Wild Garlic Control: How To Get Rid of Wild Garlic

Wild garlic is a winter perennial plant that has been popping up throughout the southeast United States. It starts growing in the fall and is very similar to the wild onion plant, so much so that they are often lumped together as a problem on landscapes.

This weed is characterized by thin, green leaves with a waxy texture and a strong garlic odor. Under the right conditions, wild garlic can overtake a landscape. Although it is called wild garlic, it is part of the onion family, which includes onions and chives.

Wild garlic can be a challenge to remove from your lawn. Mowing the plants often isn't enough to eliminate them, as they will always grow back. This is why you should use herbicides to control wild garlic if you want it gone.

If you notice wild garlic growing in your yard, the guide below can help. Lawn care experts developed our DIY treatment guide and will show how to remove wild garlic from your lawn using our professional herbicide recommendations. Follow the step-by-step instructions below, and you will be guaranteed to eliminate wild garlic quickly and affordably.

Identification

Before you carry out treatment applications, you must first properly identify the plant and confirm that it is wild garlic. Misidentification leads to using the wrong products and treatment methods, which can cost you time and money. The term wild garlic can refer to many plants in the Allium genus; however, for this article, we’ll talk about the weed that commonly grows throughout the US, Allium vineale.

• Wild garlic is a perennial, grass-like plant that grows from bulbs. They grow actively in the cooler weather of fall and spring and can grow up to 3 feet tall. When dug up, you can find small garlic bulbs with thin roots.
• In fall, bulbs sprout and emerge from the ground. By late winter to early spring, visible clumps resembling grass will have formed. The leaves of these plants are tube-like and hollow when cut open. By mid-spring, the plants will have grown in height. The leaves often grow in twists or curly shapes. By late spring and summer, aerial bulbs will form and burst with bulblets. These bulblets may or may not also be accompanied by purple or green flowers, and they will eventually sprout green “tails” before falling to the ground to grow new plants. 
• To tell wild garlic from wild onion, check out the leaves. Wild garlic grows tubular leaves that are hollow inside, while wild onion grows flat, solid leaves. You can also dig up and check out the bulbs. A wild onion bulb is covered in a fibrous membrane, and a wild garlic bulb lacks this. If it’s late in the plant’s growing cycle, be aware that wild garlic develops an aerial bulb, which bursts into purple bulblets. In contrast, wild onions produce umbels of pink or white flowers that eventually become bulblets.

Use our description and image above to help you identify wild garlic on your lawn. If you are not totally sure and need assistance with identification, contact us. We will properly identify the plant for you and give you the best product recommendations to control your weed.

Even though wild garlic is closely related to the cultivated garlic we buy in grocery stores, unless you’re a trained foraging professional, we advise you not to dig up wild garlic for consumption.

Inspection

After you confirm that you are dealing with wild garlic, proceed with an inspection to find out where the growth is concentrated and what conditions may be helping the weed thrive.

Where to Inspect

Wild garlic has a wide distribution throughout the United States. If you suspect weed activity in your lawn, look for patches of differently colored turf. These plants are often a different shade of green from your normal turf grass.

What To Look For

Wild garlic grows actively in cooler temperatures when most turf grasses become dormant. When the weather cools in fall, look for taller patches of grass that have not lost their color to dormancy. In spring, look out for curly grass-like plants and early bulb formation. If bulblets have formed, control methods may only treat the existing plants and not any new plants that have yet to sprout.

Treatment

Wild garlic is a difficult weed to control and often a reoccurring issue on lawns where they have been established because no pre-emergent herbicide is available to control the weed. A post-emergent herbicide is your best option.

Manual pulling is manageable enough if you have a few wild garlic plants growing on your lawn. Remember that it’s easy for the plant leaves to break off from the bulb and that other bulbs are often left in the ground to grow.

Mowing lawns will also help, but not kill the plants entirely. With proper, consistent lawn care, weeds weaken and choke out.

For large infestations of wild garlic weeds, the best control method is to apply a post-emergent herbicide that’s labeled not to injure your lawn’s native turf grass.

Step 1: Mix And Apply Herbicide

Measure the square footage of the treatment area to determine how much product material to use. To do this, measure the length and width of the treatment area in feet and multiply them together (length X width = square footage). For acreage, divide the square footage by one acre (square footage / 43,560 sq. ft. = acres).

In cool-season grasses, we recommend 2, 4-D Amine. The labeled application rate for this product is 3.16 pints of concentrate per 1 acre. For smaller applications, this breaks down to 1.1 fluid ounces of concentrate applied over 1,000 square feet.

We recommend Fahrenheit Herbicide for warm-season grasses. For spot applications, mix 0.2 ounces of the product per 1 gallon of water to cover 1,000 square feet. Keep in mind that when applying Fahrenheit Herbicide to St. Augustinegrass, Bermudagrass, or Zoysiagrass, temporary stunting or chlorosis may occur.

For either of these products, we recommend mixing and applying your herbicide with a handheld pump sprayer. Because wild garlic leaves are waxy, we recommend using a surfactant like Nanotek to enhance the effectiveness of your treatment.

Nanotek is a non-herbicide product designed to improve pesticide adhesion and penetration onto treated surfaces. To use Nanotek, add 1 fluid ounce per 1 gallon of solution.

Spot-treat any wild garlic plant you’ve found during your inspection. Use a fan or cone spray pattern to ensure the leaves are fully coated, and spray the weed to the point of wet but not runoff. Be sure to spray on calm days when temperatures are not too hot, and wind speeds are low to minimize drift.

Step 2: Reapply

When applied properly, affected weeds will turn yellow and begin to die. A follow-up application may be necessary if signs of recovery are observed, especially if the plant’s bulb is still alive. Reapplication intervals with 2, 4-D Amine range from 21 to 30 days, and with Fahrenheit range from 4 to 6 weeks.

Applications are most effective when plants are actively growing before seed production. If the plants are close to producing seeds, you may need to mow the plant to prevent the weed from spreading. If you mow, the bulb will survive and grow a new plant over the next year, providing another opportunity to apply chemical control.

Keep in mind that mechanical removal alone is not recommended, as it is easy to leave bulbs in the soil to grow new plants next season.

Prevention

Once the wild garlic has died on your lawn, you must implement preventative measures to ensure the weed doesn't return. Here are some you can take:

• One of the best ways to control wild garlic after it’s been eliminated from your property is to mow it down if new plants start to sprout. When mowing lawns, mow regularly to the grass’s proper mowing height. Removing weeds before they can reproduce will stop them from spreading onto your property. 
• We also recommend promoting the health of your turf to reduce the conducive conditions that allow weeds and disease to take hold. Reduce the shade cast on your lawn by trimming overgrown shrubbery and tree branches, rake away leaf litter and pick up any debris, and employ a proper watering schedule to provide the local grass with enough water to strengthen its roots but not so much that it will encourage weeds. Many grasses require 1 inch of water every week. Apply the water all at once in the morning so it has time to seep into the ground without evaporating in the sun.  

Key Takeaways

What is Wild Garlic?

• Wild garlic is a winter perennial and can emerge onto a lawn out of nowhere in the late fall under the right conditions. It isn't easy to control.
• Wild garlic is often confused with the similar wild onion, but it can be differentiated from the appearance of its leaves, which are thin and tube-like, while wild onion leaves are wide and grass-like.

How To Get Rid of Wild Garlic

• Our top recommendation for treating wild garlic is 2,4-D Amine Selective Weed Killer with Nanotek Surfactant added. As wild garlic is stubborn and persistent, more than one application may be necessary.

Preventing Wild Garlic Reinfestation

• To prevent the weed's return, you will need to monitor your lawn and retreat in the fall and early spring for a few years. Wild garlic bulbs can stay dormant in the soil for up to 6 years.