Rob's Turf Tip - June, 2010

If you haven’t applied herbicide to control the weeds in your lawn already, now is the time. There are 2 options for controlling weeds in your lawn, you can use a fertilizer with herbicide on the prills (e.g. Scotts Turf Builder with Plus 2 Weed control), or you can spray the weeds using a hand sprayer or my favorite Ortho Dial and Spray.

If you choose to use the granular product you need to apply the fertilizer with herbicide while the grass is wet, and when it is not going to rain for 24 hours. The easiest way to accomplish this is to apply the fertilizer early in the morning while there is still dew on the grass, be sure to wear long pants, and keep your kids and animals off of the grass until it rains. You can wait a day then water the lawn to wash any of the herbicide into the soil if you don’t want to wait for rain.

The other option is to spray the weeds, I use an Ortho Dial and Spray at my house. The Dial and Spray is a simple product to use, you add the chemical to the jar, hook your hose up to the nozzle, set the dial to the proper oz./200 ft.2, and spray. Choose a SELECTIVE herbicide that will not damage your lawn. My mother in law learned this the hard way, I walked her through this process and she chose Round-Up as her herbicide, her lawn was weed free, but the areas that were sprayed were also grass free. Round-Up is a non-selective herbicide that will kill everything it contacts; be careful when choosing the right herbicide there are now a number of products on the market with the same active ingredient as round up).

Apply the herbicide when you will have at least 24 hours of dry weather. You only need to get a small amount of herbicide on the weeds to kill them, more is not necessarily better. If you have a lot of weeds lightly “paint” the entire lawn, you can also spot spray weeds individually if you choose to. The best part of the Ortho Dial and Spray is the lack of waste; any remaining herbicide left in the jar can be poured back into the herbicide container and saved for next year (keep products in a place where they will not freeze over the winter). Two examples of lawn safe herbicides to look for are: Ortho Weed B Gon and Ortho Weed B Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxcalis killer (this product works great on wild violet, the purple flowered weed that finds its way into lawns)

It is important to always read the label and follow the directions before making any pesticide application.