[pturaga]

I live in NC and have fescue grass in my lawn. In past two weeks I noticed an explosion of crab grass growth in my lawn. Summer has been hot and we have had some heavy rains in the past one month. How do I get rid of this other grass (I am assuming that it is crab grass). Garden specialist at Lowe's suggested to use grass killer directly on this "crab grass". I did that and it did not stop the spread and left the areas where I sprayed the chemical "dead looking". Suggestions please...

[labman]

The common sodium metharsenate crab grass killers also kill the fine red fescues too. I fought this problem too. I finally cleaned it up by hand pulling, hours and hours of hand pulling year after year. The premergent treatments may help too. You must keep the lawn free of crab grass for about 5 years before all the old seed quits sprouting. A period of hot, wet weather mid summer will cause seed that has laid there for year to sprout. It has been years since I have let much crab grass go to seed, but I still need to do a little pulling every year.

[themouseman]

Crab grass seed needs sunlight to germinate.
You need to raise your lawn mower up to above 2 1/2 inches
Scotts crab grass works well at perventing germination of crabgrass seeds
But it will also block any grass you apply for about 3 months using sod or small pieces of sod in dead areas will allow you to reintroduce grass in dead areas. Your lawn care licenced applicator can use dithiopyr this will kill up to third leaf stage.

More info is available form your states agricultural exetension or
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7456.html

[mississippitom]

I had a severe problem with crab grass.My wife has lived here on this place for 25 years in North Mississippi.The place used to be a farm but now the house and lawn which covers about 5 acres out of 60 sits in the middle of the property.The rest of the property only gets mowed once a year as it is in a government program called CRP.The CRP program actually pays people not to grow anything on the old farmland.This encourages wildlife by giving them a refuge but it also encourages the growth of many weeds as you can imagine.I have been here for ten years but did not try to tackle the Crab Grass problem until this year due to health problems.I started a crab grass extermination program about a month and a half ago.As you can imagine I not only had bocu crab grass I also had years of seeding.In the front yard we have a fairly good stand of fescue and the rest of the yard is mostly bermuda.By using a herbacide called MSMA6 Plus and staying after it,my lawn is now almost free of crab grass.I still have to do weed patrol due to seed still being in the ground but it is close to being free of the bad stuff.I also let my fescue grow much taller than before and that has helped as well.

[greenhead]

Like in the beginning my father always told me to get rid of crab grass and dandilions you, have to pull it out at the root to get rid of such a problem. I find it easier to remove these pesky weeds after I, have watered the lawn or during or after a good rain fall the soil is soft and easy to work with. :)

[labman]

Unlike the MASA, pulling will leave the fescue and eliminate the crab grass eventually. Any thing takes years before all to old seed quits germinating.

[mississippitom]

While the fesuce might not be browned by pulling,if a person has a large yard as I do and many years of seed in the ground the MSMA approcach is the only way to go.My Fescue did brown but it came back quickly and is even better than it was before the spraying.
My yard was so overtaken that I had to spray the entire thing in many areas.In the areas that I sprayed,the entire lawn was brown and crispy.

We had a long period of no rain at the same time but just as soon as the rain started,the lawn greened in a hurry and looks absolutely wonderful.
My lawn is about 3 acres in size and I have a bad back to boot so pulling is not even in the top ten of options.
Another factor is that until I came along,no one worried about the lawn so it had many years to put seed in the ground.Also,this used to be a farm and the lawn is in the middle of the old farm so we are surrounded by weeds and grasses other than the lawn types.
It has been a battle royal but I have prevailed and my yard looks wonderful.I still have to do some spot killing but not much anymore.I will probably at some point start using the pulling method once Iam convinced everything is very much under control.