If you’ve been battling stubborn patches of coarse, fast-spreading grass that just won’t quit, even through winter, you’re likely dealing with Dallisgrass. This aggressive, deep-rooted perennial is one of the most frustrating weeds to manage in Virginia Beach lawns. It thrives in weakened turf, spreads by both seed and underground rhizomes, and, unlike annual weeds like crabgrass, Dallisgrass survives winter and returns stronger each year.
Managing Dallisgrass isn’t about finding a quick fix, it’s about adopting a long-term strategy built around smart turf management, timely suppression, and consistent lawn care practices. While complete eradication is extremely difficult, improving your lawn’s overall health and using carefully timed treatments can dramatically limit Dallisgrass’s spread and minimize its impact.
Let’s break down why Dallisgrass is so tough to control, what steps you can take to manage it effectively, and how Dreamlawns can help you build a plan that strengthens your lawn against this persistent invader.
What Makes Dallisgrass So Hard to Control
Dallisgrass or Paspalum dilatatum isn’t your typical weed, it’s a resilient, resourceful perennial that brings multiple challenges to lawn owners. Understanding why it’s so difficult to manage is key to creating an effective long-term plan.
Aggressive Spread by Rhizomes
Unlike many grassy weeds that only spread by seed, Dallisgrass also sends out rhizomes, underground stems that creep laterally beneath the soil. This allows it to expand quickly, even without producing new seed, making physical removal difficult and often ineffective. Pulling or digging up a plant usually leaves pieces of rhizome behind, which can regrow and reestablish the patch.
Prolific Seed Production
Even if you manage to tackle existing plants, Dallisgrass produces large volumes of seed every year. In heavily contaminated lawns, the soil likely contains a persistent “seed bank” that will continue to sprout for many seasons to come. Mowing over Dallisgrass can also scatter seeds, helping it spread across previously unaffected areas.
Perennial Life Cycle
Unlike annual weeds like crabgrass, Dallisgrass doesn’t die off in winter. It simply goes dormant and reemerges in spring, often bigger and stronger than the year before. Because of its perennial nature, pre-emergent herbicides have little to no effect. Pre-emergent herbicides can prevent seed germination, but they can’t stop already-established Dallisgrass plants from coming back.
Deep Root Carbohydrate Storage
Dallisgrass builds and stores large reserves of carbohydrates in its roots. These energy stores help the plant survive environmental stresses and make herbicide suppression more difficult. Even if a chemical treatment damages the top growth, the strong, well-fed root system often allows Dallisgrass to regrow.
Dallisgrass’s combination of underground spread, prolific seeding, perennial survival, and deep-root resilience makes it one of the most challenging weeds to manage. But with the right approach focused on turf health and carefully timed treatments, it can be suppressed over time.
Why Healthy Turf Is Your Best Defense
When it comes to managing Dallisgrass, similar to other weeds, a strong, dense lawn is your first and most important line of defense. Dallisgrass thrives in areas where turf is thin, stressed, or struggling, so keeping your lawn healthy, competitive, and well-maintained is critical for minimizing its spread.
For Fescue Lawns:
Yearly Seeding: Fescue naturally thins over time and doesn’t spread on its own. Annual overseeding in the fall is essential to maintain turf density and close gaps where Dallisgrass can establish.
Mowing High: Mow Fescue at a height of 3.5 to 4 inches during the summer. Taller grass shades the soil, reduces heat stress, and makes it harder for Dallisgrass seedlings to take hold.
Deep, Infrequent Watering: Shallow, frequent watering encourages weeds and disease. Instead, aim for 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week, applied in one or two deep sessions. This promotes deep root growth and improves turf resilience.
Disease and Insect Management: Summer diseases like brown patch, and insect damage from pests like grubs, can thin out Fescue, giving Dallisgrass an opening. Proactive disease and pest control are essential to preserve turf density.
For Warm-Season Lawns:
Frequent Mowing at Proper Heights: For Bermuda and Zoysia lawns, mowing frequently at the correct height (typically 1–2 inches) keeps turf dense and reduces stress that Dallisgrass could exploit.
Infrequent, Deep Watering: Water warm-season grasses deeply but infrequently to encourage deeper root growth and reduce soil conditions that favor weed establishment.
Healthy Turf Leaves Less Room for Dallisgrass to Invade
The reality is simple: Dallisgrass loves open space and weak competition. The healthier and thicker your lawn, the fewer opportunities Dallisgrass has to spread via seed or rhizomes.
Strong turf can’t prevent every Dallisgrass plant from appearing, but it can dramatically slow down its spread, reduce the number of viable patches, and make herbicide suppression far more effective when needed.
The Role of Aeration in Dallisgrass Management
While core aeration is one of the best things you can do for overall turf health, it plays a particularly important role in the fight against Dallisgrass, even if it may not seem that way at first.
Dallisgrass Thrives in Compacted Soil
Compacted soil reduces air and water movement, restricts root growth in your desirable turfgrass, and ultimately creates the exact conditions Dallisgrass loves. In these weakened areas, turf density declines, roots stay shallow, and there’s minimal competition to prevent Dallisgrass from spreading via rhizomes or seed.
By aerating your lawn annually, especially in late summer or early fall for Fescue, you relieve compaction, promote deeper root development, and give your turf the physical structure it needs to better outcompete weeds.
It Might Look Worse Before It Gets Better
One of the most common concerns homeowners have after aeration is that Dallisgrass appears to get worse. That’s because aeration often brings dormant Dallisgrass seeds to the surface, where they can germinate more easily. But here’s the key: those seeds would have germinated anyway, just over a longer, more unpredictable window.
Bringing them up all at once allows us to target and treat them more effectively, especially if herbicide suppression is part of your management plan. It’s a short-term tradeoff for long-term progress.
Core Aeration Is Non-Negotiable
If you’re serious about managing Dallisgrass, yearly core aeration should be a non-negotiable part of your lawn care program. It improves soil structure, strengthens turfgrass roots, and exposes new Dallisgrass growth that can be identified and treated. Without it, your turf will struggle to develop the density needed to compete, and Dallisgrass will take advantage of every weak spot.
How Herbicide Suppression Fits In
Because Dallisgrass is a perennial with deep roots and high carbohydrate reserves, no single herbicide application will eliminate it. However, targeted suppression using non-selective herbicides, combined with good cultural practices, can gradually reduce its presence and limit its spread.
Why Selective Herbicides Often Fall Short
Dallisgrass is biologically similar to many turfgrass species, which makes it difficult to target with selective herbicides. Most of the products that can damage or suppress Dallisgrass will also harm your desirable grass, especially Fescue. That’s why non-selective herbicides like glyphosate are typically used, but only in carefully controlled spot treatments to minimize turf damage.
Timing Is Critical for Suppression
The effectiveness of herbicide treatments depends heavily on timing.
For Fescue lawns, late summer or early fall is the ideal time to apply suppression treatments, just before fall seeding. This ensures the treated Dallisgrass has less time to recover and makes room for new, healthy turf to fill in.
For warm-season grasses like Bermuda or Zoysia, suppression is best performed in early spring, when these grasses are just coming out of dormancy and can quickly rebound after spot treatments.
In both cases, repeat applications throughout the growing season may be necessary. Dallisgrass is resilient, and even when top growth is damaged, the root system often survives and attempts to regrow.
Set Realistic Expectations
It’s important to remember that herbicide suppression is just one tool in the toolbox, and it works best in conjunction with a strong turf management program. Suppression does not mean eradication, and homeowners should approach this as a multi-year process, not a one-and-done treatment.
Dreamlawns incorporates these treatments into broader lawn care strategies where appropriate, but only when turf conditions are strong enough to handle them and when timing aligns with your lawn’s overall health goals.
Dreamlawns’ Approach to Dallisgrass Management
At Dreamlawns, we take a realistic and responsible approach to Dallisgrass management. We understand that complete eradication is rarely possible, but with the right combination of lawn health practices, seasonal strategy, and targeted suppression, Dallisgrass can be kept in check over time.
We Start with Turf Health First
No herbicide program can succeed if your lawn is struggling. That’s why our first priority is always to build strong, competitive turf that limits the opportunity for Dallisgrass to spread. For cool-season lawns like Fescue, this means:
- Fall aeration and overseeding with clean, certified seed
- Proper mowing and irrigation throughout the summer
- Ongoing fertilization and disease/pest control through the growing season
For warm-season lawns, we adjust our approach to ensure frequent mowing at the proper height, soil health maintenance, and minimal watering to promote turf hardiness.
Targeted Suppression, When Appropriate
We use non-selective herbicide suppression treatments only when conditions are right, and never at the expense of your existing turf. Suppression is always done strategically, with careful timing based on lawn type and seasonal conditions:
- Late summer for Fescue lawns, just before fall seeding
- Early spring for warm-season grasses, when they’re best equipped to recover
We’re also transparent about what’s possible. If your lawn isn’t in a position to benefit from suppression, we’ll tell you and help you get it there first.
Aeration, Seeding, Fertilization, and More, It’s All Connected
Our Dallisgrass management efforts are never standalone, they’re part of an integrated turf care program. Whether we’re suppressing weeds or strengthening turf, we’re always working toward the same goal: a thicker, healthier lawn that outcompetes Dallisgrass and other weeds naturally.
Control Dallisgrass With Dreamlawns
Dallisgrass is one of the most persistent and frustrating weeds you’ll encounter in a Virginia Beach lawn. It spreads underground, survives year after year, and resists many common weed control methods. But while complete eradication isn’t realistic, that doesn’t mean you’re powerless.
With a strategy built around turf strength, seasonal timing, and persistent suppression, you can minimize Dallisgrass’s impact and give your lawn the upper hand. That means focusing on the fundamentals: aeration, clean seeding, proper mowing and watering, and timely treatments only when your turf is ready to benefit from them.
At Dreamlawns, we take a thoughtful, long-term approach to Dallisgrass management, backed by experience, transparency, and a commitment to what works. If you’re ready to take control of Dallisgrass the right way, we’re here to help. Contact us today for a customized lawn assessment and to learn whether suppression is the right step for your property this season.
Dreamlawns provides superior lawn care service to Virginia Beach & Chesapeake VA residents.
