Dallisgrass is a warm- season coarse textured grassy weed that is light in color.  The leaves are rolled in the bud, flat and wide.  It is a “perennial” weed which technically means a plant that lives more than two years.   It produces abundant amounts of seeds which usually germinate in spring and summer when soil temperatures are in the 60 to 65 degree range and grow to form new clumps.  This weed is often found growing in wet areas such as low places and in turfgrass that is irrigated.  It is drought resistant and frost tolerant and does not go off-color in winter like many warm-season grasses.

A major component of dallisgrass management is to prevent new plants from becoming established.  In home landscapes, removing young plants by digging them out before they form underground stems (known as rhizomes) or set seeds is the best strategy for control.  Mature plants can also be dug out, but they sometimes grow back if rhizomes are left behind.

Where digging out clumps of dalligrass in turfgrass is not practical, herbicides may be used.  Postemergent herbicides can be used to control established plants.  These herbicides are either selective and kill only specific weeds, or they are nonselective and kill any plant they come into contact with which may include any surrounding turfgrass.  To control germinating seed, preemergent herbicides are used.

Mowing the surrounding turfgrass will not remove dallisgrass, but when turfgrass is maintained at its optimal height it is better able to resist an invasion of dallisgrass.  Also, close mowing results in lower seed production.