Kikuyu

Garden Problems , Lawn Problems

Kikuyu is a creeping grass that can quickly spread and become a nuisance in your garden. However, Kikuyu can be a useful grass to use as a heat and drought tolerant grass lawn in northern and coastal parts of New Zealand.

Identify the problem
Kikuyu is a hardy, creeping grass common in coastal areas of New Zealand. It is often considered a weed in home gardens as it is very fast spreading and can quickly invade existing lawn or garden beds.
Kikuyu can make for a very hard wearing lawn if it can be kept within a desired area.
How to solve the problem
In warmer areas, Kikuyu grass can be highly invasive and is difficult to control.
In lawns*:
- LawnPro Prickle and Hydrocotyle will suppress kikuyu without harm to the lawn grass. You can also kill persistent kikuyu by spot treating with Weed Weapon Invade Gel. Using these along with promoting your lawn grass with good maintenance and application of LawnPro Lawn Thickener. In these ways you can help your lawn grasses out compete the kikuyu.
*Fine turf lawns. Some lawns are of kikuyu grass or other tough creeping grasses.
In flower beds and waste areas:
- Complete area spraying with Weed Weapon Extra Strength or Rapid Action and removal of dead tendrils is often the only way to overcome this problem and it may take several applications to gain full control.
Did you know?
- Kikuyu is a rapidly growing tropical African grass and some people grow entire lawns of kikuyu, but other prefer other grasses and try to prevent kikuyu invading their lawn.
- Kikuyu grasses are of the family Poaceae.
- Latin name: Cenchrus clandestinus.
Helpful tips
For control of kikuyu in fine turf lawns adding Kiwicare Dye & Stick to LawnPro Prickle and Hydrocotyle improves the control of broadleaf weeds and the suppression of kikuyu.
See advice on control of Coarse Grasses in Lawns.