Crabgrass

[Haz]

One of my friends has a small grassy area 75' x 200' which the children use to play soccer and it has gotten overgrown with crabgrass. What is the best way to get rid of it and to promote growth of regular lawn grass? Is it possible to do this without resorting to herbicides ? Thanks

Haz

 

[sendero]

My experience is sadly, no. Some people believe that if you keep it really mowed short you can kill it off, but it never worked for me (works for Johnson grass tho /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)

There is a chemical, I believe either DMSA or MSMA, that will kill the stuff without killing many other turfgrasses, but of course that depends on what kind of turf grass you have. St. Augustine will not handle it, bermuda will.

An alternative would be to use a milder glysophate type product like Roundup and just nuke everything and start over.

Maybe someone else knows a trick that I don't, I don't like using chemicals unless there is no other option.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

I haven't tried this yet, but our local organic guru, Howard Garrett recommends corn gluten meal:

<font color="blue">I feel very strongly that synthetic chemical pre-emergent herbicides should not be used on your lawn but a wonderful new natural pre-emergent herbicide can and should be used. Discovered by Dr. Nick Christians at Iowa State University. It’s called corn gluten meal, a common ingredient in pet food and livestock feed. It does a great job of reducing populations of many common weeds such as crabgrass, grassburs and other annual weeds. Put it out at 20 lbs. per 1,000 square feet (just like a fertilizer application). In fact, it is an excellent organic fertilizer. When? In north Texas, do it March 1st or there about and again June 1st for even greater control. The application for winter weeds should be done about September 15th. Unlike chemical herbicides, corn gluten meal replaces the need to buy additional fertilizer.

 

[NIXON]

As Sendero stated MSMA ( marketed by ORTHO I believe )is very effective at removing crab grass . It also works on Nut grass . To help it wok, you might want to add a couple of drops of dishwashing detergent to the mix . It helps break down the waxey coating on the leaves .
John

 

[Bird]

My experience, with both crabgrass and Johnson grass, has been the same as sendero's.

 

[Haz]

Thanks for the tip on Corn gluten. It sounds interesting. My friend is very interested in using a chemical free solution. I will pass it along and report back how it worked in a few months. There is also an interesting discussion on using cornmeal to treat fungal skin infections on the same website as you listed.

Haz

 

[thcri]

Haz,

In my new sodded lawn I started getting crab grass and I asked the guy that laid the sod what to do about it. He told me not to use any chemicals to kill it or pre-emerge stuff. He told me to stay aware from the Scott's brand type of stuff also. He recomendation and after two years it has been successful for me was to just use the fertilizer that you get from the Agricultural places. I use a 19-19-19 or a 9-23-20 and that is all I use. I had to buy almost two semi loads of sod so to help save some money I bought some of the stuff on rolls that you hook on your 3ph to unroll. It was a lot cheaper but was full of weeds. Following this guys suggestion these weeds are gone. So my plan unless things change is to use just the standard fertilizer without the extra chemicals.

murph

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I feel there are several ways to minimize crabgrass. First fertilizing the bermuda is one of the best ways to choke out the undesiriable weeds of any kind. Second, regular watering and mowing will keep the bermuda healthy. Third, yes you are going to have to use MSMA on crabgrass! It will take more than one application to completely kill the crabgrass also. I use a 3 gallon backpack sprayer to spot spray my baseball fields. The broadleaf weeds can be easily controlled the same way but by using a different chemical called 2-4D. This is the main ingredient in the popular well advertised lawn weed killers. If you can shop at a farm store you can buy just the generic chemical 2-4D without the fancy packaging and price. The main tool in the battle against weeds is repetitevely staying on the job. Weeds have 24 hours a day to try and get in your yard, so it is going to take some time every week to get them under control. Good Luck -BUSBOY.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Anyone ever used corn gluten? Where would it be bought? Any idea on costs? I have never heard of this material but would consider giving it a try.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

MIKED,

I went to the local organic nursery this afternoon and picked up their last 50# bag of CGM for $22. It was packaged by a feed mill in Ardmore OK, with nothing on it except the basic analysis. Obviously a feed supplement and not a retail package.

I searched on Google and found the Iowa State web page, which has lots of links on it.

Look at organic nurseries or feed stores. If you find it at a feed store or mill, make sure it's 60% protein (CGM) and not 15% (Corn Gluten FEED). I saw prices in the neighborhood of $45-$50 retail for 50# on the internet, and saw prices mentioned in discussion threads of $5-$10 at feed mills, but that might have been for the 15% (CGF) product. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

The suggested application rate is 20# per 1000 sf, although the research I looked at indicated that the best results came with 40# per 1000 sf. At that application rate, twice a year, buying at $22 for 50#, I would be spending $350/yr /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif for my 10k sf lawn. I'm just going to try it out on the problem section I have this year.