Allium canadense, commonly referred to as wild onions, is a perennial plant often found in many lawns and gardens. Many gardeners deemed it frustrating, as the weeds are tough to control, let alone get rid of. However, with the proper method, some hard work, and determination, it can be eliminated all at once. See four different ways how to kill wild onions in the following.
Four Possible Ways on How to Kill Wild Onions
Wild onions, and their close sibling, wild garlic, resemble chives or green onions in appearance. They related to the onions and garlic common to be cultivated on purpose in gardens. Wild onions can thrive in different soil conditions, such as wet and heavy soil or drought, hard and cold soil.
You can easily recognize them by their pungent odor when mowed and their leaves shape, which looks flat and non-hollow.
Wild onions grow during colder seasons, so you may not see them appear on your lawn well until the fall season. That being said, it is not rare to see them continue to grow during the early spring days.
Regardless of when you are planning to remove them, here are several possible ways how to kill wild onions in your yard:
Hand Pulling
Despite being feasible, this method is not usually recommended, especially if your soil is the hard type. It is because it carries the potential to leave the parts of the broken-off bulb of wild onions when you’re trying to pull out the wild onions from the ground. You may dig the wild onions using a thin trowel to gain the optimum result.
Mowing
Mowing wild onions is another alternative, but it cannot kill the plants. That being said, mowing your lawn regularly could help to weaken them and prevent the plants from setting and spreading their seeds.
Using Vinegar
The following solution is to kill wild onions with vinegar. You need to pour the vinegar directly on top of the plants to destroy the parts above the ground. Yet, just like the prior methods, this alone cannot eliminate the bulbs located underneath the soil. You also need to soak the soil with vinegar to kill them and then remove them manually to ensure they will not return.
Using Chemical Control
The next method on how to kill wild onions on the lawn is by doing chemical control. Currently, there are no weed preventers or herbicides made explicitly for wild onion. So, you will need to use and spray post-emergent herbicides. An example of this ingredient would be glyphosate.
However, as a nonselective herbicide, glyphosate will kill nearly all plants being sprayed with it. It would be best if you were extra careful when using it to damage your beloved plants or neat lawn grasses.
If removing wild onion is impossible for you or keeping them as edible plants, keep them trimmed well. Otherwise, the guide on killing wild onions provided above will help prevent them from spreading uncontrollably in your yard.
