Now's a good time of year to talk about crabgrass. Crabgrass is a grassy weed commonly found in lawns. It's an annual. That means mature plants don't survive the winter. They all start from seeds in the spring, live one season and die in the fall, but before they die, they produce thousands of seeds that lay dormant and wait for warm weather to sprout and the cycle continues. Seeds germinate when the soil temperature begins to warm up in Spring. That's why we want to put down a crabgrass preventer now.
Crabgrass preventers work by killing the plant as it emerges from the seed. They only work on tiny seedlings. Once the plants have sprouted and grown a couple of leaves, they aren't affected by the preventer anymore. This means preventers must be put down before the seeds germinate, not after. Now, not everyone has a problem with crabgrass, but if you did last year, you're likely to have it this year as well.
Grassy weeds can be difficult to kill as mature plants, so it's important to put down a preventer now to avoid the stress of fighting with them later in the year.
There are a number of great products to choose from when controlling crabgrass. If you already have one of these, apply them to a dry lawn and water them in well to activate the ingredients.
If you don't have a crabgrass preventer yet, stop by to talk with your lawn coach to find the one that's best for you!