Kikuyu Control and Mulching

How to identify kikuyu

Pennisetum clandestinum

• Vigorous creeping grass that spreads by thick above-ground runners as well as underground.
• Forms a deep dense mat, and when it gets away it stands well above normal pasture height.
• Bright green, coarse and soft-stemmed rather than woody.
• Dominant on warmer North Island country, especially coastal and northern districts.

Why it is a problem on your land

Kikuyu is a useful pasture grass right up until it is not. Once it gets rank it smothers everything finer, builds a thick thatch that stops new growth, hides hazards and rubbish, and becomes too heavy for a domestic mower or a ride-on to handle. On a bank or terrace it is often left simply because nothing available can safely get on it, and each season it gets worse.

Why spraying alone does not solve it

You can kill kikuyu, but on most properties the goal is not a bare paddock, it is usable ground with a clean finish. Killing rank kikuyu leaves a thick mat of dead thatch sitting on the surface, which still has to break down and still stops anything growing underneath it. If the aim is presentation and usability, cutting it is the answer, not killing it.

GRazer do not spray. Herbicide is a legitimate tool and there are situations where it is the right call, but it is not a service we offer. What we do is remove the plant mechanically.

How we clear kikuyu

This is flail mowing rather than mulching. We use light and heavy-duty remote-controlled flail mowers that cut rank growth back to an even finish without the scalping and clumping you get from a ride-on on uneven ground. Slopes to 55 degrees are within reach, so the banks and terraces that have been skipped for years can be brought back into a normal maintenance cycle.

What the site looks like afterwards

You get a clean, even, controlled finish rather than rows and clumps, and the site goes back into a maintenance cycle you can actually keep up with. Many clients move to a regular seasonal cut once the initial rank growth is dealt with.