Wild Onion and Wild Garlic Control

Wild onion and wild garlic are bulb-forming perennial weeds that grow through cool seasons and rise above mown turf. Underground bulbs and bulblets allow patches to return.

How to Identify Wild Onion and Wild Garlic

Crushed leaves smell strongly of onion or garlic. Wild garlic usually has round hollow leaves; wild onion more often has flat solid leaves.

Why It Appears in Turf

Bulbs persist in soil, and mowing alone does not deplete them. Thin cool-season turf and disturbed soil allow clusters to expand.

Make the Site Less Favorable

• Maintain the recommended mowing height and avoid scalping.
• Correct irrigation, drainage, compaction, fertility, or shade problems that thin desirable turf.
• Repair bare areas and use adapted turf cultivars to close openings where seedlings establish.

Choosing a Turf Herbicide

Perennial weeds often regrow from stolons, rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, or deep roots. Select a product labeled for the desirable turf and target weed, treat actively growing plants, and plan the complete sequence of repeat applications or renovation steps allowed by the label.

Label note: Confirm the desirable turf species, use site, target weed, application timing, rate, adjuvant directions, and reseeding restrictions on the current label before use.