What will stop moss and lichen growth?

MikeTNZ

Back of House

Hi Folks,

This is the paved area of my backyard, I installed all the pavers 2 years ago.

With it being on the south side of the house, it takes the brunt of the southerly winds here and during winter, this area never dries out.

Hence the fact that there is moss and lichen present pretty much all year round, but it only comes back to life during winter.

My question is, is there something apart from water-blasting (I have tried this) that will kill all of the lichen and moss over the paths and the pavers?

Is there such a spray treatment that will knock this back once and for all?, as this can get extremely slippery on the way to the washing line out the back, I tried glyphosate weed-killer but it didn't do anything.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Mike T.

MitchellMc

Hi Mike (@MikeTNZ),

Products like Spray And Walk Away will kill the lichen, moss, and algae growth and if it is sprayed a few times a year, it will inhibit their growth as well. The beauty of this product is that there's no scrubbing or hosing off required. Just spray it on and let it do its job. You might like to start by blasting out the cracks and giving the area a good clean before the first application of this solution. 

There are no products that I know of that will permanently resolve the issue. For that, you'd need some type of residual poison, and I only know of ones that prevent weed growth over a period of time. As you've experienced, moss and lichen can resist glyphosate solutions.

It won't do much for the growth in the cracks, but you can apply a sealer to the surface of the pavers to close their pores and prevent the algae and lichen from growing there. Here's a helpful step-by-step guide: How to seal outdoor pavers. If you seal the pavers, you might like to fill the gaps between them with sand afterwards. That will help prevent the growth from taking hold deep down in the crack where it remains wet constantly. Moss can be controlled with iron sulphate products and Ferrous Ammonium Sulfate. If you were to mix some Richgro 5kg Sulphate Of Ammonia with the sand, I'd presume that would have some growth-inhibiting effects.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell