I've got it bad in my strawberry bed - the bed is old anyhow and I'm going to make a new one this summer - transplant just the runners from the old plants since the plants themselves are woven with chickweed roots. And I focus on pulling up the chickweed before it goes to seed so I can at least slow the spread of the darn stuff. Thank goodness it's not in my veg garden yet!

I just did some googling, and I think our "chickweed" here in Hawaii is different from yours, but
anyway, I've been thinking about trying a broad leaf weed killer on it. I find it very annoying
as the stems of the flowers/seeds stick to everything, making preventing of tracking it
around almost impossible. Ours is mostly in the lawn, I'm not aure I'd want to use a broad-leaf
weed killer anywhere near a strawberry or vegie bed.

Aloha,

Maren