mcp0103
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:23 am

Invasion of Crabgrass

Hi guys and Gals

I'm new to the forum. Just signed up like 20 minutes ago. I am novice to lawn maintenance so I really need all the info and help I can take. I purchased a house early fall of last year. The grass was in decent shape due to the owner keeping it up while the house was on the market. So during the fall I just kept the grass cut and not doing anything else to it. In the spring of this year I had the grass aerated and I overseeded and put down some starter fertilizer. Learned all of that on youtube. Summer came and now I have crabgrass everywhere. Over 75% of my yard is covered in crabgrass. Also the grass spots that I do see is very thin. I also have a lot of brown patches. Not sure if it from the summer heat or if I have some type of grass disease. I thought it may have been the fertilizer but I put that down back in April and the brown spots did not appear until July. I only water twice a week so maybe the lack of water maybe the issue with the brown spots.

My plan for this fall is as following:

1) Test soil
2) Core aerate and over seed.
3) spread starter fertilizer.

Next Spring put down pre-emergent

My question is what do I do to this crabgrass? Do I try and kill it before I aerate and overseed? I was told that a good frost will kill it. But if I overseed with the crabgrass there, will the new seeds be able to germinate in all that crabgrass?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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ID jit
Green Thumb
Posts: 339
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:00 am
Location: SE New England: zone twilight or 5b... hard for me to tell some days.

Am not a lawn guy...

What I know about crab crass is that you need to get rid of it BEFORE you can get the preferred grass to grow. The crab grass will suck up most of the nutrient and water and kill of everything else.

porterj267
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:46 am

If it has covered more than 50% of the yard then you will have to kill everything and start over. The only grass that can really smother crabgrass out is Bermuda. I have it in my yard and it is invasive itself and thick.

www.lawncaremadeeasy.com



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