Wild onions in your yard. What to do?
Wild onions, also known as field garlic or wild garlic, can be a persistent and challenging weed to eradicate from your yard. These perennial plants have a strong odor and can quickly spread through their bulbs and seeds.
To effectively control wild onions, a combination of cultural, mechanical, and chemical methods may be necessary.
Cultural Control
Maintain a healthy, dense lawn by proper mowing, fertilizing, and watering practices. A thick, vigorous turf can help outcompete wild onions. Overseed bare or thin areas of your lawn to reduce the available space for wild onions to establish.
Mechanical Control
Hand-pull or dig out wild onion plants, ensuring you remove the entire bulb and as much of the root system as possible. Repeated cultivation or hoeing can help deplete the energy reserves of the bulbs, eventually weakening the plants.
Chemical Control
Apply a post-emergent herbicide containing active ingredients like Anime 2,4-D weed killer, dicamba, or sulfentrazone when wild onions are actively growing and after the first few mowings of the season. For severe infestations, consider using a non-selective herbicide like glyphosate, but exercise caution as it will kill all vegetation it contacts.
Repeat applications may be necessary as wild onions can regrow from any remaining bulbs or bulblets in the soil.
Persistence and a combination of these methods are key to effectively managing wild onions in your yard. It may take several growing seasons to achieve satisfactory control, as wild onions can be challenging to eradicate.
