Crabgrass preventer OR seeding?

Grass is thin and yard has moderate weeds. fescue/rye/bluegrass yard in Missouri.

Should I put grass seed down now or should I put crabgrass preventer down and try to encourage growth of the grass I have now?

Reply to
Oscar_Lives
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"Oscar_Lives Grass is thin and yard has moderate weeds. fescue/rye/bluegrass yard in Missouri. Should I put grass seed down now or should I put crabgrass preventer down and try to encourage growth of the grass I have now? "

You should have applied weed killer in late summer to get rid of the weeds when they were actively growing. Then you could have overseeded in early Fall, the optimum time. The next best time is early Spring, though Fall is far more preferable. Putting down grass seed in January is worthless, as seed will not germinate until soil temps are in the 50's.

I'd get the soil tested now and apply lime as needed to adjust the PH.

Reply to
trader4

And plan on planting seed or sodding in early Spring. Bare soil just encourages more weed growth. Don't apply preemergent within

3 to 4 months prior to planting seed.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Rogers

Did this myself & worked great. Unbelievably great.. Moved to a house that the previous non's did nothing in the yard except rake the pine tags into two piles in the middle of the front and back yards. Used pine tags elsewhere and obviously there were two deader than dead spots. Dug up 4 or 5 spots in inconspicuous places in March and replanted my "plugs" in the bare spots after liming about a month before. (used pulverized lime and worked it in with a garden rake and kept wet). After applying pre-m without n-p-k, I then went with 13-13-13 and when cutting grass, I bagged it and kept a 3" layer of clippings in the bare spots between my plugs and the spots from where they came from. By late June you could not see where the pine tags had been and the grass was all the same color. I got to stay on my fertilizing schedule and re-seeded in the fall. I normally use pelletized lime though, twice a year, here in central Va.s acid belt..

Reply to
KCnRichmond

Check that. I'll bet you applied "Pelletized limeSTONE". It's commonly available at big box stores. It's made from ground up seashells and is very slow to dissolve. You really want hydrated lime from a place that sells tile supplies. It's messy but it really is a base, chemically.

Reply to
Stubby

Should you warn him about how he can fry plant material with quick lime, or just let him find out the hard way?

Reply to
Steveo

Hydrated lime will not extract the water out of anything (fry??). Anhydrous lime will, however. That's what the murderers used to get rid of their bodies. And it was commonly used in outhouses. Many years ago we were making 200 proof alcohol in a high school chem lab (!) and did the final distillation out of a lot of Calcium Oxide. It worked but a few minutes exposed to air dropped the proof down to about 180.

Reply to
Stubby

Steveo is right. Hydrated lime is caustic and can easily burn a lawn. Sure other limes are worse, but that doesn't make hydrated lime OK. Why do you think they sell it at the tile store instead of the garden shop?

Reply to
trader4

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