crabgrass issue

Darryl G said:

Sounds good. 4 weeks might be little soon. 6 weeks is usually about right in my area.

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i'm in muskegon mi. so i will get some of that crabgrass with fertilizer in it this week and put it down in april and then may get some of that weed and feed and put that down the first part of may. then see how it goes unless your thinking that is to soon between applications. if so can you give me a time frame. or maybe not do the weed and feed this year just the crabgrass preventer and then do the weed an feed later or next year. thanks much for the advice. bp

Darryl G said:

Sounds good. 4 weeks might be little soon. 6 weeks is usually about right in my area.

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darryl this is what i have done so far. tell me i did not mess it up! i went out today and de-thached the yard both front and back and at that time i ran the mower to cut up the thatch and got it out of the yard.

tomorrow i will got get the fertilizer and crabgrass preventer and apply it to the yard. my yard now is de-thatched so i see dirt. in the fall i cut the grass back to like 2" and today i cut it to 2" . so i either messed it up or got it ready for the preventer tomorrow. thanks bp.

Sounds good. If you're going to dethatch the preventer is key because you've essentially created a nice seed bed for the bizzilions of crabgrass seeds laying around. Guess we'll ultimately find out, won't we.

And cutting it at 2" will give the weed seeds plenty of sunlight. Taller grass deprives seeds of the necessary sunlight to sprout.

There are various pre-emergents on the market. IIRC, one called Barricade had the longest effectiveness.

Darryl G said:

Sounds good. If you're going to dethatch the preventer is key because you've essentially created a nice seed bed for the bizzilions of crabgrass seeds laying around. Guess we'll ultimately find out, won't we.

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thanks darryl. yes we will. in a few weeks i will either have a bare yard or a nice green yard full of crabgrass that i fed good for the season. i will keep everyone posted as this progresses. thanks bp.

corvairbob said:

thanks darryl. yes we will. in a few weeks i will either have a bare yard or a nice green yard full of crabgrass that i fed good for the season. i will keep everyone posted as this progresses. thanks bp.

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ok today i mowed the yard again and bagged it and then put down some scotts turf builder halts crabgrass. it has crabgrass preventer and lawn food as well. i have 11.300 sq ft for both yards and this covers 15,000 so i put 1/3 in front and 2/3 in back. i went north to south and east to west 4 times each yard picture of how the stuff wound up on the yard


so now i went to lowes to get more info on some weed and feed as this has no weed control in it and i find 74 neg reviews on this product. some said they got more crabgrass than they had before. so if it fails to work this year next year i will have a very nice green lawn full of crabgrass as i will not wast another dime on it if i do not see some improvements. so i guess for now time will tell.

ok i have another question maybe some can help me with. i put the crabgrass preventer on my lawn and it did rain last night and some today so it is now starting to go into the lawn. today i went out to test the ph and my meter say 9.5 to 10 when i keep moving the meter in ond out of the dirt but keep it in the dirt. if i let it set for a bit it settles to 7. i tested the neighbors lawn and they have 7.5 and i tested next door in an open field and that was 7.5 and along my garage where i have potting soil and did not apply the crabgrass preventer and that was 7.

so my question is this. does the crabgrass preventer make the soil ph rise way up or might i just have a hi ph level and now have to add stuff to lower it? i have not added lime for years and i water with shallow well water. but never tested the water for ph. but the well water does leave stains on the house and cement. but that may not be iron it could be tannen's

anyway what might this be the scotts crabgrass preventer working or i just managed to develop a high alkaline yard that now i have to sour up some? here is a picture of the tester i used thanks

I wouldn't base any decisions on a pH meter like yours. Have you done the Scotch-Brite conditioning procedure on the electrodes lately?

Most states have an Agricultural Extension Service that will test your soil for free or for a nominal charge. Might be worth looking into.

Darryl G said:

I wouldn't base any decisions on a pH meter like yours. Have you done the Scotch-Brite conditioning procedure on the electrodes lately?

Most states have an Agricultural Extension Service that will test your soil for free or for a nominal charge. Might be worth looking into.

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yes i did brush them bright thanks i have used this before but i have not used it in a few years and never after i applied any treatments. and because now my yard is 9.5 and all around me is 7 to 7.5 that is why i asked. the only place i did not treat is 7.5 plus on 18 ft area i had a pool in and last year i had 5 yds aof top soil dumped into that spot to fill it in for a yard and now that is also 9.5 so that almost makes me think the scott crabgrass preventative may be causing this at this time as it dissolves into the soil. i will check it again in a week and see if it changes. again thanks

I doubt if the crabgrass pre-emergent is changing the pH of the soil, at least not that much.

It takes huge amounts of lime to change the pH from 9 to 7 and most of the ingredients of a bag of fertilizer/herbicides are inert.