By DoMyOwn staff
Just like every weed that pops up in the yard, crabgrass is one of those, that, if left unchecked, can really take hold of your yard. In this video, Paul goes over how to get rid of crabgrass, as well as how and where it likes to grow. He will also go over the kinds of products to use to control it and the benefits of each.
Look how beautiful that is!
A few videos back, somebody had commented that they would rather have my neighbors yard than mine. Let me show you something.
Neighbors yard...my yard. Pretty sure this is what they call dominating the competition.
I mean I've got to say, for someone who doesn't really know what they're doing, think I've done a pretty good job here and the yard is looking really good. Just can't stop bragging about it. I'm really proud of it.
A part of the yard I really haven't shown or discussed is the back yard, because...well...it's dead!
Some of the over seeding was successful, especially on the side with the Bradford Pears, but overall this is what it looks like. Dead as a door nail.
I haven't given the back yard as much tender, love and care as I have the front, and if you'll remember I said that was kind of my plan. I wanted to really focus on the front yard this season, and then next season tackle the back yard and get it looking good.
But what I want to talk about today doesn't have to deal with the back yard, doesn't even have to deal with the front yard. It has to deal...with this little lovely problem right here.
See what we've got here, and I've even got some of it back there where the Crape Myrtles use to be, is a nice lovely collection of crabgrass.
I mean look at how much crabgrass I'm dealing with here. There's some other weeds sprinkled in the mix here, but 99 percent of it is crabgrass.
So let's talk about how to get rid of crabgrass. But before we do that, let's discuss about what crabgrass is, how it grows, how it thrives, all that good stuff.
Crabgrass. One of the most common weeds found in the lawn. While crabgrass can look like regular grass at first glance, when you get to looking at it a little bit further and deeper, there's some differences.
Newly sprouted crabgrass can appear light green; lighter than your turf actually, but over time, as it continues to grow, it can dull to a dark deep green color.
The leaves of crabgrass are actually much broader than a regular grass blade.
It tends to grow in clumps, really low to the ground, and the stems of crabgrass grow laterally or outward instead of up.
One of the biggest tell tell signs is the blades or the stems grow out from the middle and resemble the legs of a crab. Hence the name crabgrass.
Now it may seem like crabgrass is everywhere, all of the time, but there are certain areas that it thrives and grows better than others.
Crabgrass most certainly will not grow in the shade. It needs sunlight for those seedlings to really germinate and thrive. So focus your attention to where you get a lot of sunlight either in or around your yard.
The seeds of crabgrass begin to germinate in early Spring and really start to sprout up mid-spring. If you see full sized grassy weeds really starting to grow in early spring, it's most likely something else and not crabgrass.
In the heat of the summer, this is when crabgrass really thrives and it's when you will notice it more in your yard.
For you folks with a cool season lawn, because your lawn grows at a slower rate in the heat of the summer, that's when you should really notice crabgrass really starting to come up out of the yard.
Since the seeds of crabgrass rely heavily upon the sun to really thrive, a nice thick robust turf will help block the seeds and seedlings from sun and prevent them from taking hold. So, you got a nice thick lawn like what we've got here...good to go!
Proper mowing, proper irrigation, fertilizing, all that good stuff, everything that we've done to the lawn, you keep up on that, you most likely won't have a crabgrass problem in your yard.
Because I've put so much focus and tender love and care on this portion of the yard, I really haven't focused on little areas like this. This particular spot, if you remember, I use to have a ton of bushes going along the house right here; they were just really overgrown, they were blocking the windows, didn't like them, I ripped them out and I have plans to do some kind of garden bed, along here eventually, but I'm not going to get to it this year.
But because I haven't really done anything over here, now I've got this problem on my hands. And it's not a big problem. We can easily take care of it. But it just gives you an example of what happens when you neglect something.
So now let's talk about how to get rid of crabgrass. The best way is to use a pre emergent crabgrass killer or a crabgrass prevented before the seeds have a chance to germinate. Just like all pre emergents, if you're going to use one of those to prevent crabgrass from popping up, timing is everything.
Like most weeds we're trying to control with pre emergent, you've got to hit it before soil temperatures reach about 55 degrees. That's when most weed seeds, especially crabgrass has a chance to thrive and germinate.
Timing again is not going to be exact. I can't tell you, you know, right at the beginning of Spring is when you need to apply. The weather in your area, the region you live in, your conditions of your soil, temperatures, all that kind of stuff has to be factored in to when your going to apply a pre emergent for crabgrass control.
If you're going to use a pre emergent, just make sure to choose a product labeled for crabgrass control.
If crabgrass is already present in your yard, you're going to have to use a post emergent herbicide. But there are some things you have to keep in mind if you're going to use a post emergent to control crabgrass.
You have to treat it early in its life cycle. Young plants are much much easier to control.
The treatment area might have to be watered a little bit so that you don't harm existing grass. Just make sure to read your product label and follow the instructions on the product that you choose.
You might also have to avoid mowing before and after the application. Just once again, read the product label, it will tell you what you should do. And again, make sure that crabgrass is listed on the product label of what ever post emergent that you're going to choose.
Because my treatment area is not in my yard, it's over here where no grass is growing, I can use the higher usage rate of this product to really wipe it out of that area.
So without further delay, let's kill some crabgrass.
And even though it does feel like it's about a thousand degrees outside, you still got to where PPE. So long sleeves, long pants, and gloves.
Well that should just about do it for controlling crabgrass.
If it wants to put up a fight, I'll defiantly retreat. But I'll wait the recommended amount of time, per the product label that I used.
Hopefully we answered some good questions on how to control crabgrass.
Just like every video, if there's something I missed or you got further questions, you know what to do! Leave them in the comments section below, email our customer service staff, or give us a call!
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And as always, thanks for watching!
