Word of advice, whenever dealing with any chemical based weed-killer it's best to always protect yourself. Wear long sleeve shirts, pants, boots, full rubber gloves and a respirator mask. These products use chemicals that are highly potent, can be poisonous and cause cancer. Remember to always protect yourself when applying them, you might look foolish or get hot but you will be safe. That product worked awesome.
Crabgrass is an annual, not a perennial. The crabgrass you see this year, if you do not spray, will never come back. What will come back next year as crabgrass are the millions of seeds last year's crabgrass left behind. That is why you want to use a preemergent to eradicate the seed production in the early spring before the ground temperature comes up to 55 degrees. Get a meat probe thermometer and pierce the ground to assure your temperature of the soil hasn't risen beyond 55 degrees. If it has, your seed production of crabgrass and other weed seeds have begun germination. As Dave K suggested, use Prodiamine as a good preemergent to prevent seeds from proliferating, and spray before ground temperature hits 55 degrees. Do this every year to keep crabgrass away from your yard.
I have a large front yard that was once overrun with crabgrass. I've been using Quin-Way, a selective herbicide for crabgrass. It works extremely well and doesn't harm my cool-season grasses (kentucky blue & fescue). After spot treating with Quin-Way for the past few years, I no longer have a crabgrass problem. My routine is to use a pre-emergent in late March, feed in June. Then to knock down any weeds in August, then core aerate, overseed, and apply a starter fertilizer in early September. Then lots of water. Feed again in November. The lawn looks amazing now.
Dish soap is what I used in my Crop Sprayer too. It does NOT "Make the chemical "Stick" to the plant" What it in fact DOES is break the tension in the water's Surface. Take a glass of water, put a fuzzy piece of wool on the water and it will float. Put one drop of Dish Soap on the inside of the glass and let it run down until it touches the water and watch the wool SINK. It's the tension of the water that is broken down.
Sooooo, what’s your point? Did you think we all needed a lesson on surface tension? Does it mean that a water spider will sink with detergent in the water?
It’s perhaps a matter of semantics, however the man is actually correct in his explanation. Perhaps a more scientific explanation than you are comfortable with. You can actually float a small sewing needle on the surface of tap water and observe the curvature of the water next to the needle. That is an example of “surface tension”. Add a the Dawn detergent to the water and the needle will sink. With dawn detergent added the solution will spread along the the plants waxy leaf surface and not bead up here and there. It does not stick like glue or tape.Makes it MUCH more effective. I hope this helps others by giving a clearer explanation of what adding a detergent to the spray solution accomplishes.
Great, helpful video. To others, you must overseed and water the heck out of it, so the weeds have no room to come back. That’s the most important step otherwise you’ll be back doing the same thing next season.
The trick to crabgrass control is putting down a preemergent in spring before the temperature reaches 60 degrees F. I use a Scott's "triple action" weed, feed and crabgrass control! I had lawn service that did nothing but grow more crabgrass. Scott's may be more expensive but well worth the money! I put the preemergent down in early March and again in May and NO; I don't get anything from Scott's! Walmart was cheaper than Home depot by $10.00 on a 15000 sq. ft. bag.
After spending almost a hundred bucks on something that doesn't work, and spraying for months with almost no success, I've been looking for something that really works. This kill looks fantastic, I will give this stuff a try. Thanks for the great video. And by the way, there is no film in your camera.
Please Read and Heed! As hard as I tried in the past to get rid of crabgrass once it had already came up, it was a never-ending battle. I never wanted to listen to the lawn industry experts and apply a "pre-emergent" in the fall before the next spring and summer season, which ensures the crabgrass seeds can't germinate. After several years of fighting the onslaught of crabgrass, I gave up and decided to take the advice last Fall.....I'll tell you one thing, I could punch myself for being so stubborn about not taking the direction in the beginning. If you have crabgrass in the summer and its just a few here and there, just pull them and bag them to not scatter seeds. Once its Fall and the temp's start cooling down to highs only in the upper 70's, either call a local Lawn Service and get them out to put down Pre-Emergent (it really covers most all weeds and unwanted grasses) or get to your big box store and pick up some Pre-Emergent that goes right on the end of your water hose. Get enough bottles to cover your yard square footage, and having a little extra on it won't hurt. You won't see anything happen to the current onslaught if you have it, or if you only had some minor areas and think you're okay for next year...but either way, go ahead and do the treatment on your entire lawn...regardless if it was major or minor. As long as you get it on properly, you WILL NOT see the crabgrass(and hardly any if at all other weeds) return to the treated areas. Please come back to this post afterward and tell me how you didn't have crabgrass the following year! Quit pulling crabgrass and other weeds once they've already appeared, hoping it won't come back again next year!!!!!!
Looks like a fine job … for your geographical area and grass type that you sprayed. Here in Southwest Florida, this Crabgrass killer would also do so here … but also the less hearty hot season grasses …!
Great video. Crabgrass is the bane of my existence. Our neighborhood was built on former cow pasture and FULL of frickin' weeds, especially crabgrass. I've been trying Tenacity bit with the drought this summer (in upstate NY) a lot of the grass died or went dormant so we didnt mow. Well....the crabgrass continued to grow...to seed length! So now we have a worse problem than before I started our restoration. So completely frustrating. Thanks for showcasing this option.
We're having a crabgrass explosion in our front yard and was ready to just replace the entire grass turf. Your video definitely provides more options. Thank you for a very useful demonstration of effectiveness in your video. Very, very helpful.👍🏽
Wow that looked easy. I should have done that myself. I'm a new home owner and my large backyard was full of weeds and crab grass. First I started digging the crab up and making holes, then I got a weed puller and started yanking them all out manually. Did section at a time and then laid down lawn soil, re seeded and just started from scratch and my lawn now has patches of new healthy grass growing and I'm still working on a few more sections. Lots of hard work to restore a lawn let me tell you but it's getting there. Can't wait to watch your next video. A+++ Thumbs Up! : ))
Thanks! Glad it was helpful. I recorded this video last Summer and I've been watching to see if I had any major crabgrass issues this year. I'm happy to say, I have not had a resurgence of crabgrass. Other than needing more rain right now, the lawn is looking great. Hope things are going well for you too!
@@jnstange Thanks brother! Love your style of channel that you have. I've been a RU-vidr forever with gaming, entertainment, music, and tons of stuff etc. but never in my life did I ever expect to subscribe to a great community of lawn and garden related channels here and home improvement stuff. As a brand new home owner it changes you as I now take pride in everything I do in making, fixing, repairing etc from inside and outside and all your videos as well as others make a difference and it's not only fun but helpful and educational and just kicks ass. It feels great once you finish a project and take a step back and look at what you created or finished and just smile at what all the hard work shows that paid off. This may sound silly but it just makes you feel good and plus you get to show off your home and lawn etc. I find myself watching more videos on lawn repair, conditioning, etc. than I do in music, video games, cooking...(well cooking and lawn repair are equally tied lol) than any other videos not. Once you start a project in lawn stuff it becomes addicting especially if you have time to work on it. I just love it and I always appreciate great video editing and narration from great guys like you that make videos fun to watch to fix things. Once again sorry for the long comment but I just work, shop and come home with my family and work on the lawn during this stay at home pandemic. I just subbed to yet another great channel from you. A+++
I live in northern VA and crabgrass is dormant during winter. To cure crabgrass that yearI normally spread lots of crabgrass preventer Preen in the spring around April, i can prevent 98% of crabgrass the whole year. Need to do it every spring. It cost you only less than $25 for a 8000 ft lawn.
I think the crabgrass encroaching on my lawn died from neglect. We're under watering restrictions in California due to the drought. As a result, my perennial ryegrass lawn went dormant and turned yellow during the summer. Last winter the lawn bounced back with the rain, but the crabgrass didn't make it.
Small areas or big just use Arm & Hammer baking soda. A light sprinkling. Next day dead. Problem is dead spots. So rake it out add some good dirt, then seed or plugs.
An early spring pre-emergent is the best way to deal with crabgrass. Once your soil temp reaches about 55 degrees, lay down the pre-emergent and the crabgrass will not return. May take a couple seasons to get it all though. I have to say that I am quite surprised at the effectiveness of this product though. I have never seen anything that kills active crabgrass without killing your lawn as well. Good find.
After the CG is dead, what’s the best way to deal with it. Tear it out and fertilize, seed the areas? I’ve seen several methods. I have some huge chucks that will leave large bare areas.
I've been usng Acclaim crabgrass killer at $100 per pint - takes three weeks plus to die. Thanks very much for the recommendation. Your results looks great.
I tried a similar product on my crab grass. It worked as advertised, but also trashed every other plant whose roots were under the grass. Grape vines, fruit trees, and bushes. They did eventually recover after looking really sick for a couple of months.
I take baking soda and sprinkle on the crab grass early in the morning while the dew is still on the crabgrass. When the sun comes up, it will fry the crabgrass (dry it out) and kill it immediately. If I get some on my St. Augustine grass, it turns it yellow but doesn't kill it. It recovers. Just get as little as you can of the baking soda on the St. Augustine. You can sprinkle it with you hand or get a larger old fashioned shaker like they use for shaking pepper flakes on your food.
Oh it sure was. I've been fighting it for years. There roots go on and on. I will try it soon. In this very dry season my clover saved the yard. Has stayed green throughout our drought. I have the white and purple flowers come out.
What I did was to rake it as after it browned, roots are dead so don't worry about them. I don't get crazy but try to get enough up to allow the grass to breathe and thus spread (mostly will happen in the spring and you want to spread a preemergent crabgrass preventer when the Forsythias bloom).
Whenever dish detergent is required Dawn is always always the brand that is specified. What is so unique about Dawn as compared with other brands? I have wondered about this for a long time.
I’m cheap. I used to buy anything cheap. Generic stuff, dollar store stuff and even I realized it kinda sucked. My GF was doing dishes, and told me I needed to get Dawn. I took her word and bought some. It’s far superior to anything I was using.
Cuts through grease and oils. They really do use it to clean the feathers of waterfowl that swim into patches of spilled crude oil. Also use it on yourself in the shower WITH LUKEWARM WATER if you think you've been exposed to poison ivy/oak/sumac.
The original Dawn was miscible in oils in any proportion. You could mix, for example, diesel and Dawn and it looked just like diesel. Then you could add this mix to water and it would instantly emulsify. On the recommendation of our state University extension weed scientists I have used this emulsion with herbicides on weeds. Other liquid detergents I tried either didn't appear to mix or only to a limited extent. I believe the ratio of nonionic to cationic surfactants is the reason for the difference. Two more points. That Dawn/diesel mix is a cheap and outstanding cleaner for oily dirt on tractors and machinery. And finally, since retiring from farming I haven't tested the new versions of Dawn.
Nothing new about Trimec. Most stores carry similar products. I've found that Tractor Supply is a good source for chemicals of all types. You still have a zillion seeds in the ground that will grow new plants in the spring. It is an annual plant. One crabgrass plant can have 5,000 seeds. If you don't use a pre-emergence fertilizer in the spring, you'll be right back where you started. Timing is EVERYTHING when using these. Use earlier around sidewalks, driveways etc where the ground warms more quickly and again later when the ground gets to about 55 degrees, I think. If you just have a few plants, just pull them out for free. They won't have time to grow back enough to go to seed.
Good to know. Back in the day all they had for crabgrass was MSMA, which was very effective but required a 10-14 day follow up treatment to completely knock it out, plus you couldn’t use it on cool season grasses. I heard it was outlawed but it looks like these new formulations (quinclorac, dicamba, dimeth. salt) are ok on fescue, rye, kbg, and only require one treatment. Lot of different options/companies selling it in different strengths so good to know the Green Light looks like a good one. Not surprising as I’ve used several Green Light products in the past and was pleased with the results.
Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. Looks like you still have a big job ahead of you to cut out all the brown areas and reseed. But it'll come back nicely. Thanks again.
Thanks I to have a crab grass mess in one part of my front lawn. My questuion is I have a craig mertial tree that has this bad grass around it. Will the killer to crab grass kill or damage this tree or do I take out all grass around tree w/ its 2 foot circle around tree now & avoiding spraying around tree?
I was impressed by that too. It's important to follow the directions for mixing the product. If you use too much, it will hurt the good grass too, but if you use the recommended amount, it works great.
This is old but make sure you know if it requires an IONIC or NON-IONIC surfactant! I use Arm & Hammer liquid laundry soap for my NON-IONIC surfactant which IS required for my weed spraying sessions as I am going after the irritating (hard to kill) pea pod hitch hikers w/ Fahrenheit which works great... DAWN is IONIC. Did you research your options? I will be going after my crabgrass that is attempting to hide in my St. Augustine lawn...I don't think a surfactant is needed as crabgrass don't have a waxy covering as St. Augustine and others have. A surfactant is for sticking and dissolving the waxy protective outer layer of the grass blade. And be sure to do this in temps below 80 degrees to make sure the receptors are open. Thanks for this video.
This may seem like a stupid question but after the crabgrass is killed what are the next steps? Did you dig them out or just soil and seed? I want try but I need to know what I should do to follow it up. Thank you for the video!
Either way will work. As long as the crab grass is dead it will decompose over time while keeping the soil covered and preventing children or animals from stepping into the mud when the lawn is watered and the surrounding grass will grow into its place at the same time. Digging it up and replacing the lost soil with top soil and covering it with dried peat moss or something similar will do the same thing and may allow the surrounding grass to grow into the spot a little faster.
what was your reason for killing the crabgrass ?... i have neighbors who freak out over dandelions ??? I guess it's the difference in perspective . Very informative video !!!
Thank you! Seriously, not only for your time, hard work, and letting us see your journey. Does this product also work on Saint Augustine grass with lots of crabgrass. Here in Florida, it seems to bloom a lot of weeds. I did not want to replace my grass with Sod. It is so expensive, and many have told me that once I take care of the weeds, I can seed it with a bermuda seed, and it will blend well. Is this true or not?
You're welcome. I have heard that it's primarily formulated for cool season / northern grass types and does not work for St. Augustine. I get that question a lot, and unfortunately I don't know what to recommend to you for that.
On st Augustine just use simple baking soda. It will kill the crab grass off quickly and the st Augustine will fill the voids as it doesn’t mind the salt
I would try this out. I also saw some video to use a mop to really rub the chemicals to the plant as the leaves are waterproof but I think the Dawn Soap works.
Glad I hit on to your video because it looks to me like it did a good job. I purchased a different product and tried it.....killed everything But the crabgrass, so I will be giving this a go. TFS!!
@@49Nutmeg - Amazon is the only place I have been able to find it. I did a quick search to see if it was available on Ebay. Looks to be out of stock there too. I'm wondering if letting the cat out of the bag via RU-vid has impacted their supplies. :)
Thanks for the attention to detail, creating and posting this most informative video. Would love to give-it-a-shot, however and sadly search as I might I've not been able to locate same, anywhere. It appears Amazon no longer carrier the item, and if you are still using it are you able to provide sourcing information. Thank you.
1) Do not use Dawn. The main active ingredient in Dawn is Ammonium Laurel Sulfate which definitely isn't the best surfactant for your lawn, or the least expensive. You can find multiple Non-Ionic Surfactants (NIS) on Amazon that are better for your lawn and applying herbicides than Dawn, and the total cost is lower per use. Probably the best NIS is a mentholated seed oil. Spraying a weed without a NIS or surfactant will allow the herbicide and water to bead up on the blades of grass and provide less coating, where using a NIS allows the herbicide and water to more evenly coat the grass/weed and have better foliar absorption and more of the herbicide will be absorbed into the weed and you'll get a better kill on the weeds. The herbicides in this mixture (and most others) can harm your grass if applied too heavily, so applying at the correct rates with a NIS will give you an EPA safe treatment along with good coverage and still provide a very effective kill on the target weeds. 2) All you need to kill the crabgrass is two things, first, Quinclorac is a really great post-emergent herbicide to kill crabgrass, and the other thing you need is to apply the herbicide as early in the year as possible while the crabgrass is still immature. once crabgrass matures past the 4 tiller stage, it becomes much harder to kill. The 2, 4D does nothing against crabrass and is added to almost every weed killer mix because it is a pretty safe herbicide and 2, 4D kills such a broad range of broadleaf weeds that it really boosts the number or type of weeds killed. 3) If you are trying to kill crabrass late in the year, such as fall in the northern hemisphere, save your money. Many products you find do little to kill crabgrass at that time of year because they know the crabgrass dies off with the first frost and they are usually just separating a fool and their money. As stated before, crabgrass is best killed while it is young and immature, and crabgrass that still exists in the fall is very mature and it has little chance of being killed with herbicides without harming your lawn. Look into a pre-emergent like Prodiamine to put down before the soil temps reach 45-50ish degrees in the spring as the crabgrass tends to germinate after the soil has been ~55 degrees for several days and that will drastically reduce crabgrass as well as a wide list of other annual weeds that germinate in the spring or fall. If you get a late start you can also use Dithiopyr which is another pre-emergent, but it also has some post-emergent herbicide properties that will kill young crabgrass at the same time. Since it is the bacteria in the soil that degrades the Prodimine and other pre-emergent herbicides, putting it down earlier isn't a big deal because the bacteria is not active enough with cold soil temperatures to degrade it enough to matter, plus if you wait until exactly 55 degrees and you end up with several days of rain, you could totally miss your window of opportunity and have weeds, so applying a little earlier is erring on the side of safety.
Thank you for this valuable information. I don't want to put a herbicide on my hybrid Bermuda during the hot summer growing months, so I will just carefully remove it as best I can by pulling it out. Early spring next year I will put down a pre-emergent as you've suggested.
Thanks, man. You got to be a weed scientist or in some related field. I second your statement on the surfactant. The only reason to mess with dish soap would be a homeowner with so little to spray that buying a jug of surfactant wouldn't make sense.
@@RJMEL24 Yep, I use the Southern Ag Surfactant. You can find it on Amazon or sometimes in big box stores. It is currently about $29 per gallon, but if you follow the label instructions you use 1 Tsp per gallon or 1 pint per 100 gallons, so that $29 one gallon bottle will go a LONG WAYS, plus I trust it more than Dawn. MSO or Mentolated Seed Oil is better from what I heard, but I've not had issues with this surfactant so I don't know the costs comparison.
@@channelview8854 True...the 1 gallon size of surfactant (more on that in the response to Rob Ward) is only $29, but they make it in smaller sizes too. My front lawn is about 5,000 sq. ft., but I still need to renovate my back lawn which is about 8-10,000 sq. ft., so I know I'll use it over the next few years of lawn care. I appreciate the compliment, but I do not work in the lawn care industry...about the exact opposite. I work in the IT field. I'm a bit OCD by nature and when I find something I enjoy, I jump in with both feet and read and watch videos and learn all I can. One thing I learned along the way was the most popular cool season grass is Kentucky Bluegrass, and the most popular warm season turf is Zoysia. The lawn care professionals I listened to said they wish they had Zoysia, or that they had conditions to grow Zoysia in their lawn. The only down side I've seen to Zoysia or other warm season grasses is if you plan on striping your lawn, generally cool season grasses stripe better.
As soon as I've seen the Dawn I was in .. the shit is it .. spray the Dawn mixed with water 150 to one every 10 days on your lawn or after it's rained and any mosquitoes you may have had will disappear .. I swear this is helped in my shower bathroom sinks and kitchen sinks whenever they backed up I just poured dawn liberally right into the drain let it sit 5-10 minutes and flushed with as hot as water as I could .. and dawn also cleaned a bong I let go for far to long , I mean thick with tar , without much effort in a half hour .. Crystal Clean as the day I bought it .. I swear Dawn is the new Duct Tape ..🖖
Where can you get this product? Amazon doesn’t have it. It’s out of stock at Walmart and everywhere else. Thanks if you can help! Very informative video!
Using Green Light Crabgrass Killer on St. Augustine grass is not recommended. The most common active ingredient in many crabgrass herbicides, including those by Green Light, is quinclorac, which is known to be harmful to St. Augustine grass. Instead, herbicides like Celsius WG and Atrazine are considered safer options for controlling crabgrass in St. Augustine lawns
Dawn left brown spots all over my lawn. Killed the grass along with the weeds. I use Ornamec for all grassy weeds and to kill Bermuda grass. I bought a gallon of nonionic surfactant. I use Tzone for broadleaf weeds
It wasn't the dawn you did something wrong I used to sell reconditioned washers and dryers and cleaned them on one side of my yard with Clorox clean up and alot of dawn the grass always grew the best in that area
@@ericschulze5641 you’re probably right. Maybe used too much. Anyway, all the herbicide manufacturers say to use non-ionic surfactant. So I bought a gallon and use a turkey baster and a set of plastic measuring vials. On Amazon, it’s $13. For the record, a gallon of Dawn is $22. So it’s the better buy.
Many herbicides will damage desirable grass when temperatures get out of the recommended range. What is the recommended temperature range from the product label?
Thanks for your video! Will this product not harm bermuda grass? And I think what I have is crabgrass but I am not 100% certain, how can I make sure? And I am guessing any soap will do it as a surfactant right? Sorry for all the questions at once man! Thanks and regards, Luis.
I have All My Back Yard Cover With CrabGrass, It Has 4 Colors, Green, Red, Purple And Orange Looks Beautiful And 6 Inches Blades, it is Stronger Than St Augustine And Supports Sun With No Water. Amén.
Hey man! I did the same and worked great! What should I do now regarding the killed crabgrass? Do I rake it so I plant new seed or leave it there and plant the new seed onto it? Thanks!
Treat early spring! Pre-emergent. Your lawn will look like crap with all the spots if you wait. Healthy grass will not come back until the next spring.
Doing a pre-emergent is the way to go. My lawn has essentially no crabgrass this summer and my neighbors have it throughout their lawns. Then there will be the die-off this fall of the crabgrass and the reseeding for the next summer's crop of crabgrass. It just progressively keeps getting worse without preemptive action in the spring.
@@longbeard1188 When I was fertilizing my lawn, I used Scotts with crabgrass pre-emergent spring mix with mixed results. I finally gave up about five years ago and just hired a local fertilizer company to fertilize my lawn. They lay down a pre-emergent before the lilac bushes bloom in the spring (key timing point). It took a few years to get it under control but no more crabgrass this year while my neighbors have gobs of it.
We have a large lawn over 44,600 sq ft of lawn that has been overran with crab grass. I was wondering if this stuff can be used in a pull behind 25 gal sprayer? Did you de-thatch your yard after killing the grab grass?
Yes, I dethatched afterward. That's a large lawn, but I feel pretty confident it would work with your pull behind sprayer provided that it was mixed correctly. Just remember to use some Dawn in your mix. It definitely works better with it.
@3:30 I BELIEVE that... IM SEEING... BUNNIES!!. Question, so this only targets the CG? I have a Scotts Sun/Shade mix (Fescue) and I would be hesitant to do a lawn spray, else if I need to do a controlled targeted spray. Thank you
