Wild violets, if they are few in number, can add a touch of sweet color to your garden or yard. Unfortunately, this plant can spread quickly and uncontrollably if its growth is left unchecked. You can control its growth using both chemical and organic products, but you should understand that regardless of the product you use, this process takes time and persistence.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Part One: Controlling Using Chemical Products
Step 1. Use a selective herbicide for selective broadleaf plants
For best results, choose herbicides containing 2, 4-D or Dicamba. You can also use herbicides that contain Quinclorac.
- These herbicides are specially formulated to kill broadleaf plants, such as wild violets, without killing the grass. Therefore, its use in your garden or yard will not damage or kill existing grass.
- Make sure you have enough herbicide, at least to fully fill your herbicide spray bottle. Follow the directions for use on the label to learn how to mix herbicides safely and use them.
- Regardless of the ingredients in the herbicide you buy, you should always check the label to make sure that it only kills broadleaf plants and not small leafy or herbaceous plants (such as grass). Make sure that the product you buy is formulated something with your needs before the product is used.
Step 2. Try small-scale spraying
If the spread of wild violets in your garden is relatively small, you can simply spray the herbicide on any existing violets.
- Purchase a herbicide product for small-scale spraying (usually sold in small spray bottles) and follow the directions for use on the label to find out how to apply it to the base of each flower stem.
- Some types of herbicides that are suitable for small-scale spraying are glyphosate and triclopyr. However, you need to know that glyphosate can kill not only wild violets, but also your grass. Meanwhile, triclopyr will not kill shrubs, such as grasses.
Step 3. Be careful when carrying out large-scale spraying using nonselective herbicides
Only use non-selective herbicides if there are no other plants you want to keep on your farm.
- As the name suggests, nonselective herbicides do not specifically kill certain plants. All plants exposed to the herbicide will dry out and die, including grass and other flower plants.
- Glyphosate is a chemical herbicide that is effective against many types of plants, especially wild violets.
- Always follow the instructions for use on the label and spray using a herbicide sprayer.
Step 4. Add a spreader-sticker product (substance that makes herbicides stickier) to your herbicide
Spreader-sticker products can help make herbicide use more effective because they allow herbicide liquid to adhere better to plant surfaces.
- Using a spreader-sticker product is especially useful if you want to eradicate wild violets because the leaves of these plants have a very waxy surface.
- Mix the spreader-sticker product with the herbicide before you spray. Follow the directions for use on the product label to find out how to mix the product properly.
Step 5. Spray more than once
Wild violet plants are quite resilient to a variety of threats, including herbicides. Therefore, you need to spray several times until the plant is completely dead.
- Try spraying once or twice a week, or according to the instructions for use.
- Keep in mind that eradication using chemical herbicides is often most effective in the fall. In autumn, the chemical compounds contained in herbicides can reach the taproots of wild violet plants more quickly. Meanwhile, in spring and summer, herbicide liquid tends to stick to the leaf tissue only, so it cannot reach the roots. As a result, plants can grow back even after spraying has been done.
Method 2 of 2: Part Two: Organic Control
Step 1. Remove the wild violet plant from the roots
Mature wild violets have a tendency to snap when you pull them, so the roots of the plant remain in the soil and there is a chance that the plant will grow back. Therefore, digging the plant from the roots can be a more effective option.
- Use a shovel or garden fork to dig the soil around the plant within a radius of approximately 30 cm from the plant. This digging can help loosen the soil around the plant.
- Once you can see the roots, use the shovel or fork again to lift the roots out of the soil. Take as many root cuttings as possible to reduce the chance of wild violets growing back in your field.
Step 2. Remove the young wild violets directly
Young plants tend to break easily when uprooted, so if you can't dig up the soil to lift them, you can simply pull them out.
- Wear thick gardening gloves to protect your hands when you pull out wild violets.
- Plan to remove the plant when the soil is damp. If you want to pull it out when the weather is dry, first moisten the soil by watering it before pulling it out. You can water the soil in your field by using a garden hose or garden sprinkler.
- Grasp the main stem of each plant from the base, as much as possible from the part closest to the soil surface, then pull the plant upright.
- If the plant breaks at the crown of the flower when you pull it out, insert a fork or garden fork and pry the plant from the roots.
Step 3. Improve the quality of soil drainage in your land
Wild violets tend to thrive in moist, shady areas. If your soil drainage system is not good, take steps to increase the absorption of your soil so that the growth of wild violets in your field is inhibited, but on the other hand other plants can grow better.
- You can increase the absorption of your soil by mixing in coarse organic matter such as sawdust or sand. For loamy soils, try mixing the soil with gypsum.
- There are various ways you can improve the drainage system of the soil in your field, but one of the simplest is to use a hollow tine aerator to remove a variety of things, including lumps of soil, that are clogging the surface. land. By removing the blockage, the soil can be stretched, so that water can be absorbed into the soil properly.
Step 4. Continue to do good lawn mowing and soil care
Wild plants such as wild violets tend not to grow on good quality soil. Therefore, mow the grass on your land regularly and take preventive measures so that the grass can grow optimally.
- The height of the grass may vary, depending on the variety and cultivar. However, generally grass growth should be limited to between 6.35 to 8.89 cm in cool weather and 3.81 to 6.35 cm in warm weather. Trim the grass every five days in its growing season.
- If it's summer in your area, water your field with a garden hose to prevent the grass from drying out and eventually dying.
- Try applying an all-purpose fertilizer in the spring or summer for faster grass growth.
Step 5. Shrink tree branches or plants that block the sun's rays from reaching your land
Trim branches of trees or bushes that are already dense so that sunlight can easily hit the surface of the soil in your field.
- Sunlight can make the grass stronger. Grasses need at least four hours of watering every day to survive.
- On the other hand, wild violets thrive best in shade and, in fact, can wilt in direct sunlight.
- Some other things that can help reduce the presence of shady areas in your field and control the growth of wild violets is to clear plant debris (such as twigs or dry leaves) from your field and dismantle unused garden sheds.
Step 6. Cover your land with mulch
After the first removal, immediately cover your land with mulch of wood chips with a mulch thickness of between 5 to 7.6 cm.
- Mulch can deprive wild plants, including wild violets, of air, making it difficult for plants to regrow.
- It will be easier for you to uproot wild violets emerging from loose layers of mulch than it is to uproot them from dense soil.
- Mulch can be applied either after you have removed it manually (uprooting it directly with the soil or digging it up) or by using a chemical herbicide.
- Keep in mind that you should only use mulch if you want to control the growth of wild violets in certain areas of land (such as flowerbeds). Do not cover your entire field with mulch as this can actually make the grass on your land wither.
Step 7. Replace the grass in your field with special turf grass cultivars
If the quality of your field is too poor to improve, the best thing you can do is to dig up your entire field and plant fresh turf grass seeds to replace your old grass.
- Choose a turf grass cultivar that has been adapted to grow in certain areas or climates. These cultivars usually do well in the garden. Again, keep in mind that good quality and fertile land is rarely disturbed by the growth of wild violets and other disturbing wild plants.
- If you live in an area where grass cannot grow due to a lack of sunlight, you can still limit the growth of wild violets by planting shrubs or other ground cover shrubs that thrive in shaded areas.
Tips
- Try to let wild violets grow in your field. If the overall quality of your field is good, the grass in your field is usually able to compete with wild violets for food sources. What's more, the two plants can balance each other out as wild violets thrive in shady areas while in shady areas, grass needs more effort to survive.
- Kill wild violets before they bloom in spring or summer. These flowers produce seeds which, if dispersed, can sprout and take root where they fell so that more wild violets will grow in your field later.
- Stay patient and tenacious. Regardless of the method you use to eradicate wild violets, you may have to repeat the process several times before the plant dies completely. However, as long as you show consistent effort, this problem can be solved and the plant may die completely after a season or two of growing.
