When You Absolutely Positively Should Not Use Pre-Emergent Crabicide

If you, as a homeowner, decide in the Springtime that you want to apply grass seed to your lawn in the coming months, then it would be best to forgo an application of pre-emergent crabicide (or a Springtime fertilizer that also contains this crabicide). Many of the chemicals used as a pre-emergence crabicide are not specific to crabgrass. Several of these chemicals will also kill or inhibit the sprouting of desirable grass seeds as well. If you have small areas in your lawn that need special attention and a little extra grass seed, an extra heavy raking in these areas may undo the effect of pre-emergence crabicide that has already been applied. If, however, your intent is to over-seed much of your existing lawn, you will have much better results if you have not applied a pre-emergence crabicide beforehand.

If you have had problems with crabgrass in your lawn in the past, the timely application of pre-emergence crabicide is generally considered the best prevention. Now, if your intent is to over-seed your lawn with desirable grass seed and to forgo the application of a pre-emergence crabicide, you still have controls available to you. One such control is the use of a post-emergent crabicide (common crabgrass killer). This type of product is applied to areas of the lawn containing crabgrass for the purpose of killing just the crabgrass. Although this may be a more labor intensive alternative to pre-emergence control of crabgrass, it is a viable option when it is your intent to over-seed your lawn. In other words it’s much easier to prevent the crabgrass from ever getting started than it is to kill it once it has started to invade your lawn.

And just so you know, the very best and most natural control of crabgrass is to keep your turf thick, dense, and mowed high. Crabgrass tends to get its start in lawns that are thin and mowed too short. The crabgrass seed will only sprout when the conditions are ideal - with an excess of water and an abundance of sunshine. Keeping your turf tall and thick keeps the crabgrass seed (down at the soil level) out of the sunlight and it cannot germinate. And watering should be minimized, only done when needed in the absence of rain.

NEXT TIME: Don’t Get Sold on Power-Raking