Wild garlic is a cool-season perennial weed commonly found in the Southeast. Although it’s closely related to the garlic grown in your garden, it’s considered undesirable in turf.
Wild garlic has slender, hollow, tubular leaves and produces small, greenish-white flowers. You’ll recognize its distinctive garlic aroma when a bulb is crushed. This weed reproduces by seed, aerial bulbils, and through an underground, tuberous root system.
We apply herbicides as a form of weed control. However, wild garlic has a tough outer casing on its leaves, which makes it difficult for herbicides to adhere properly. While herbicides can damage, reduce, and control wild garlic, they do not completely eradicate it.
Wild garlic tends to appear in early spring and again in late fall. Full eradication is only possible if the entire plant is physically removed from the lawn. It should be dug out whenever possible, especially at first appearance, so it doesn’t become a persistent problem. Be sure to remove both the bulbs and roots.
Note: Although wild onions are not mentioned in this article, the same problems and solutions apply.