How to Get Rid Of Crabgrass in The Summer
The warmer temperature of summer refreshes your landscape and brings it to life. Unfortunately, stubborn crabgrass comes along to grow. It spreads quickly during the summer. So, understanding how to get rid of crabgrass in the summer is needed to maintain your lawn and prevent the treated grass from being withered. New crabgrass appears between mid-spring and midsummer. The first frost kills the other grass and plants. But with a little preventative effort, you can protect your plants and treated grass from the crabgrass. If it has already grown, you can remove it from your lawn. The best defense against this disturbing grass is a healthy and fertile lawn. So, the crabgrass and other unwanted grasses will not thrive and stay long in the robust lawn.
Easy Steps of How Get Rid of Crabgrass in the summer
Though crabgrass dies at the end of the year, it acts like a perennial. It spreads thousands of seeds that will grow in the spring. If it is untreated, crabgrass will continue spreading year after year. So, how to get rid of crabgrass in the summer? To keep crabgrass from becoming a trouble in your lawn, there are several basic guidelines to follow.
- Prevent The Crabgrass to Germinate. Crabgrass needs plenty of sunlight to germinate. So, all you need to do is to block the crabgrass from sunlight access. Keep treated the grass as long and thick as possible to create the shade near the surface of the soil. Avoid cutting your lawn too much since it might encourage the crabgrass and other weeds to germinate and grow.
- Use Pre-Emergent Herbicides. Pre-emergent herbicides work earlier in preventing the crabgrass to grow. It forms a chemical layer at the soil surface. So, once the crabgrass seeds germinate, they will absorb the chemical substances from herbicide which prevent them from growing and they finally die. The best period to apply pre-emergent herbicides is in the late winter or spring. At this period, the soil temperature is the most stabilize. You can make sure that the temperature is at 55 degree F by measuring it with soil thermometer. If it is already in the exact temperature, apply the herbicide. Please note that the best way to apply herbicide is by applying it along with a starter fertilizer to thicken the treated grass. The thick grasses will destroy the crabgrass seeds that are left by the fertilizer.
- Loosen the Soil Compaction by Aerating It. Don’t let the compact soil cuts off air and water circulation to the root systems of your treated grass. This condition promotes the crabgrass and weeds to grow. To overcome this condition, it is important to aerate the soil every season in order to loosen compaction.
If you follow the guidelines of how to get rid of crabgrass in the summer as mentioned above, your lawn will be free from this unwanted grass. Though the crabgrass is gone, you have to check regularly whether there are crabgrass seeds that are potentially sprouting.
Image atribution: By The original uploader was Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) at English Wikipedia [CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
