Getting Rid of Crabgrass

[tprairiegirl]

My lawn has tons of crabgrass. At this point, is digging it out the only way to remove it? And, if I do this work, will this prevent it from coming back next year? Thanks for any info anyone can share. :)

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Oh...I thought this would have been fixed by now. tprairiegirl, can you please go to your profile and put in something that indicates where you live? The answer to your question is highly dependent on where you live.

And when you come back, please tell us what kind of grass you have and want to save mixed in with the crabgrass.

[tprairiegirl]

Can crabgrass really ever be fixed? I think this is almost a philosphical question! I live just south of Dallas. The front yard has bermuda and though I'd really like to have St. Augustine, I guess I'm going to stay with the Bermuda for a while. I was thinking of putting down kind of pre-emergent in September and fertilize, too. Am I on the right track?

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Thanks for adding that Lancaster is south of Dallas. That helps a lot. If you lived more to the south I would have suggested baking soda without hesitation. That far north the results seem to be more spotty. You might try it. Put the baking soda in a sock, moisten the tops of the crabgrass, and dust the wet grass by beating the sock onto the grass. Obviously it doesn't take much - just a dusting. If you have a dust blowing device, you could use that, too. Some insecticides go on as a dust but most of us don't have them. If you use baking soda, follow it up in 2 weeks with compost at 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet and some organic fertilizer.

You can absolutely beat crabgrass! If you want St Augustine, get a flat for a dollar and break it into four pieces. Plant those around your yard and start taking care of them. You need to water them daily at first until they take root. Gradually start watering deeper and less frequently until you are watering about once a week for an hour or so. Also set your mower at the highest setting for the St Aug and keep it low for the bermuda. Those patches of St Augustine will turn into 10-foot circles of pure St Augustine in a year. As they expand they wipe out the bermuda and crabgrass along the way. Proper watering and mowing as I described above is what will clear our the bermuda and crabgrass. Also fertilize 4 times a year (more for the bermuda).