How to kill Crabgrass
One of the biggest enemies of a great lawn is crabgrass. Crabgrass is an annual warm weather weed, meaning unlike most grasses which are perennials, it grows from seeds. People often ask me how to kill crabgrass and I tell them the same thing. Applying herbicides at the right tme is the best way to kill crabgrass.
You need to know the life-cycle of crabgrass if you are going to kill it. In the fall, cragbrass plants are killed by the frost. However, the seeds still live on. When soil temperatures reach 55-60 degrees, the crabgrass seeds germinate. From midsummer to fall, the crabgrass is busy producing seeds. The process then starts all over again as the plants are killed by frost.
In order to kill crabgrass, you need to use a preemergent weed killer. They come in both liquid and granular form and will kill the crabgrass seeds as they germinate. Since the preemergent weed killer gets rid of the crabgrass seedling, timing is very important in when you apply it. When you see that the lilacs are blooming, you’ll know that the crabgrass is germinating. Therefore, you want to apply the weed killer just before your lilacs bloom.
Types of Preemergent Herbicides You Can Use to Kill Crabgrass
Although there are lots of different herbicides you can use to kill crabgrass, I’m going to only look at two, because frankly, why list a huge group of them. These two are the most commonly used preemergent herbicides for killing crabgrass.
The first is called Dimension, with the primary ingredient being dithiopyr. You can use it on the majority of lawn grasses, but be sure to check the label to ensure that it will not harm your particular lawn grass. Dimension will provide you with long lasting coverage to ensure that you kill the crabgrass seed throughout the germination period. Remember, just like every other kind of seed, all crabgrass seed doesn’t germinate at the same time. You want something that has long lasting coverage to kill the crabgrass.
The other popular preemergent is Tupersan, which has siduron as its active ingredient. The nice thing about Tupersan is that it won’t kill any lawn grass seeds that are germinating. Siduron is often added to lawn starter fertilizers to kill weeds that choke out the new grass seedlings.
Next up: The do’s and don’ts of using peremergent herbicides to kill crabgrass
Tags: crabgrass, how to kill crabgrass
Uncategorized | John |
