Many weeds in newly planted lawn

billyk098R4I3xs6Z

I planted this lawn around 10 days ago but I have been plagued by many weeds growing in between the grass and was wondering if anyone had ideas to get rid of them? I don’t think using weed killers is a good idea at this stage and believe that products such as Evergreen are not to be used until at least 6 months. 

JennyJ

Many weeds will give up the ghost when you start mowing the grass. Until then, you can hand-weed any that you can reach from the paths, but don't worry too much - it's too young for much walking on, or treating with feed&weed products. Once you're mowing , ant weeds that keep coming up can be hand-weeded (a long weeding knife is useful) or carefully spot-treated with a weedkiller formulated for lawns that will only kill broad-leaved plants, not grasses.

Dovefromabove

That's looking good.  Mowing will get rid of the annual weeds ... any perennials can be hand-weeded out as @JennyJ describes above, or spot-treated with Roundup Gel or similar at a later date.

KT53

I wouldn't be happy if my newly laid turf had lots of weeds in it.  Unless it was sold as 'meadow turf' I would expect it to be virtually weed free.  That weed growth isn't from seed blown in on the breeze.

billyk098R4I3xs6Z

Dovefromabove said:

That's looking good.  Mowing will get rid of the annual weeds ... any perennials can be hand-weeded out as @JennyJ describes above, or spot-treated with Roundup Gel or similar at a later date.

When is it recommended to give a lawn its first mow? I don’t think I have certain settings so don’t know if I can manage how far to cut etc. I don’t really know my way round a lawn mower to be honest😂. I sowed the lawn on the 17th of July.

Fairygirl

Mowing will help keep weeds at bay for this year. It certainly looks plenty long enough now, but don't cut it short. If you take around an inch or so off, that will be fine.
You can then reduce it by a little more next time if it's growing well, but if you get long dry spells, let it stay a bit longer. Scalping it will just create problems, and in hot dry conditions, it'll fry.

If you let us know what kind of mower you have, you'll get some help with adjusting it. Unless it's one of those hover mowers. I'm not sure you can alter them. Long time since I've had one though. 

billyk098R4I3xs6Z

KT53 said:

I wouldn't be happy if my newly laid turf had lots of weeds in it.  Unless it was sold as 'meadow turf' I would expect it to be virtually weed free.  That weed growth isn't from seed blown in on the breeze.

It’s not a turf it’s all seed. The weeds began to grow slowly even before the grass was planted. I spent a week using weedol and hand pulling weeds and after spending another week levelling the ground with a mix of sand/compost/topsoil, weeds were already coming through. It was 90p per box down in ASDA so I dumped about 6 boxes and it’s seemed to have given me a pretty decent result for a total price of around £4 compared to the £90+ a turf would have cost me. The weeds have always been a problem.

AnniD

I think the normal first cut is when it's around 5 to 6 cms tall, make sure your mower is on it's highest setting. As said above, if you look up your mower model online, there should be either a YouTube video or a download pdf instruction manual telling you how to do it. Failing that, hopefully the forum can help.

For some reason seed sown lawns do seem to have many more weeds in, l think with the best will in the world it's virtually impossible to eradicate them all both before and while the seed is growing. 
Once the lawn is fully established and has been cut a few times l would expect many of the weeds to have been either weakened or destroyed by mowing. Any tougher ones such as dandelion or speedwell can be eradicated by using a weedkiller, probably better applied in the Autumn .

Slow-worm

I bought seed like that, I paid more for the alleged DEFRA approved grass, and it was half weeds! No apology, just a refund, which was too late. And the grass mix was rubbish too. I had to pull as many as I could, and the bits I reseeded with standard shop seed are much better. Good job I don't need a bowling green lawn, although it would have been nice. Mowing and picking is the only option if you don't use chemicals. 

billyk098R4I3xs6Z

Slow-worm said:

I bought seed like that, I paid more for the alleged DEFRA approved grass, and it was half weeds! No apology, just a refund, which was too late. And the grass mix was rubbish too. I had to pull as many as I could, and the bits I reseeded with standard shop seed are much better. Good job I don't need a bowling green lawn, although it would have been nice. Mowing and picking is the only option if you don't use chemicals. 

Seed is great, I’ve used it on the front and it’s worked perfectly. The weeds have been a constant problem, even before we planted seed. We laid a turf around a decade ago which was eventually overrun by weeds to the point where we’d simply mow the weeds and use that as grass. I’m not too bothered about a particular type of lawn it’s just hard wearing grass. Would highly recommend if anyone else’s ASDA has a similar offer.

Fairygirl

If you just keep mowing for this year, you can use a weed and feed type of product next spring. The problem would seem to be that you haven't got rid of the perennial weeds that have been present before seed sowing.
Not much you can do about that just now, but hopefully, you can get on top of them over the next few months, and that will weaken them, and make it easier for next year. Not cutting too short will also help, as that can give them the edge over the grass.
It may depend on what weeds they were though. Some are very persistent. If you can take close up photos of them, it will help ID them, and we may be able to advise better on how easy or hard they'd be to eradicate