From fertilizer to herbicide, Turf Plus offers lawn solutions to common lawn myths.  We offer the thrid instalment of our 5 part series, we give you myths 6 and 5. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please take advantage of the comments section below this post.

Myth #6: The sunnier the day, the better the spray.

We need the sun. It’s a fact of life. And while the sun is essential for plant growth, it is not necessary when receiving an application. In fact, an overcast day can be helpful for two reasons. First, the stomata on the plant’s leaves (which allows fertilzer and herbicide to be absorbed) are more open in cooler temperatures, and thus have better absorption rates. Second, rain water can carry the rest of the fertilzer and systemic herbicide to the roots where they are also absorbed.

Solution: If you’re experiencing sunnier, drier weather, make sure you water in the application soon after (in the summer between 2 and 24 hours later). If you get a heavy rain, just sit back, relax, and let the rain water in the application for you! After two weeks you will know for sure if the application has been effective. If for some reason the weeds are not showing signs of damage, contact Turf Plus and we’ll respray at no additional charge.

Myth #5: Pre-emergence herbicides should be sprayed in February or March.

Pre-emergence herbicides kill crabgrass up to the “two-leaf stage” and is only effective for 120 days. Summer annual weeds such as crabgrass and spurge germinate heavily in the northern states from June to August. So, if you want to prevent those summer annual weeds throughout the entire germination season, then April or May is the best time to do so.

Solution: Apply a pre-emergence herbicide in April or May so it will last the entire germination season. If you’ve missed the “pre-emergence window” there are post-emergence herbicides that will help kill mature spurge, crabgrass and other summer-annual weeds.

Related posts:

1. The Top 10 Myths of Lawn Care and What YOU Can Do It: Part 1
2. If you dont kill crabgrass now, youll regret it later
3. The Top 10 Myths of Lawn Care and What YOU Can Do It: Part 2

Tags: grass fertilizer, Herbicides, Lawn Care, Lawn Grass, Pre Emergence, Weed Seeds, Weeds, when to fertilize

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Featured, Lawn Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.