What is a weed? The simple answer is anything you don’t want growing. Weeds fall into three categories: grasses like crabgrass, broad leaf-like henbit, and sedges. From here they are broken down into annual or perennial categories. These categories must be known if you are to be victorious in the fight against them. It is also very important to know the type of lawn and how many square feet of lawn you have.

Annual weeds germinate from seed, grow to maturity, and die within twelve months. Crabgrass is an annual summer weed and henbit is an annual winter weed. Annual weeds are best controlled with a properly timed application of pre-emergent herbicides. If we miss the timing, they can also be controlled with post-emergent herbicides.

Perennial weeds live for more than one year. They can reproduce from stolons, rhizomes, tubers, and seeds. Pre-emergent herbicides are only used to control the spread of seeds but they will not kill the parent. To rid an area of perennial weeds requires a post-emergent herbicide applied during the active growing season. Dallisgrass is a perennial grassy weed and Dollarweed is an example of a broadleaf. The last category is the sedges. The most common in our area is nutsedge. Sedges need to be treated like perennial weeds. To kill the plants, use a post-emergent herbicide that is labeled for the type of sedge you are fighting.

Take a look at our Product Application Guides and learn what to apply and when to apply it, to control weeds and give you a beautiful lawn.

St. Augustine Guide – Click here to view & print

Bermuda Grass Guide –Click here to view & print

Overseeding a lawn is another way to keep weeds to a minimum if you didn’t apply pre-emergent. The following is what you should know before you start slinging seeds.

Do not overseed St. Augustine grass, ever. Opinions vary on if you should overseed Zoysia. The following applies to Bermuda grass only. You only use ryegrass for winter overseeding. Know how many square feet you want to overseed. Remember, you will have to mow during the winter. Sometime in March or the beginning of April, you will need to scalp the lawn. Set the mower to its lowest setting then mow and bag the lawn. Scalping will remove dead Bermuda (thatch), ryegrass, and most of the weed seeds that survived the winter and allow the sun to warm up the soil. That last part will bring Bermuda out of dormancy faster.

There are 3 distinct types of ryegrass:

• Annual rye is the cheapest. It grows very fast and is very moist and tends to be a pale green. It works great for livestock and erosion control. It is my least favorite overseeding grass for lawns. Depending on the weather, it dies out towards the end of May.
• Perennial rye is the most expensive but also the best looking. It grows slowly and is dark green. Because it will last longer than the annual rye, scalping is a must if you want Bermuda to come back before the end of June. Even though it’s called perennial if you get 10% of it to come back next year you hit a home run.
• Transitional rye is the middle ryegrass. It falls between annual and perennial in price, color, and growth rate. Scalping is still required for the proper growth of Bermuda.

I recommend transitional or perennial over the annual. Several years ago the trend was to overseed with fescue grass. Only fescue should be overseeded with fescue. Application rates for overseeding with ryegrass fall between 5# – 10# per 1000 sq. ft.

Questions about overseeding your lawn? Give us a call or stop by the store and talk with our experts.

Just a reminder about fall pre-emergent herbicides for weed control. Now is the time to apply. These herbicides do one thing and one thing only, they kill seeds. We apply in the spring and fall because that’s when we get the best bang for our buck. I try for the first two weeks in September.

Pre-emergent herbicides are available in both synthetic and all-natural forms. On the synthetic side is “Turf & Ornamental Weed & Grass Stopper”. That won’t fit on our receipts so we call it “Dimension”. Dimension targets the grassy weeds and is available in a 12lb bag that covers 3,500 square feet and a 30lb bag that covers 10,000 square feet. “Gallery” zeros in on the broadleaf weeds and it’s available in a 10lb bag that will cover 2,000 square feet.

The all-natural is “corn gluten meal”. It’s available in powder and granulated in a 40lb bag. The powder activates faster but is a mess to apply. The granulated is slower to activate but is considerably less of a mess. Each bag will cover 2,000 square feet. As always read and follow the label directions. Click here for more about weed control.

Pick up fall pre-emergent herbicide and fall fertilizer at Wells Brothers, Pet, Lawn, and Garden Center in Plano, Texas.