The Lawn Techs Blog

Pre-Emergent Crabgrass Control Stops Crabgrass Before it Starts

In Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, and other surrounding communities, spring is the time to make one of the most important lawn care applications of the year, pre-emergent crabgrass control. Crabgrass is a nasty aggressive wild grass that is almost impossible to stop once it germinates. This pre-emergent application is combined with a spring fertilizer to help your lawn come out of dormancy, start to grow and green up!

The pre-emergent crabgrass control creates a barrier within the top inch of the soil, this barrier prevents crabgrass seeds from germinating.

Crabgrass seeds germinate in the late spring and summer, so it is important that this barrier is not broken.

Dealing With Other Wild Grasses

Keep in mind! In New Jersey, crabgrass does NOT grow in the spring, it is only a summertime problem. Therefore, if you see wild grass growing on your lawn in the spring, it is some other type of wild grass. Pre-emergent crabgrass or post-emergent weed killers will not control them. During the spring, there are many wild grasses that emerge and most of them peter out by the summer. If you have an ongoing problem in the spring with wild grass, we can get it professionally identified. Then, we can determine if there is any specialty product that will control it. Wild grasses get into a lawn from birds, hay, low-quality soil, or seed.

Don’t Aerate, Rake, Dethatch, or Seed After...

Our recommendations regarding spring seeding for your lawn.

Spring is here! You plan on planting some new bushes, preparing your vegetable garden, and seeding your lawn. However, did you know the best time to seed is in the fall not in the spring?

In Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, and other surrounding areas in New Jersey, 1.888.Lawntec does not recommend core aerating, dethatching, power seeding, or overseeding in the spring. If you have problem lawn areas that need attention in the spring, consider spot seeding it and then doing a complete job in the fall. Here’s why:

1. When you seed in the spring, you cannot apply pre-emergent crabgrass control. Newly seeded areas must germinate, mature, and be cut at least 2 to 3 times before pre-emergent crabgrass control can be applied. This takes about 3 months, and at that time, it will be too late to make a pre-emergent application.
2. Weed killers cannot be used as well or your new seed will be dead.
3. Once summer arrives, crabgrass and weeds will begin to spread and can damage the new grass. Controlling crabgrass and weeds in the young grass in the summer is not possible.
4. Well, what if we seed a few weeks after you apply the pre-emergent crabgrass control? It is not possible to apply pre-emergent crabgrass control and then seed a few weeks later. The pre-emergent crabgrass control application creates a barrier on the ground that needs to be there throughout the entire spring and into the...