Many new golf courses in Southeast Asia choose seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) for their grass, and some golf courses, when renovating, are changing to seashore paspalum. One of the challenges in managing seashore paspalum turf is the control of weeds. There are not many herbicides that can be used without damaging seashore paspalum. For control of weeds such as goosegrass, there are no herbicides labeled in the USA for use on seashore paspalum. I worked with Dr. James Brosnan on a project to investigate sodium chloride (NaCl, or table salt) applications for control of weeds in seashore paspalum turf. Our article, Efficacy of Sodium Chloride Applications for Control of Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) in Seashore Paspalum Turf, was published in the recent issue of Weed Technology.

Because seashore paspalum has a high salinity tolerance, it may be able to tolerate salt applications that would be toxic to weeds. In our study, we looked at sodium chloride application rates of 49 g m^-2, applied every seven days for three consecutive weeks. This rate of sodium chloride application did not damage the seashore paspalum, but it also did not provide effective control of goosegrass; the sodium chloride applications resulted in slightly more than 50% control of the goosegrass eight weeks after treatment. The published study was conducted in Hawaii, and the treatment that provided the best control of goosegrass was MSMA, but the MSMA applications caused phytoxicity on the seashore paspalum.

Another experiment was done to look at control of Paspalum conjugatum (some common names for this plant are sourgrass, carabaograss, or hilograss) in seashore paspalum turf. Our article about this experiment will be published soon in Weed Technology, and we found that there was effective control of the weedy grass with the same application rates of sodium chloride (sequential applications of granular sodium chloride at 49 g m^-2).