Crabgrass
Posted by John Penton on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 4:32pm.It seems as if every store you venture into at this of year you'll notice crabgrass preventers. These are pre-emergence herbicides. Crabgrass preventers will only work when the crabgrass seeds are beginning to germinate at which time these seeds are absorbing lots of soil moisture. Thus if that moisture from the soil contains pre-emergence herbicide, seedlings will die. As always it’s best to maintaining a dense, healthy stand turf which is easily achieved with conscientious watering and maintaining a mowing height of no less than 3 inches. Water smart and mow high.
Crabgrass is a warm season annual grass which mean it grows from seed each year. For crabgrass to begin to germinate it must have a soil temperature in the range 50 to 55 degrees - most crabgrass seed germinates at higher soil temperatures.
In eastern Nebraska, it is ideal to apply one application of a crabgrass preventer with fertilizer in early to mid-April and follow up with a second application approximately 6-8 weeks in mid to late May.
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Dave - Not too early at this point. You definitely will want to water your lawn now if we have not received any rain in the last week. Check out our recent blog entry "Watering the Lawn" posted on 4/20/2009 for details on the most effective way to water that lawn.
Posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 10:01 PM.
Thanks. I looked at the long-range forecast and it looks like we are out of the woods (for now) for frost, so I am going to turn the sprinkler on. It has been pretty dry in Omaha, and it is really supposed to heat up this week. I will check out the other post on watering. Appreciate the tips!
Posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 10:29 PM.
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John, Thanks for the tips! Should I be watering my lawn now? I was thinking about getting my sprinkler system up and running again. Is it too early?
Posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 5:28 PM.