This is what I came up with Kill Violets

Most of these products are for lawns using a end of hose sprayer. I need to hit each plant selectively with a small spray bottle--no broadcast spraying.

Regular Round-up, what they call Round up Weed and Grass Killer III, is what I've been using with little effect. They do say fall is the best time to kill them, so I guess I'll try then.

I certainly don't want to use Dicamba!

Yes, I know very little about herbicides. I have horsetail both Equisetum arvense & hyemale. Pity us, two scourges of the garden between Violets & horsetail.

Oh, I feel for you. I hear that horsetail is much worse to get rid of than violets. Ortho did tell me that the best time to use Round up on violets was fall.

"I certainly don't want to use Dicamba!"

Is there a particular reason why? Dicamba is less toxic with respect to the environment and to various life forms (excluding plants) than is glyphosate/RoundUp.

How moist is the area where they are growing? When I did some checking, everything I found said they prefer moist and shady conditions - and ants spread the seeds (have you got any ants?) Violets are a problem in some places in this neighbourhood. While some areas are sunny, they are also on the banks of the road ditches so are moist too. Dry and sunny places don’t seem to have many. Growing up ’down east’, there were wild violets in moist spots in the hayfield across from the house. Since the grass grew long there, conditions at their level were also shady. I don’t remember any in fields that were both sunny and dry. The ones I remember never spread although there were pismire nests (Grandpa’s name for ants) not too far away so I assume moisture was the main determinant of where they grew. Grandpa didn’t bother with chemicals and never tried to get rid of the violets anyway. Can you make the area where they are growing both dryer and sunnier?

https://xerces.org/blog/plants-for-pollinators-violets#:~:text=Viola%20sororia,of%20butterflies%20known%20as%20fritillaries.

I also have violets coming out the wazoo. I've tried Spectracide but it just leaves the leaves slightly scorched. I suspect repeated applications on hot days is necessary. I end up digging them out of the places I don't want them and just leaving them everywhere else. You may want to consider hiring some local teens to dig them out.

All of my violets are in the sun and in moist as well as dry areas. The only place they aren't is in the shade--which maybe due to disturbance from a home renovation a couple of years ago. Who knows.

Dicamba drift is a big issue in rural areas.

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/dicamba-drift-affects-non-target-plants-and-pollinators/yea 

https://news.osu.edu/the-herbicide-dicamba-creates-problems-for-some-farmers/

Well. if the violets are coming up in planted beds, then you don't want to be spraying anything around, even something like vinegar. You need to paint on the herbicide. Drift can happen with any sprayed herbicide!

I couldnt beat violets. Now tgey ard mh groundcover. Can you find a local volunteer to help?

I have been digging some out, but many are very deep--and in heavy wet clay. It's damn near impossible. Though I keep at it.

For spraying, I move over the area, hunched over, spraying a few drops right up against the leaves o every leaf I see. I've had no problem with drift.

Re Dicamba--what Indianagardengirl said. It has an exceedingly bad rep. I'd rather use Round up--if it worked better.

I have been waging war on violets for years. i can never seem to get them fully out. I was recently gifted a Hori knife and it has been a game-changer on the violet battlefield. It takes me a loooong time to go through beds to dig up violets, but this spring I made a point to go out with the ONE chore……i usually get sidetracked like Dug from UP and squirrels……….but sticking to that one chore for hours on end, and a bit of pain in the hands each day after, I am finally making some headway. I figure I will just keep at it every year and try to get them out before they flower. It might be hopeless in the end, but at least I can pretend i have the upper hand! 😂

As I linked above, violets are the host plants for several butterflies. I would focus on removing them from where they are in my (or my plants’) way. Seeds will find their way from neighbors, wherever, so wouldn’t keeping the violets at a manageable level be the best goal?

My battle is garlic mustard, after several years of managing the perimeter around my yard, I’ve got it under some semblance of control no thanks to my do-nothing neighbors.

Lookup “No mow May” and start loving them?

I let them live in the lawn--but not in the beds and especially not in the groundcovers, whose looks they destroy.

I hear you! I have to pull the up with a dandelion puller from my beds every spring, then mulch like crazy!

I have millions of them- in the beds, in the lawn, in the shade, in the sun.

I used to struggle to dig them out but now carry a small hand held dandelion puller thingie that manages to pop them out fairly easily.

Get a dutch hoe for your beds. https://www.amleo.com/push-pull-scuffle-hoe/p/PPH?mkwid=|dm&pcrid=510045705290&pkw=&pmt=&plc=&kc=&prd=PPH&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=cpc&slid=&prd=PPH&pgrid=118765786044&ptaid=pla-380109471314&gclid=CjwKCAjwve2TBhByEiwAaktM1B6oav0QRBg9jgthc6rfjh4goEnrXZSNMfkLOUakjuvgT5c3N0HJ3hoCvyYQAvD_BwE

I use a hori hori to pry up the rhizomes but I like the idea of using a long-handled dandelion weeder if getting onto the ground is a challenge.

Violets are one of my more troublesome weeds, but though it's a pain to dig them all out it's still a better option for me than using a herbicide. Besides, you can get your revenge by eating them.

https://foragerchef.com/violets/

"re the scuffle hoe. Nice tool. Would never work to get the violets out of clay soil."

No, no it won't.

Wild violet's rhizomes are fairly brittle at the crown and would snap right off with a scuffle hoe unless you are working in soil so loose you could almost scoop 'em right out with your hand. If you miss even a little bit of rhizome they grow right back and if I'm taking the time to get one out I'm getting all of it.

Love my scuffles but there are weeds they work on and weeds they don't.

"I like the idea of using a long-handled dandelion weeder if getting onto the ground is a challenge."

I also have one of the old Weed Hound step-on dandelion pullers and those work great- if you're short you don't even have to bend over.

Even at 77 I can still get up and down from the ground, but it's still hard work and slow to dig those little buggers out.

Hori hori makes fairly quick work of them. there are areas where i have so many I either sit on the ground while I dig or sit in a low beach chair. otherwise breaks the back! Good luck woth whatever you try. They are annoying little buggers!

I've been using what I call a hand fork--heavy duty aluminum, held in the hand like a trowel, with 4 heavy duty tines. Still very hard, slow work.

misery loves company.... and company is all i can offer. i have given up fighting the violets. at least they are green and low growing. if I happen to be doing something near them, I feel compelled to pluck them out but it doesnt do any good really.

Well, I feel I have to keep beating them back before they completely destroy the groundcovers. The also seed into the crowns of plants and are exceedingly difficult to get out.

and why don't bunnies eat them? they are eating my plants/flowers all over but leave the wild violets alone.... why??!!! why why?!

Well, even if they did, you'd still have as many.

I know someone who swears by using an old butterknife to get things out of crevices between pavers. I have never tried it. Best of luck.

If you do need to use an herbicide, violets are toughies and they have waxy leaves so a surfactant is important to make it spread out and stick to the leaves instead of beading up and rolling off. Also Triclopyr is the most effective selective herbicide (in your lawn) - although I'm surprised Round up didn't work. Surfactant in either case.

A few years ago I watched guys with lawns on YouTube.

One swore by borax for violets. Don't know how he applied it, but violets were widespread in his lawn so he must have broadcast by hand or spreader. Over the coming weeks those violets died.

Impressive. You probably would not do all the other crazy stuff he did to get a magnificient lawn but that lawn was lovely.

So try a youtube search and you might get some different answers.

I have no hope for them--nor time nor energy for them--in my lawn, but in the ornamental beds and groundcovers, they have to go. I'm putting in 1-2 hours nearly daily digging them out and I'm making an impact.

I will try to search for the borax idea--though I'm not sure I'd do it.

By pulling them out you're not going to get rid of them. They thrive in disturbed systems and are primary successors. They have a coefficient of conservatism value of 1 (meaning they're prolific in disturbed systems). Every time you dig one out you're disturbing the ground. Like someone else mentioned, since they have a rhizome, if you leave some of it, chances are it'll come back. You can either try to starve it of light by mulching heavily or exhaust it by chopping off the vegetation once every 2-3 days. You can exhaust them, but you'll likely be doing that for the rest of your life (you'll also be spraying herbicide every year if you choose that option too). The seeds have a very long life and will still be viable at least 5 years from now at the minimum. It's a feature of planta that are primary successors. You can go increasingly nuclear with the herbicidal options, spend at least 1-2 hours per day for the rest of your life hunched over digging them out by hand (which will promote the growth of more of them from the rhizomes you miss and trigger the germination of seeds present in the seedbank), do some deep mulching to prevent germination, OR make your peace with them.

I've found that the violets mostly disappear from a garden 2-3 years after installation as long as I'm not disturbing the ground save for popping up individual plants and maybe putting some more plants in and as long as I'm not heavily supplying a source of fertilizer. Got to remember what role they serve in an ecosystem. They're primary successors so they come in quickly after a disturbance when the amount of bioavailable N is very high and they cover the ground + burn off a lot of the available N. As the garden/system stabilizes and begins to move beyond primary succession, the dominance and prevalence of vioets wanes. You may see one or two here and there, but not so many that they'll crowd anything out, even low growing ground covers.

Thanks for the detailed info. I'm digging them, not pulling, and I'm getting the rhizome. And I'm willing to keep up with them over the next few years. They'll give up before I do.