how do i kill a pampus grass without burning the thing?
Answers:
i once fell for that unusual look of pampus grass. i paid dearly for it too. 20 years & two post graduate degrees in horticulture later, i still cringe at the sight of the stuff. burning has never completely solved the problem either. The roots often survive burning & come back to haunt you later. Removing it by hand is suicide. (that is why many resorted to burning in the first place). Here is your plan of attack. First, a good long, slow soaking of water. Next a good feeding of ammonium sulfate or any other cheap, high nitrogen plant food you have around the house. Water it in well. Treat it as tho it was a prized part of your landscape. Well watered and well fed. In about two or three weeks it will begin to respond to your care. it will sping to life with a bounty if new growth, both above ground and below. it will be growing strong and healthy. meanwhile look in the yellow pages under agricultural / landscape supplies. find a business who sells to your local landscape contractor. Pick up some Glyphosate glycine in the form of isopropylamine salt concentrate. Say what? Okay, don't go off the deep end on me yet. It's better known as "Roundup" herbicide. The same stuff you can pickup at any of your local home or garden centers, only this will be the professional grade. Mix it up carefully, following the direstions on the label. Then spray every blooming inch of the pampus and spray it well. Especially the new, healthy growth. Get both sides of the blades where you can. Do it early in the morning so it will have time to soak in good before sunset. Hit it again the following week. Again, pay close attention to the new, healthy growth. When a plant is under any kind of stress, such as lack of water, it begins to shut down it's natural growth pattern to protect itself. A plant under stress does not respond well to any chemicals under those conditions. However, a healthy, actively grown plant will quickly ingest (for lack of a better word) the herbicide and spread it throughout including the root system. A plant under stress will often servive a chemical attact, when a healthy plant will not. Same applies to getting rid of weeds. A green & growing healthy weed is easier to kill then a stressed out dry and dead looking weed. Rule of thumb for killing weeds with a weed killer, water & feed um first. If done in the manner i discribed, there is good chance you'll get every inch of that pampus grass, roots and all. Very little chance of it coming back to haunt you next season. Sorry, I can't offer you an easy of getting rid of the dead remains. It is just as sharp and nasty dead as when alive. Nothing nastier then getting all sliced up by pampus grass. That is why so many people will end up burning it after it's dead. Good luck.
PS If you have a problem using chemicals, your other choice is to cut it shoet & did the clump out by hand. Make sure you get all the roots.
Other answers:
try roundup that stuff kills just about everything
try roundup that stuff kills just about everything