Goosegrass

About Goosegrass

Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) is a summer annual grassy weed that tends to pop up a little earlier than crabgrass in Middle Tennessee. It is identifiable by its distinctive fleshy white center — a prominent, almost waxy-looking hub from which all the leaf blades radiate outward in a wide-angled cone or rosette pattern. Once you learn to recognize that white center, you will never confuse goosegrass with anything else. Like all monocot weeds in a fescue lawn, goosegrass is very difficult to control post-emergently. The chemistry just cannot selectively distinguish between a monocot weed and a monocot you want to keep. Pre-emergent herbicide is the only reliable approach. Prodiamine is the go-to pre-emergent for goosegrass and works well when applied before March 15th — the critical timing window for Middle Tennessee. Dithiopyr (trade name Dimension) works slightly better on crabgrass specifically, but prodiamine is the preferred choice when goosegrass is the primary concern. Once goosegrass is mature, it becomes tough to kill without damaging your fescue. This is a consistent theme with all grassy weeds in fescue lawns: dallisgrass, Johnson grass, common Bermuda, goosegrass, and quack grass all have to be fought with pre-emergent timing, cultural practices like maintaining thick healthy turf, and competitive fescue management — not post-emergent rescue sprays applied after the weed is already established.

Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) 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 Goosegrass regularly when servicing properties across the region. Proper identification is the first step toward selecting the right herbicide and timing for effective control.