Hopefully you fertilized your lawn heavily last November with an application of FERTILOME Wintererizer.  If you didn’t, you need to get in a habit of doing that.  Cool-season grasses, like the tall fescue that most of us grow, grow best with the majority of their fertilizer applied in the fall when the grass plant is better able to utilize it. In the spring we encourage folks to focus their efforts on cleaning up broadleaf weeds that slipped through your fall treatments and getting down a crabgrass preventer. 

When it comes to broadleaf weeds (henbit, chickweed, dandelions clover, etc.), you have a couple of tools to choose from, FERTILOME Weed Out (better) or FERTILOME Weed Free Zone (better).  Both are great for killing existing broadleaf weeds, but Weed Free Zone should be your choice for really hard to kill weeds, especially when temperatures are cool.  Always mix and apply according to label directions, apply to weeds when foliage is present (not just after you have mowed) and ALWAYS use a Spreader Sticker.  And one last thing, weeds are easier to kill when they are still young, so don’t wait to do it.

(What’s Spreader Sticker?  That is an important spray additive that allows the product you are spraying  to sheet more effectively over foliage (especially waxy foliage) and adhere better to the leaves, preventing it from washing off in the rain as easily.  Both of those things will help increase the effectiveness of the product you are spraying.)

Crabgrass preventers are dry, bagged products that you will need to spread on the yard using a lawn spread, preferably a broadcast spreader.  They are used to help prevent the establishment of crabgrass and other annual summer weeds in your lawn.  They actually work by killing the weeds just as they are beginning to germinate and grow which is why they HAVE to be on AND be thoroughly watered in prior to weed germination.  With crabgrass, that date in the Topeka area is usually around early May so we try to have our applications down by early to mid April (usually about the time the redbuds are blooming), but that really depends on the product you are using.  Now, this is where it gets a little confusing.

 We have three products to choose from: 

FERTILOME Crabgrass Preventer Plus Lawn Food—This product has been around for a lot of years and still very effective.  It combines an herbicide called Team with a full application of lawn fertilizer.  It does a great job on crabgrass prevention as well as many other annual grassy weeds HOWEVER, one application will not last the entire spring and summer season.  That can be a big deal because all of these weeds continue to germinate throughout the summer season, especially if we are getting some rainfall, or you are irrigating. To maximize you application, apply as close to that mid April target as possible.

FERTILOME Lawn Food Plus Crabgrass and Weed Preventer—This is a newer product that has rapidly become the crabgrass preventer of choice.  It combines an active ingredient call Barricade with a nice springtime dose of lawn fertilizer.  It controls not only a great many annual grassy weeds, but also a great number of annual broadleaf weeds.  Best yet, it will give you coverage throughout the spring and summer months with only ONE application, saving you time and money.  One more added bonus, this product is not as timing dependent as most other products so you can feel free to apply it anytime now up until early April.  Make sure it gets watered in at least three times before we hit that critical crabgrass germination date.

HI-YIELD Turf & Ornamental Weed and Grass Stopper—This also is a newer product.  It utilizes an active ingredient called Dimension.  Dimensions not only has the capacity of providing annual grass and weed prevention all spring and summer (if applied at the appropriate rates), it also can function as a post-emergent herbicide on young crabgrass plants (no more than the two to three leaf stage).  So if you don’t get around to applying a product by the target dates of mid-April, you could try using this product to clean up what has already started to germinate AND provide prevention from that point on.  We have formulations both with and without fertilizer.  You will find that this product is also very effective for weed prevention in landscape beds and ornamental plantings as well.

So are you confused now?  Hopefully not, but if you have questions please call us, e-mail us or just stop by.  We would be glad to talk with you about your own situation and help you get the right game plan put together for your own lawn and landscape needs.