Spring pre-emergent herbicides are the masterpiece of your weed-control Strategy. They can probably help your lawn this year.
It is especially true if you’re tired to see those nasty patches of crabgrass develop aggressively in your front, or back yard or along the edges of your sidewalks and driveway.
Spring is not over yet, and you are ready to go to war against weeds already.
Typically, while respecting the current social distancing to avoid COVID-19, you may be tempted to check online what people say about the plethora of products out there, and you might feel already overwhelmed.
Your best option is to spray pre-emergent products on your lawn.
What’s a Pre-Emergent Herbicide Doing For My Lawn?
The pre-emergent herbicide will not address all your lawn weeds, just those ungerminated grassy weeds such as crabgrass, Japanese stilt grass, and goosegrass.
Pre-emergents do not control any broadleaf weeds or grassy weeds that are already germinated.
However, it will actually be effective to contain the most common grassy weeds that you see in Chester County and the rest of Pennsylvania.
Most of them will use chemicals such as Dithiopyr, Prodiamine, and Oryzalin. All these chemicals have different target weeds that they take care of. All are either available as granular or liquids.
No matter if you use granular or liquid pre-emergent herbicide, there’s one thing about them that you should know:
They do not eliminate the weed seeds but rather, they stop the seed in its germination process.
In other words, you’re not buying a killer per se, you’re buying a growth controller. Their main mode of action is a root inhibitor, as the plant sends out roots, the herbicides “stunts root growth” and the plant dies.
As for many things in life, timing is essential. Hence, the pre-emergent spraying process should not happen when it’s too cold outside.
Typically, if the soil temperature reaches 45-50 degrees F. and above, this should be the right timing.
Therefore, do not plan to spray on a specific month. One year may be colder than another. Hence, try to base your schedule on outside temperatures.
Apply pre-emergent too late is a factor also. Once the grassy weeds have germinated, the less effective the application is. Typically in Pennsylvania, pre-emergents shouldn’t be applied after mid-May.
What’s a Selective & Non-selective Herbicide?
As its name suggests, selective herbicides will take care of certain species of weeds while reducing their impact on other plants.
In the case of lawns, selective herbicides will only control weeds, not the desirable turf they are growing in.
A non-selective herbicide will kill literally everything no matter the plant type and species in gets in contact with – which includes the plant of your lawn that you need to keep.
Hence, if you are looking to control weeds in your lawn and not kill your lawn, choose a selective pre-emergent herbicide.
The selective herbicides will take care of:
- Plantain
- Goosegrass
- Hairy Bittercress
- Dandelion
- Henbit
- Crabgrass
- Yellow Rocket
- Black Medic
- Ground Ivy
- Quackgrass
- Chickweed
- Corn speedwell
- Japan Stiltgrass
- Clover
- Wild Violet
- Nimblewill
- Wild
- Dallisgrass
- Sedges
- And many other species
Of course, different products will have different results. Results may vary depending on the formula used in the selective pre-emergent herbicide. Proper timing is essential is effective weed control. The target weed must be stress-free and actively growing, to be effectively controlled.
Therefore, observing and identifying the weeds beforehand will help you in the selection of the selective pre-emergent herbicide.
Although selective pre-emergent herbicides will selectively address certain species of weeds, you need to make sure to observe some precautions regarding the timing of the application.
It is particularly true if you have a fresh new lawn.
The rule is always to let the lawn settle for a few months before starting spraying selective pre-emergent herbicides. If you observe this rule, you will ensure that you inflict no harm to your lawn.
And What Now?
If you are unsure about the type of pre-emergent herbicide that you need to use, get in touch with your friendly neighborhood lawn specialists.