Sockets in the lawn are not liked even by gardeners who don't necessarily want to maintain an English golf lawn. The rosettes of the edible plant grow larger over time and crowd out the lawn plants. The best way to combat dock is without chemicals - but with a lot of manual work.
How do I fight docks in the lawn without chemicals?
To combat docks without chemicals, you should mow the lawn regularly and briefly to prevent seed formation, cut out new dock plants immediately and completely remove the roots. Use a dock piercer for better results.
Sock propagates via seeds and runners
To combat sorrel without chemicals, it is important to stop the plant from spreading. On the one hand, no seeds should form, and on the other hand, the roots must be completely removed.
Mow the lawn often and keep it quite short. Then the dock flowers have no chance of fertilization and seed formation.
- Mow the lawn regularly and short
- Put out new dock plants straight away
- Use a dock picker
- Pull roots completely out of the ground
- Preventing the dock from blooming
Cut out dock by hand
To remove the roots of dock, only manual work helps. You have to dig out the taproots one at a time, trying to pull the entire root out of the ground. A special dock pruner that penetrates deep into the ground does a good job.
To prick out the dock, you should choose a day when the soil is well soaked from rain from the previous day. The earth is then loosened so that pulling is not so strenuous.
If larger holes have appeared, fill them in and sow new grass seeds.
The right lawn care
To prevent the dock from spreading in the lawn, you should keep the grass plants as short as possible. A stalk length of three to five centimeters is ideal.
Walk the lawn regularly to discover new dock plants as early as possible. Punch them out immediately. Once the dock has established itself, you can hardly get the roots completely out of the soil.
Fighting dock docks in pastures
Research has shown that docks in pastures can be controlled by intensive grazing by cows.
The cattle can tolerate the plants if they are not present in too large quantities. They also trample the dock and keep it under control.
Tip
Sockrop can also be controlled chemically. However, this puts a lot of strain on the soil. It also damages other plants growing in the neighborhood.