Overview: Crabgrass thrives in hot dry conditions, so it is important to get rid of it before it can get to the hot dry months of Summer. Here in the Midwest, the seeds of Crabgrass sprout in mid-spring. The seeds can begin to germinate when soil temperature hits 55 degrees. crabgrass is an opportunistic plant, and it will grow in thin bare spots in your lawn and along walkways, paths, sidewalks, and driveways because it thrives in the heat that radiates from the concrete. When the end of Summer comes, crabgrass can drop hundreds of seeds which will sit in your lawn until the next Spring when they can germinate. Because of this, the best mode of action to eliminate crabgrass is to apply pre-emergent that will kill the seeds when they begin to germinate at that 55-degree mark. But we will touch on that at the end of the article.
How to Kill Crabgrass: If you only have a few crabgrass plants in your lawn, you can just pull them by hand to get them eliminated. The best time to do this is when it is still early in the season and the plants are young and haven’t produced their seeds yet. If crabgrass has taken over your lawn, you can apply blanket treatments of herbicides that will begin to kill crabgrass. However, these products can begin to get pricey as they have a higher rate of active ingredient needed to kill crabgrass, which is a very tough weed. The best mode of action to take if you have lots of crabgrass is to be proactive in the Spring, which leads to our concluding thoughts on crabgrass.
Preventing Crabgrass in the Spring: It is much much easier to stop crabgrass in the spring before it becomes a real problem in the Summer months. Like we mentioned above, crabgrass seeds that have been sitting dormant in your lawn since last Fall can begin to germinate in the spring once the soil reaches 55 degrees. The best and most effective mode of action to take is to apply pre-emergent herbicides to your lawn before the crabgrass can begin to grow. The pre-emergent herbicide doesn’t kill the seeds sitting on your lawn, as there is no product to actually accomplish that. But it does stop the seeds from getting past the germination phase and becoming full-grown plants. At Warren Lawn Services, we use Lesco’s pre-emergent product combined with fertilizer. Not only does this get a leg up on the crabgrass, but it also is going to feed your lawn and give it the boost it needs to get started and come out of dormancy. In the end, the most effective weed control is a thick, healthy lawn that chokes out weeds and doesn’t allow them to begin growing in the first place.
