Spring Weeds in the Lawn Pt 1 pre-emergent

• Posted on 24 February 2025
• By JR
• 0

Spring Weeds In The Lawn 

What is going on? The only green things in my lawn are weeds. That is nearly everyone’s experience in early spring. So what is going on and what can we do.

The first part of this is simply that the grass has not really started growing for the season. Our southern lawns go dormant over winter and to break this period of dormancy, the soil temperature needs to warm up to kick start the grass. But the early spring weeds germinate when the soil is still too cool for the grass to grow. They are basically getting a head start, and that is what weeds are best at. The solution is to prevent the weed seeds from germinating to begin with.

There is a class of herbicide called pre-emergent. This class of compounds creates a barrier in the upper portion of the soil which stops seeds from germinating.  A blanket of sorts. They work by preventing cell division in the seeds so that they can not sprout. It is very effective, but you must have the timing of application right. That is really just the same sort of thing we do when starting seeds for the garden, but just (Backwards-ish so to say). You wouldn't have much luck starting cold season crops in March or warm season crops in October. With pre-emergent, to prevent weeds in early spring you apply the herbicide in October and November. To stop the summer weeds, you apply the stuff now in late February and March. 

The Pre-emergent we carry is Nitro-Phos Barricade. The active ingredient in Barricade is prodiamine. This is a very safe herbicide and has low toxicity to things other than seeds. However, that said, always use pesticides as the manufacture directs.  It is certainly not true that, ‘if a little bit is good, more is better' with any manner of chemical.

Barricade has a very broad spectrum of target weeds and is pretty darn easy to use. You just put it in your fertilizer spreader and whirl it out twice a year. My nickel on the grass is don't miss an application. If you have 500 weeds that go to seed this season, they may make 1000s of seeds. If preventing most of those from germinating next season, you can start to get a grip on the problem. It's only twice a year to remember. Each season that you use it, the weed pressure is greatly reduced and in a few seasons you’ve got it whipped. Because weed seeds blow all over the place, you will always have some creeping into your lawn. Thus keeping up with it is always a good idea. Remember you can start a forest fire with just one amber. 

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