{"id":8116,"date":"2016-05-04T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=8116"},"modified":"2015-10-05T19:27:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T23:27:54","slug":"avoid-spotted-spurge-in-lawn-and-garden-beds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/05\/04\/avoid-spotted-spurge-in-lawn-and-garden-beds\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoid Spotted Spurge in Lawn And Garden Beds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spotted<\/a>

Spotted Spurge becoms weedy mess<\/p><\/div>\n

Spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata<\/em>) is a dreadful perennial weed that can quickly take over a lawn or garden bed. It often grows in poor compacted soils or in-between cracks in pavement. Once established, it is difficult to eliminate it from your garden.<\/p>\n

Ideal temperature range for seed germination is 75 to 85 \u00b0F,\u00a0and spurge will\u00a0germinate in soil temperatures between 60 and 100 \u00b0F. Spotted spurge is most active from February through September.<\/p>\n

Spotted spurge grows low to the ground like a carpet. Tiny leaves are dark green\u00a0with reddish stems.\u00a0Oval-shaped leaves (1\/8 \u2013 1\/2 inch long) have a dark spot in the center. Plant is covered with\u00a0fine hairs and\u00a0its\u00a0small pink flowers often go unnoticed.\u00a0Its tap root grows long and deep. Seeds are prolific and are very hardy. Spotted spurge\u00a0can grow back from either root pieces or seeds. It is a prolific seeder or\u00a0can spread rapidly.<\/p>\n

Hand-pulling in flower beds and vegetable gardens is no easy chore, and you must stay on top of it. The plant fans out from a main root, so yanking it rarely gets all the deep roots. Wear gloves as the milky sap can irritate\u00a0your skin. Repeatedly weeding\u00a0a bed eventually weakens the plant and eliminates it.<\/p>\n

Glyphosate (Round-up\u00ae and similar trade name products)\u00a0are very effective against spotted spurge. These herbicides\u00a0are translocated,\u00a0and eradicate all vegetation\u00a0after multiple applications. It may re-grow from its deep taproot or from seeds dispersed from\u00a0a neighbor\u2019s yard. Stay vigilant and re-apply as needed. Contact weed killers become less effective as the plant\u2019s foliage matures later in the year.<\/p>\n

Barricade\u00ae (prodiamine) is a pre-emergent herbicide that stops weed seeds from germinating in your garden. It\u00a0will not kill\u00a0weed seedlings that have already sprouted.<\/p>\n

Heavy mulching with several layers of newspaper or wood mulch is also an effective method of controlling spotted spurge.<\/p>\n

In areas where spotted spurge is rampant, solarization may be your last resort. Blanket the weedy patch with\u00a0plastic to\u00a0kill off all vegetation. Allow 6-8 weeks to kill this tough weedy pest. Remove the plastic and seed\u00a0lawn grass\u00a0or garden bed in late summer or next spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata) is a dreadful perennial weed that can quickly take over a lawn or garden bed. It often grows in poor compacted soils or in-between cracks in pavement. Once established, it is difficult to eliminate it from your garden. Ideal temperature range for seed germination is 75 to 85 \u00b0F,\u00a0and spurge will\u00a0germinate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,5,699,676,551,843,975,812,1059,1031,630,1261,1260,905,740],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8116\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}