Spot re-seed grass - Wait how long to apply pre-emerge?

[Pete E. Kruzer]

I'm trying that new grass seed that Scott has, guaranteed to grow. It seemed to work for the neighbor. How long should I wait before I have pre-emerge applied to prevent crabgrass?

[Frank]

May be too late. I put my premerge down around April 1 - Northern DE. Rule of thumb, put it down before forsythias bloom.

The Scotts stuff normally contains rye which comes up fast but better seed in it lags behind.

[Tony]

Correct.

Also true. Bluegrass is very slow to germinate (usually 21-25 days). Almost any bluegrass seed mix has some perennial rye in it as a "nurse" grass. You see green, you're happy. If the bluegrass takes well, it eventually crowds out the rye. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's as Jimmy Durante used to say, "the conditions that prevail".

Tony

[brooklyn1]

I'd wait until next spring. There is only a short window for applying pre-emergent crabgrass killer... once the crabgrass seeds sprout it's too late... read the directions for when to apply in each zone. Crabgrass pre-emergent has nothing to do with turf grass, it only prevents crabgrass seed from germinating. For this season all one can do is dig up grabgrass by hand... defoliants work but then there will be lots of large bare spots.

[Dan L.]

I find the best and non toxic way to keep crabgrass and other weeds down to a minimum, is to put down a fast growing perennial grass seed like rye or a tall fescue in early spring that does not spread by stolons. The faster growing grass tends to over crowd the slower growing weeds.

I have had it with the so called slow growing Kentucky Blue Grasses or any grass that spread by the stolons. It is much easier and far cheaper to over seed the yard each spring than to use the old WEED and FEED toxic garbage. With grass that does not spread by stolons, it is also easier to maintain a natural looking edge without those plastic or metal edging materials 6 inches in the ground.

My opinion - the rye grasses look better than the blue grasses. A nice organic yard will take a few years to get but worth it.

Ok, I'm off my soap box now. Start the insults I can take it!

[brooklyn1]

I don't use any chemicals, my lawn is composed of probably a hundred different plants... I mow, it's green, the critters fertilze.

My first mowing this season... yesterday:

[Dan L.]

Mine is not as nice as yours, but not far behind. I have 12 acres and have a three acre lawn. Life in the country is better than the city.

[Jean B.]

And one can't even tell it isn't grass--from a distance. Good!

[brooklyn1]

Had ya all fooled... 48,000 sq yds of astroturf! LOL

[Dan L.]

If your yard is like mine... let us see what the yard looks like before you mow, not after :) Mine looks like a pasture :)

[brooklyn1]

Here's mine... now show me yours.

've no idea what you consider a pasture... to me a pasture is land used to keep/pasture livestock (not a lawn area) typically more bare ground than green, which is why farmers constantly move livestock from pasture to pasture, to give the green a chance to recover. In very early spring my lawn areas are short brown grass with large areas covered with snow. As temperature rises the snow melts and the lawn areas green up and begin to grow. I don't base my first mowing on the height of the growth, I wait until the ground becomes dry enough to support the weight of a tractor.

[Dan L.]

Hmmm... Ok:

pasture will soon have a fence around it and a small barn next to the pasture for a cow and calf (both not yet received).

[brooklyn1]

Looks good. Once it's fenced and contains livestock then it will be considered pasture, but right now I'd call it a meadow. By mid summer is is filled with wildflowers? My meadow used to be a pasture, the last owners raised goats and sheep, had some horses too. On all my mowed areas they grew hay. In late summer I rough mow my meadow (about six inches high), this keeps the meadow healthy, helps it seed and allows for germination come spring, otherwise it would become all clumpy with the previous years dead growth and fill with brush. You may not want to fence your entire meadow for livestock, maybe just an acre around the barn... that should be plenty for a couple three cows, and I'd cross fence it in half so that part can rejuvenate. Cows will stomp all their area down to bare ground so that when it rains you'll lose all the topsoil and soon have mostly exposed rock, that's what occurs with every New England dairy farm. I'm in the Catskills, where are you?

Mid summer:

fall:

[Dan L.]

The land was used for hay the last five years. Only a third will be fenced off and that will in three sections for just one Jersey Cow and Calf. I am from Michigan, I moved here 12 years ago on 24 acres. I purchased the land from my neighbor (He still owns 300 acres). Since I was city mouse and learning to be a country mouse and I did not have the equipment, time or money to maintain the land, he farmed most of it. My neighbor 73, is retiring and his kids no longer want to be in the dairy business. So I am now slowing getting equipment and just having a small personal use hobby farm. Just me, the dog, chickens, bees, cow and a calf. I am in way over my head! Now reading books on cheese making :)

[brooklyn1]

That's a lot to take on all on your own, go slow with taking on new projects lest it all gets away from you. Working land can be very time consuming, tiring, and costly, I'm sure by now you know that farm equipment is pricey to buy and and to maintain. Good luck.

[Jean B.]

Soooo, your tractor is just for show! (Just kidding.)