Here in North Texas where our hot and humid climate leads to a lot of weed growth, you want to do whatever you can to prevent them. Weeds can be a major eyesore and once they start growing can spread rapidly. This can really take away from the aesthetic appeal of your lawn.
Even worse, weeds will also start to compete with your healthy turf for necessities like water, nutrients, and sunlight. You want to do everything that you can to stop these invaders from taking over.
This is where pre-emergent controls come into play.
Pre-emergent controls are those that will prevent weeds from growing in the first place. They play an important role in keeping pesky weeds out of your lawn.
But knowing when to apply pre-emergent and ensuring that it’s done properly is imperative. These products can work wonders, but only if used correctly. We want to help set you up for success by sharing some important information.
In this article we will cover:
What is pre-emergent herbicide?
When should pre emergent be applied?
How to apply pre-emergent correctly?
Fertilizing yards alongside pre-emergent
More to weed control than pre-emergent applications
Choosing lawn care services in North Texas
Because weeds can be both aggressive and persistent here in North Texas, it’s important to be as proactive as possible with your weed control strategy. Understanding more about pre-emergent controls will help you attack this foe.
Pre-emergent weed controls work by preventing weeds from germinating in the first place. They achieve this by forming a barrier that will inhibit weed seeds from germinating and developing roots.
This is different from post-emergent controls, which attack weeds that are already growing in the lawn.
While it would be amazing to prevent ALL weeds, no pre-emergent products work on all varieties. This is why you still need post-emergents in your weed control arsenal. Pre-emergent controls work on specific weed types, like crabgrass.
Since crabgrass is such an invasive weed species in our region, pre-emergents are a vital part of a good North Texas lawn care program.
Understanding when to apply pre-emergent controls is critical to the success of the products. That’s because they must be applied PRIOR to germination in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.
Since pre-emergent works by forming a barrier to disrupt germination, it’s not going to work if germination has already occurred.
Pre-emergents are really important in the Grassperson program. In our 7-application weed control program, 4 of the controls are pre-emergents, showing just how important we believe they are. Like we explained above, getting ahead of weeds by preventing them in the first place is really the best approach.
The exact timing of these applications is often dependent upon soil temperatures (as this will dictate weed germination) and weather. Your lawn care company should closely monitor the local soil temperatures and make sure they’re getting product down prior to weed germination.
This is key when it comes to avoiding as many weeds as possible.
Although pre-emergent products are effective for preventing a good majority of weed growth, breakthroughs can occur (especially in thinned-out areas of the lawn, where it may already be struggling). This is why pre-emergent controls cannot fully take the place of post-emergent products.
In addition, pre-emergents do not work on all weed types, so additional controls will still be needed.
As with any lawn care product, proper application is critical to your success. With pre-emergent controls, the biggest consideration is what we talked about above (knowing when to apply pre-emergent controls).
But you obviously want to also put the product down correctly. It needs to be applied uniformly throughout the lawn. Once product is on the lawn, we recommend avoiding mowing, just to ensure you are giving ample time for the product to get down into the soil and form the intended barrier.
While they obviously sell store-bought pre-emergent products, they are not going to be as effective as what a professional lawn care company is using. This is important to keep in mind if you’re serious about getting rid of weeds. Any application errors will also decrease your chances of success.
Fertilization is another key lawn care service that is typically performed alongside a pre-emergent application. Fertilizing grass is all about supplying vital nutrients to the soil.
The truth is, our soils simply aren’t well-suited to growing healthy grass as they are commonly depleted of nutrients. When you try to grow grass without fertilizer, you must rely on what’s already in the soil.
But fertilizer provides essential nutrients to improve turf color and thickness, to help the grass stand up against environmental pressures, and aid in healthy turf root development.
Spring lawn fertilizer plays a role in the early green-up of your lawn. Your grass will also be in need of these nutrients as it likely used up a lot of what was stored over the winter. Early spring lawn care typically involves both pre-emergent controls and fertilization.
Pre-emergent controls are obviously a vital component of any strong weed control program. But your strategy has to be more involved than just using pre-emergents.
Thanks to the wide variety of weeds found here in North Texas, you’ll need multiple types of weed control products in your arsenal. That even includes specialty controls, such as those for nutsedge.
If you feel like your weed control efforts have become stagnant, it’s quite possible that you aren’t using the right products. It’s not uncommon for homeowners or even some lawn care companies to use the same products again and again. But as you can already tell, a successful weed control approach needs to be varied.
This includes changing up products based on the season. Temperature absolutely has an impact on product effectiveness. Fortunately lawn care professionals will be keeping up with changes in temperature and what products will work best for those changes (including what’s growing in the yard at that time).
Of course, an effective weed control program should also go beyond just using products. A lawn care program that focuses on promoting good soil health will also help you fight weeds.
Believe it or not, fertilizing yards also plays a role in your weed control strategy. That’s because a thick lawn will be able to naturally defend itself from weeds.
Weeds are opportunistic growers and will creep into bare spots and thin areas where they do not have to compete with healthy turf. But when your lawn is thick and healthy, it will naturally start to choke the weeds out.
We know that you’re eager to have the best lawn on the block that is free of annoying weeds. We understand you don’t want to wait long to see results. While you will start to see some changes pretty quickly (such as weeds yellowing or wilting), it will be important to have some patience as you trust the process of dealing with weeds.
Of course, successfully tackling weeds also means making a wise choice in North Texas lawn care services. Shopping for lawn care can be confusing as there are a lot of companies out there.
We understand that there’s a lot of marketing noise out there which can complicate that decision for you. Take your time to do your research and understand what you’re investing in.
We’re here to be your guide if you need us. Whether you have questions about your lawn (and what it needs) or you just want to better understand how Grasssperson stacks up against other lawn services in Flower Mound, Lewisville, or Highland Village, TX, we are here to help.
You can count on us to answer your questions directly and transparently, so that you can have honest information that will help you choose.
With the right lawn care partner on your side, you CAN take control of weeds and get your healthy and beautiful lawn back.
Get a free quote for your lawn in or around Flower Mound, TX, and find out how you can get the best lawn on the block without the stress of weeds ruining its appeal. Seriously, you deserve it.