Warmer temperatures combined with adequate precipitation will cause crabgrass to germinate soon. Have your ‘preventer’ in place before germination.
For lawns that have experienced crabgrass problems in the past, the best approach for control of this annual weed in the coming year is the timely application of a crabgrass prevention herbicide. In Fairfield County, the time for that timely application is rapidly approaching.
Crabgrass is a summer annual grass that will re-establish itself each year from seed that remains near the soil surface from last year’s crabgrass crop. The seed of crabgrass begins to germinate in areas of a lawn where light can penetrate to the soil surface and the soil temperatures warm to nighttime minimum temperatures of 52 – 54 F for at least 5 consecutive nights under conditions of moist soils.
The OSU CFAES Weather System tells us that on March 21, the average 2 inch depth soil temperature in Columbus was 48.9 degrees. Should air temperatures remain near normal in the coming days, we would expect soil temperatures to warm to the point that with continued timely precipitation, crabgrass will begin to germinate in Continue reading The time to prevent crabgrass rapidly approaches →
