Now that we are officially into fall, I wanted to address crabgrass and other weeds you may be seeing in your Gainesville lawn. Having a great lawn next spring starts with how you treat your lawn this fall and winter.
The good news about fall is that summer weeds have gone away (or soon will go away with the next cold spell.) The bad news is these weeds have left their seeds in your lawn which means they will return next year unless you do something about them in the next 6-8 weeks.
That is why the Master's Lawn Fertilization & Weed Control Program includes fall and winter visits. These treatments are some of the most important visits we make all year because we apply preventatives that keep these weed seeds from turning into weeds next year.
On our fall visits we apply a pre-emergent that prevents winter weeds from coming up along with a post-emergent for any broad-leaf weeds that have already sprouted. In late winter, around February and March, we apply a different type of pre-emergent to prevent spring weeds, such as henbit or poa from growing.
All of this means when the lawn comes out of dormancy next April, it won't have to compete with a bunch of weeds and will fill in quickly.
I wish I could tell you this prevents all weeds, but unfortunately it does not. There are three types of weeds: annuals (those that come back from seeds each year), biennials (those that have a two-year life cycle), and perennials (those that come back from their roots every year).
Pre-emergents only work on seeds so they are only effective on the annual weeds. The other two have to be controlled with foliar applications after they have emerged.
Preventing the annuals from growing is a great start though, and allows us to focus on just the other two types the rest of the year.
Another big factor in the success of our fall and winter weed control depends on watering. We apply our pre-emergent in big droplets which makes it fall to the ground instead of misting and blowing around. Once the drops hit the ground they stay on top of the soil. The pre-emergent only starts working when you water the lawn. The water spreads the droplets out evenly across the ground and pushes it down in the soil where the seeds are waiting to come out. Without proper irrigation, it sits on top of the soil and doesn't do any good.
If you have any questions or concerns about your lawn weeds or landscaping, give us a call at (352) 378-5296 or email us at info@themasterslawncare.com.