How to Deal with Crabgrass

Crabgrass is usually blamed for any persistent weeds or unwanted grass that grows in someone’s manicured lawn.

There are several types of weeds that look similar to crabgrass, and the treatments for them are also similar. If the problem you are experiencing is truly caused by crabgrass, there are some things you can do to help get rid of the prolific weed and rescue your lawn: 

Using Pre-Emergent Treatments

There are several pre-emergent treatments that you can purchase from a good lawn and garden store. The best time to use a pre-emergent is in the early spring before the grass has begun to develop. Crabgrass doesn’t begin growing until the weather is consistently hot, so you have plenty of time to apply a treatment before the growing season begins.

If you have experienced crabgrass problems before, you will know which areas of your yard are more likely to grow crabgrass again. Concentrate your treatments on those areas specifically so that the crabgrass won’t have a chance to gain a foothold as the summer progresses.

Late Season Crabgrass

Once crabgrass emerges in the late summer there is not much you can do to get rid of it. If you are really interested in making it go away, it is possible to pull crabgrass out by hand. This can be a time-consuming process that takes a lot of work, but it will eventually get all of the crabgrass out of your yard. Make sure you treat the area that was filled with crabgrass as soon as possible after you have pulled it up. It doesn’t take long for crabgrass seeds to germinate and begin to grow again.

Use a pre-emergent treatment or good mulch to keep the seeds from becoming healthy and growing more crabgrass in an area you have already pulled from.

The Problem with Herbicides

The best way to combat crabgrass is to treat your lawn before the weed begins to emerge in the early summer or pull the crabgrass up by hand after it emerges. Crabgrass tends to gravitate toward sunny, dry spots in your lawn, which means that using plenty of water can also help keep your lawn intact.

Crabgrass is an annual weed, so it will die off every year during the first frost. You can take advantage of that time to lay down the pre-emergent that will stop the crabgrass from coming back next season.