How to Kill Crabgrass & Reseed
Crabgrass is the bane of gardeners everywhere. Each crabgrass plant can produce up to 150,000 seeds per season. These seeds blow in the wind to other areas of the yard and to neighboring yards. Once crabgrass germinates and begins to sprout, it can choke out the turf grass and leave unattractive bare patches throughout a lawn. If your lawn suffers from dead grass and bare patches due to a crabgrass infestation, you not only need to kill the crabgrass, you must also reseed your lawn to return it to its former beauty. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Choose a day to apply the post-emergent herbicide when the weather does not call for rain in the near future. Rain will dilute and wash away the herbicide, making it less effective. The crabgrass will absorb the herbicide better in warm weather.
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Water the lawn the night before you intend to apply the herbicide. The soil should be moist to absorb the greatest amount of herbicide possible without the grass being wet.
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Apply the herbicide uniformly across your lawn. You may opt to use liquid or granulated herbicide.
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Wait one week and treat the grass again. New crabgrass plants may have germinated since your initial application.
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Remove any dead crabgrass plants in your yard. Crabgrass is dense and stiff, even when dead. New grass cannot grow in the area in a timely manner while the dead crabgrass plants remain.
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Wait two to four months to ensure that the herbicide has had time to soak into the ground and kill all existing and germinating crabgrass plants before reseeding.
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Select a variety of grass seed that grows thickly enough to demonstrate a resistance to crabgrass. Zoysia grass and bluegrass are both good choices. Before purchasing the grass seed, make sure that it will grow well in your area's climate.
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Water the soil to moisten it. This helps the fertilizer and grass seeds more efficiently soak into the soil.
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Fertilize the soil using a low-nitrogen fertilizer. Crabgrass thrives in soil with high nitrogen levels while grasses do not require it.
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Spread the grass seeds using either a spreader or your hands. If you spread the seeds manually, you need to toss the grass seed out onto the lawn using a fanning motion. Reseed more liberally in areas that are bare due to previously existing crabgrass.
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Water the grass deeply but infrequently. Watering deeply encourages the new grass to put down deep roots, which helps protect the lawn from crabgrass in the future.
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Tips & Warnings
If your lawn turns brown after applying the herbicide, this means you have applied too much. Watering the lawn dilutes the herbicide and helps your grass recover.
Don't mow your grass too close to the ground. This allows sunlight to permeate through to the soil and encourages the germination of any crabgrass seeds that find their way onto your lawn.
