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Getting Rid of Crabgrass |
| By Ellen Brown |
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Question: What is the best and easiest method for getting rid of crabgrass? This year is probably too late to do anything. What should I do for next year? My lawn was over run with crabgrass this year more than any other year.
Hardiness Zone: 5b
Vanet from Saugerties, NY
Answer: Vanet,
I cannot think of any easy solutions to controlling crabgrass, and I'm not sure a person can hope to ever get rid of it completely. Even when using pre-emergent herbicides, it seems to come back eventually. The first thing that I would suggest is to raise the height of your lawn mower blades to 3 inches. This will support the healthy growth of turf grass and leaves less room for crabgrass seeds to take hold.
For long-term control, I would recommend applying corn meal gluten. This is an all natural by-product of milling corn that acts are a pre-emergent for controlling crabgrass, barnyard grass, foxtail, dandelion, lambs quarters, pigweed, purslane, smartweed and others. If applied once in mid spring (around the time the lilacs bloom) and again in mid August, you should catch two different flushes of crabgrass. A third flush will probably be ready to germinate just in time to be killed off by frost. Corn meal gluten should not be used if you're trying to establish a lawn, because it prevents regular grass seed from sprouting too. If you apply this at a rate of approximately 20 lbs per 1000 sq. ft. the first year, you should see at least a 40-50% reduction in crabgrass. Control will continue to improve each year with successive use.
Ellen
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About The Author: Ellen Brown is our Green Living and Gardening Expert. Click here to ask Ellen a question! Ellen Brown is an environmental writer and photographer and the owner of Sustainable Media, an environmental media company that specializes in helping businesses and organizations promote eco-friendly products and services. Contact her on the web at http://www.sustainable-media.com |
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RE: Getting Rid of Crabgrass
I think the men mowing also "seeded" my yard-- however I made it worse by agreeing to "scalping" in preparation for summer growth. Will never do that again. The grass didn't have the strength to fight off the weed seeds. The other thing I did was insist the height of my grass to be at least 3 inches before mowing-- we'll find out if mine is OK next spring. good luck
RE: Getting Rid of Crabgrass
Vanet I had read this you might give it a try Good Luck A great organic "weed and feed" product is corn gluten. It will suppress crabgrass germination, while fertilizing your lawn.
Request: Get Rid of Crabgrass?
Can anyone tell me how to get rid of crabgrass? We have tried so many different things on it and we just can't seem to get rid of it. It is covering a big portion of our yard.
Brenda from Missouri
Answers:
We Use Vinegar
We use vinegar on all our weeds. We mix vinegar and a small amount of dishwashing liquid (to help it stick to the weed) and spray it on crabgrass and weeds. It's cheap and I'm also very wary of chemicals with 4 kids and pets. (04/26/2004)
By Ann
How?
How do you apply it with an sprayer, do you attach to the hose? And what quantities do you use. Great idea because I won't use chemicals either & my yard is being taken over by weeds. (04/26/2004)
By Vicki
Roundup
If you're OK with chemicals, RoundUp is the best herbicide for weeds or any unwanted vegetation. Otherwise, vinegar or salt solution will work, but may make the soil inhospitable to anything for a while. (04/26/2004)
Are you sure it's crabgrass?
Are you sure it's crabgrass? If it stands straight up it isn't crabgrass; probably what is referred to as foxtail or goosegrass. Roundup or vinegar are both okay to use but will kill any grass you spray it on too. (04/26/2004)
By guest
Use a Sprayer
Vicki, To spray the vinegar we use a sprayer from the hardware store. It has a large plastic container that holds a gallon or more and has a short hose and a pump to build up pressure so you can spray it from the hose. Just put the vinegar and dish washing liquid in the plastic container. Most people use the same thing for regular weed killer. (04/28/2004)
Regarding the Vinegar and Soap
As a chemist, I wouldn't recommend adding soap to the vinegar when the intended use is as a herbicide. The acedic acid is the active agent here and soap is a base which just reduces or neutralizes the acidic strength. A mild spray will "stick" well enough. The acid will continue acting even when "dry."
I might also add that vinegar is an excellent relief for insect stings & bites as well as sunburn. (06/14/2004)
By Dr. Jose
Crabgrass From Our Landscapers
We had crabgrass last year but not as bad as this year. Our entire lawn is mostly crabgrass. Our neighbors don't have crabgrass so it is not coming from them. I think it came from our landscaping company that cuts several of his customers lawns and one or more of them have crabgrass. Exactly where he started cutting in our yard this year is exactly where the crabgrass started brand new. We are going to work hard at getting rid of it still this year but next year we may try cutting our own grass. (08/02/2005)
Canadian Green Grass
The best way to kill crabgrass and any weed that may grow in your yard search the web for Canadian Green Grass. This seed works wornders. It survives drought, resists lawn infections, and it kills off any weeds and squeezes out the crabgrass. We just planted new seed last year in the front lawn. And I saw some of this grass seed in a magazine so i ordered some for the back lawn to overseed. It turned out that the back lawn was better looking than the front lawn. You really need to try this, the best part being its cheaper than the ordinary grass seed. Just try it and i guarantee you wont be disappointed. (04/14/2006)
By Matt Gill
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