Chickweed

About Chickweed

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a winter annual broadleaf weed that shows up in Middle Tennessee lawns from fall through early spring. You will see it across every town in our service area — Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin, Brentwood, and everywhere in between. There is no particular town or site concentration; chickweed is an equal-opportunity weed. The identification challenge with chickweed is that it looks quite different at two stages of its life. When young, it grows in a prostrate pattern very low to the ground, forming what looks like a flat green map on the soil surface. This fall and winter growth can carry through the entire cold season. Then as temperatures rise and daylight hours extend in mid-spring, the stems turn upward and the plant begins producing small white star-shaped flowers. In a lawn setting, the two stages look so different that many homeowners do not realize they are looking at the same weed. The honest truth about chickweed is that it is one of the easiest weeds to control. One well-timed application of a broadleaf-selective herbicide in early spring — we typically treat in February — and chickweed dies without resistance. There are many chemistry options available and no known resistance concerns in Middle Tennessee. You can even leave it alone if you like the look of it; some homeowners appreciate the green ground cover during winter when fescue is semi-dormant. This is a theme across almost all winter annual broadleaf weeds in our area: henbit, purple deadnettle, corn speedwell, and chickweed are all controlled by the same early-spring pass. The real challenge in Middle Tennessee weed control is not the annuals — it is the perennials like dallisgrass, nutsedge, and wild violets that require multi-year strategies. Chickweed is a one-and-done weed as long as your treatment is calibrated and timed correctly.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a turf weed commonly found in lawns throughout Middle Tennessee, including Columbia, Thompson's Station, Spring Hill, and the surrounding areas. This entry is part of our Weed Identification Guide.

As lawn care and treatment specialists, we identify and treat Chickweed regularly when servicing properties across the region. Proper identification is the first step toward selecting the right herbicide and timing for effective control.