The Lesser Accentor is often planted in the garden as an ornamental plant or as a wild plant for insects. It is a very good ground cover and that is exactly where its problem lies when it appears in the lawn. It has a creeping habit, which means that the grass hardly has a chance. Combating brownella in the lawn is only possible with sustainable methods.
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ecology
The Lesser Accentor is a perennial plant that survives the winter without damage. Prunella vulgaris spreads generatively and vegetatively. Its shoots, which are up to 30 cm long, can form new roots on each leaf axis. Especially if you keep it constantly short, such as on lawns, it tends to have a creeping growth and is difficult to remove due to the many places where it is rooted.
In addition to spreading via foothills, it also forms many seeds. It is very popular with bumblebees and almost every flower is successfully pollinated. Up to four seeds can develop per flower, which means that a single plant can produce several hundred seeds that can germinate on the lawn. The seeds survive the winter and usually do not germinate until the following spring. However, they are light germs and then need a sufficient amount of light to be able to develop.
Regular lawn care
Regular lawn care is necessary to ensure that the common prunus or other weeds do not stand a chance in lawns. First and foremost, this means that the lawn is regularly scarified. When scarifying, dead plant parts are removed on the one hand and the development of dicotyledonous weeds, including Prunella vulgaris, is damaged on the other.
Scarifying the lawn properly:
- scarify in frost-free spring
- carve a maximum of 3 cm deep
- if there is dense vegetation, go across and lengthways across the area
Do not lime
Lawn care also includes liming the area. However, if the brownella is already in it, lime should be avoided. The peasant thrives very well in calcareous soil, which is why lime would not only help the lawn, it also encourages the propagation of the peasant.
Lawn lime should therefore be avoided at all costs. As an alternative, various rock powders can be used. Lava or basalt flour also contains lime, but to a much lesser extent. In this way, at least the formation of the turf can be promoted, but without excessively promoting the spread of the brownella. In the case of dense vegetation, however, lime should generally be avoided, even if it is only partially contained in rock flour.
Mechanical removal
If the weeds only occur in small quantities, it makes sense to combat them primarily mechanically. Individual plants can easily be uprooted when they are still small. It is more problematic if the plants have already formed foothills. Here it makes sense if they are cut out over a large area and the hole is replanted.
The advantage is that roots do not necessarily have to be removed from the ground. The plant does not sprout again from torn roots. However, it must be ensured that all parts of the plant that can form offshoots have been removed. They should also not be left on the green area, because if the weather is damp for several weeks, the herb can also form new roots on the leaf axes.
avoid flowering
Although the small prunus is a pretty plant, it quickly displaces the grass with its runners. If it can also form seeds, it becomes increasingly difficult to remove them. Prunella vulgaris flowers from June to September. If the autumn is very warm, the flowering lasts even until October. The fruit ripening of the first flowers begins in August and can last until frost. From August onwards, rainy weather in particular favors the dispersal of the seeds, as the capsules open within just a minute in humid weather and stand in such a way that they can be hit by raindrops.
It is therefore particularly important to ensure that the small prunella does not form any seeds. From June you should therefore mow the lawn regularly at intervals of two to a maximum of three weeks. If there are gaps in the lawn in between, you should not wait until autumn before sowing, but rather close such gaps immediately.
Cover lawn with foil
If the infestation is large, it is difficult to control the brownella with individual measures. Often only a large-scale fight helps here and one trick to fight the brownella is to cover it with an opaque film. This also damages the grass, but it recovers much more quickly than the prunus. Even if the Accentor survives, it often doesn’t stand a chance compared to the level’s ability to regenerate.
When fighting with a foil, proceed as follows:
- choose a suitable film (e.g. mulch fleece)
- Weight down the foil on all sides (e.g. with stones or boards)
- Do not remove the foil for at least 2 – 3 weeks
- regularly check how weak the prunella is
Dicotyledonous weeds such as the lesser prunus suffer from the lack of light. However, it is important that the film is not used at high temperatures. Spring or fall are ideal. In the summer, the prunus would die, but the lawn would also be burned by the heat. He then usually never recovers.
Use weed killers sparingly
If nothing else helps, then you can only resort to a weed killer. Although there is no special remedy against Prunella vulgaris, there are recommended remedies against weeds that also harm the prunella. These include, for example:
- Universal-Rasenunkrautfrei Loredo Quattro
- Substral lawn fertilizer with weed killer
- COMPO Floranid lawn fertilizer plus weed killer
- COM 503 15 H GR
When using weed killers, however, the warnings must always be heeded. This primarily includes the use of suitable protective clothing. In addition, the lawn area must often not be walked on for several weeks. During this time, there is an increased risk, especially for children and pets.
