Crabgrass - I'm infested

[Prashun Patel]

I live in NJ, and have a crabgrass problem this year. I'm not sure what to do to be crabgrass-free next year. Normally, I just pull out the clumps by hand. But there are too many now.

Should I just keep persistently removing by hand/shovel?

Is there something I could spray?

Should I just let it be and use a pre-germination preventer in the spring ?(like I did this year... :()

Any experience or insight appreciated.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

If you think about farming, crop rotation is an important part of keeping the land fertile. Growing a lawn is a terrible thing to do to land. However, there are appearances to keep up with, so most of us do it. My personal method is to let whatever grows grow, and not bombard the soil with chemicals. When it gets too high, I cut it. There is freedom in not caring about the green stuff around my property. Just my $.02...:)

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm guessing Arnold isn't a top contender for the Garden Club's top award. Again.

I'm with you all the way, but there is a limit at times. Some weeds are just not very attractive in clumps and some starve out everything else making a dead spot.
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[Mitchell Andrus]

My neighbor used to use a bulb planter to pop out the offending weed and pop in a plug of good grass from a small replacement stash out back. He worked at a golf course... knew all kinds of tricks. It would take him about 30-60 minutes a month. After a few years he didn't have very many weeds to worry about and he cut his time to about 5 minutes a month.

I would need a plug cutter about the size of Nebraska.
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[Mark Stutz]

Prashun,
I've had good luck with crab grass pre-emergents in the past. The timing though is the key. If you put it down too long before the soil temps come up it will be gone when the seed germinates, and if you are just a bit late it is useless. DAMHIKS:mad:

Mark

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

preemergent herbicides
CrabGrass spreads using seeds.


After application don't use core aeration and don't disturb the soil.
Apply the herbicide right after the forsythia blooms and keep applying it until after the lilacs bloom. Use those plants to inform you when because crab grass seeds sprout at the same time and local conditions may cause those environmental elements leading to the blooms of those plants to vary.

[Al Wasser]

You should not have a lot of weeds if your lawn is healthy -- so concentrate on getting it healthy. Pay a visit to your local county agent. Find out what the fertilizer recommendations are for your area and watering requirements. Do you mow as recommended?

[David G Baker]

I have around two acres of lawn (various types of weeds). This year is the worst year I have had for crab grass. It has taken over at least 75 % of my lawn. It is so bad that it is even driving out the weeds. I won't do anything about it because the lawn is made up of many types of green things that look okay when I mow it and crab grass is green most of the time.

[Larry Frank]

I have a two acre yard and I have had more crabgrass this year than any year. I use the pre-emergent stuff about every other year. I fight the crabgrass with something like Weed-Be-Gone Max and kill a lot of it. Even with a healthy yard, with very hot weather certain types of the grass in the yard go dormant such as the blue grass and what you have left is the fescue growing. It is important to overseed the yard every couple of yards to keep a variety of grasses growing. Some of them do better in the spring and others better in the heat.

I think that pulling the weeds is a waste of time because you never get all of the roots.

[Mike Langford]

....My personal method is to let whatever grows grow, and not bombard the soil with chemicals. When it gets too high, I cut it. There is freedom in not caring about the green stuff around my property. Just my $.02...:)


....This year is the worst year I have had for crab grass. It has taken over at least 75 % of my lawn. It is so bad that it is even driving out the weeds. I won't do anything about it because the lawn is made up of many types of green things that look okay when I mow it and crab grass is green most of the time....

I agree with Arnold & David.....If I were to kill off all my crabgrass and clover I would have only dirt left! :eek: (Red clay dirt at that!)

There's a guy on one of the other forums I belong to that lives in Phoenix AZ. and has his whole yard covered in "Field Turf" http://www.fieldturf.com/ ....100% fake and nearly maintenance free and he loves it!

I've thought a many of times about having my whole yard covered in green concrete....:D

[Joe Mioux]

Pre-emergent is the way to go. I usually spread Barricade with a fertilizer down in the winter and it works very well.... well except this year. I normally do this in February. In January, I normally spread Milogranite.

(side note: I once had a golf course chemical sales rep call on me and he was the person who recommended the above tip. He would get his golf course turf managers spreading Milorganite around thanksgiving and come back with a crabgrass-fertilizer application around Christmas. The rationale was GC's don't have much business during those months)

Post emergent herbicides are what you need now. Trimec is an excellent herbicide for crabgrass. Read and follow the instructions... especially the instructions stating do not apply when temperatures are above 85 degrees.

For anyone that has nutsedge growing in their yards, use Sedge Hammer with a spreader sticker. Excellent results.

Joe

[Rick Markham]

If you don't want to pull the stuff up, you can put baking soda on it. It will only kill the crab grass. They sell it in 50lb bags at the feed store for a few dollars. Then use the pre-emergent like the others have suggested. This works well for my dad's lawn ;) I like letting the green things grow until they are 8ft high :D

[Jim Becker]

Prashun, also make sure you're not cutting your grass short...crabgrass and other weeks tend to thrive more when the actual grass is cut less than the recommended 3.5" or so. But yes, you'll need to do the pre-emergent treatment; either with the chemical stuff or, perhaps, corn gluten meal.

[Prashun Patel]

I usually follow good lawn practices:

use preemergents 'when the forsythia's about to drop'
don't overfertilize
Aerate every couple years
overseed every couple years
infrequent, deep watering
blah blah.

I'm still overrun. I've always been told to pull any crabgrass that does appear before it goes to seed. There's too much this year.

I dug out as much as I could yesterday. I'll just leave the rest and hope for the best.

[Mike Langford]

I usually follow good lawn practices:

use preemergents 'when the forsythia's about to drop'
don't overfertilize
Aerate every couple years
overseed every couple years
infrequent, deep watering
blah blah.

I'm still overrun....

Two words....

Green Concrete! :D
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[Bill Cunningham]

They just ran a sewer line down my street, and to hook up, half the lawn got dug up, and I had to add fill over the entire lawn area.. I have spread about 15lbs of grass seed, don't ask me what kind, I'm just happy if it comes up green, and now I have a scattering of grass, and about 100 maple tree seedlings (my neighbor has a maple tree).. Come this fall, I will take all my neighbors maple leaves, and spread them all over my lawn(?) area. The snow and spring thaw will break it down into good mulch, and my lawn will come back...maybe..(I did this with great success over blue clay in my backyard after digging the foundation for my workshop) Now, If I were to water it with beer, it might even come up 'half' cut, or as someone else here said: "It it were Emo, it would cut itself"(Hey !! I'm over 60, and I knew what that meant :D)

[Van Huskey]

The only sure fire way I know is Roundup the entire yard, till it under and sod it, works for at least 1 month, repeat as needed... I am kidding...sorta

[John Pratt]

The only sure fire way I know is Roundup the entire yard, till it under and sod it, works for at least 1 month, repeat as needed... I am kidding...sorta

That's really not that crazy. We actually use a pre-emergent herbicide and then as the weather here in Oklahoma starts to warm up in March/April (while the Bermuda is still dormant), we cover the entire yard with a broad spectrum herbicide (Round Up) that kills everthing. Because the Bermuda is still dormant, it is not effected. After the bermuda starts to come in nice, we hit it with some fertilizer. After about two years of this method, the grass looks great with no clover or crabgrass.

[Don Jarvie]

Send the crabgrass my way. With all of the heat and no rain this summer I have brown dead grass and dirt so any type of greenery would be welcome.

I could water the lawn but my water bill is bad enough with watering the garden never mind watering grass.

I have used the Scotts product for crabgrass at my old house in the past and it worked well. Now we have a dog at our new house and I don't use chemicals on the lawn since she likes to eat the grass occasionally.

[Brian Tymchak]

I usually follow good lawn practices:

use preemergents 'when the forsythia's about to drop'
don't overfertilize
Aerate every couple years
overseed every couple years
infrequent, deep watering
blah blah.

I'm still overrun. I've always been told to pull any crabgrass that does appear before it goes to seed. There's too much this year.

I dug out as much as I could yesterday. I'll just leave the rest and hope for the best.

Prashun,

Crabgrass is an annual warm weather grass. With the warmer year this year, even the best lawns have had some pop up. It will die when the daylight hours shorten up. At this point, spraying won't help much.

However, what you absolutely must do is to minimize how much seed your current crop leaves for next year. digging it up is one way... and good exercise..;) You didn't mention how large your yard is but one of the best things you can do this year is bag your clippings when you mow, and mow regularly.

And as others have mentioned, use a pre-emergent next spring. BTW, I've found crabgrass germinating several weeks before the forsythia blooms. I think it needs soil temperatures of ~55 degrees for a few days. I live in central Ohio and we can get that with 3-4 warm days early in the Spring. 3 or 4 years ago I had crabgrass germinating within 1 week after the snow melting off during the last week of February. So, as a general rule, I put my pre-emergent down the first week of March, or as soon there after when the snow melts. Or a week earlier if the weather is already warm.

If you haven't in the past, I would also suggest putting down a Winterizer treatment the first or second week of November so that your lawn gets a quicker, stronger start next spring.

And lastly, if you have had a bad year this year, there will be some hang over next year, regardless of everything you do this year. Just stay vigilant and treat it as early as you can.

Brian

[Richard Chan]

[QUOTE=Don Jarvie;1496906]Send the crabgrass my way. With all of the heat and no rain this summer I have brown dead grass and dirt so any type of greenery would be welcome.

I could water the lawn but my water bill is bad enough with watering the garden never mind watering grass.
QUOTE]

Come by my house and you can dig some up yourself. I know what you mean about the MWRA:(