When to put down some Pre-Emerg/Fert?

NewLawnGuy – posted 20 January 2005 13:49

I live in Atlanta, GA & had new zoysia sod laid this past September. It went dormant with the cold weather, but some weeds have begun to sprout in a couple areas. I’ve pulled most of them, but I was wondering if I should throw down some pre-emergent weed stuff now while the lawn is still dormant.

Also, I noticed that there are combo packs out there of pre-em & fertilizer (10-10-10)…does anybody recommend using this stuff now or will it ultimately damage my new lawn in the long run?

ted – posted 20 January 2005 17:00

in your market, i think your a little early for pre-emergent. if it’s truly dormant ( and it should be) you might try some spot spray of roundup for 24d. generally don’t recommend off the hardware shelf fert/weed control products. try your local Lesco.

NewLawnGuy – posted 20 January 2005 17:46

Thanks for the advice Ted.

Buck – posted 21 January 2005 08:12

Won’t help this year, but next fall you may want to hit it with Dimension 0-0-7 to prevent the winter weeds. I think that if you apply according to the label you can make three passes annually before you would exceed the max amout in a year. I go with an application in early Septemeber, another in mid-late December and then a third in Late March. I think that many people have a mind set that weeds are a warm season problem only. That is clearly not the case so might as well attend to them year-round.

mikemaas00 – posted 21 January 2005 08:43

There’s no reason why you can’t apply a preemergent starting in the fall and thru the early spring. Putting it down in the fall will help kill the winter weeds, and putting it down through winter and early spring will keep many grasses such as crabgrass from popping up. Most of the time you can get a pre-m fertilizer combo product for the same price as a straight fertilizer, so you might as well get the combo product to be on the safe side.

ted – posted 21 January 2005 11:22

i think we’re probably dancing around with several issues here. weeds are going to pop up in a dormant lawn in the winter no matter the timing or type of pre-em. i think you can pre-emergent yourself to death and still have weeds and grasses that are going to pop through. why not try another type of turfgrass, or perhaps overseed with winter rye? it’s going to give alot more color throughout the year and help control the weeds. i’ve always found the best weed control products are a healthy lawn and correct watering. not a big fan of pre-ems- they don’t last long enough and don’t control that many weeds. for example: they control crabgrass for a period of time, but they don’t touch dallisgrass, and most customers couldn’t tell the difference. they all break down very quickly once the weather warms up.

NewLawnGuy – posted 21 January 2005 12:12

Thanks to all for your advice. Ted suggested to overseed w/winter rye…would doing this have any negative effects on the new zoysia sod I laid?

ted – posted 21 January 2005 12:23

nope. but you may only see spotty results this late in the season in your market. don’t recommend it now.

NewLawnGuy – posted 29 January 2005 21:22

Thanks once again for the advice.

Buttwheat – posted 08 February 2005 15:11

Um did I miss something….

I’m in the South also (VA).

GENERALLY speaking, when is it best to put down a pre-emrg. fertilizer? Now? In a few weeks? What?

ted – posted 08 February 2005 18:14

i would wait. you’re in the south, but not the deep south. i would get it down before april or so. you’re primarily looking at grassy weed control, so if you put it down too early, you’ll be wasting some of your product.

NewLawnGuy – posted 10 February 2005 10:09

LESCO was mentioned before…but what type of fert/pre-emerg is recommended? Any suggestions?

ted – posted 10 February 2005 16:27

if you can buy it locally, the dimension or pre-em would be your product- buy it in a granular form for homeowner use. you may have some trouble buying without a license, however. you can also try ag or farm co-op supply places for similar products- stay off the hardware store products.

NewLawnGuy – posted 13 March 2005 12:28

Thanks again to all of the advice. I plan to use the dimension next week as suggested but was wondering if this is a 1-time treatment for this spring or should it be done in stages as well. Please advise. Thanks.

ted – posted 13 March 2005 18:44

dimension is both a pre-em and a post-em, so one application ought to get it. again, remember this is not a professional product if bought at a hardware store, and will only prevent a few weeds. pre-ems highly overrated in my opinion.

NewLawnGuy – posted 19 March 2005 18:59

Thanks once again Ted for the valuable advice.