How to kill crabgrass in a bermuda lawn (grow, Forsythia, backyard)

[windmiller]

We've got bermuda in our backyard and the bermuda sod came with alot of crabgrass so I am trying to find out how best to kill it.

I've ready where you can lay down killer now or also in the early spring.

Any idea how best to handle this and what to use?

[debzkidz]

We have a guy that sprays it for us, then puts down preimergent weed killer in the spring to stop the seeds from germinating. Normally it works very well, but unfortunately this spring when he put it down, we were out of town with the sprinkler system set to go on while we were gone. We didn't realize he had come while we were gone and that we had had lots of rain while we were gone. Between the sprinkler system and the days of rain we had, it all washed away. We didn't figure out what had happened until it was too late. He could have come back and sprayed it, but there was so much of it in the lawn it would have left large dead spots. Because, we were by then on water rationing due to the drought, there was no way to get our bermuda to grow over and fill in the dead spots. We decided that we would just leave it for the summer, at least it was something green. When he comes back in a few weeks he will spray whats here, then when he comes back in the early spring he will put down the stuff to prevent seed germination.

[Poggly Woggly]

Ortho Weed-B-Gone "plus crabgrass" works pretty nice.

I especially liked the Ortho Crabgrass Killer, but haven't seen it on the shelves lately.

I occasionally spot spray or spray the whole yard with no harm to my common bermuda...with a little Sahara mixed in.

[Butterfly4u]

Windmiller,
Crab grass will be dying soon anyway, by the time Halloween rolls around, it will all be dead.
Don't bother spraying anothing on your grass now, it's senseless.
I don't know where you are, but I'm in SC and we put down preemergent when
the forsythia bloom in the spring.
Last week of February, and the first week of March, buy a bag of preemergent
for lawns. Read the directions carefully.
If you wait too long, the crabgrass seedlings will be up, and then it is too late
to apply a preemergent.

[underPSI]

Pre-m is usually gone by the time crabgrass emerges. To prevent the crabgrass you need to reapply Pre-m early summer.

[Gunner0325]

We had nasty crabgrass this year too...I used the ortho weed control plus crabgrass (the kind you hook up to your hose) and it worked well. I also tried the spray in a pump spray bottle to spot spray and the hose hook kind up worked much better. Like others have mentioned make sure to pre-m next year

[caco54]

Crab grass appears to be dead (brown in color) should I pull it or let it lie and put down the pre emergent in the spring?

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by caco54

Crab grass appears to be dead (brown in color) should I pull it or let it lie and put down the pre emergent in the spring?

Pull it? Why not just mow it?
A precisely timed (timing is everything) pre-m app and fixing drainage issues should fix the problem.

[J&Em]

Originally Posted by caco54

Crab grass appears to be dead (brown in color) should I pull it or let it lie and put down the pre emergent in the spring?

If getting rid of the brown stuff makes it look nicer to you, go ahead, but it won't change what comes up in the spring. Crabgrass is an annual plant and once it dies in the fall it stays dead, that is what is brown now. A pre-emergent is used to prevent new crabgrass from sprouting next spring from this year's crabgrass production of seeds.

[lm2790]

Based on my extensive lawn experience:
You DO much better to remove the crabgrass for many reasons. Crabgrass will look dead each year (even if you don't spray it) but either way, can still produce a toxin which badly affects the growth of desired aspects of your lawn. Crabgrass often shows back up again in spring.
Essentially a one action way is to just take strong large hand hedge clippers and move side to side and you dig the clippers under (about 4 inches) the piece of crabgrass (many find it easy after doing just a few) make a few quick cuts if needed and pull the piece roots and all up and in the trash. It's easiest to do this a day or so after a rain when the soil is still at least moist. You can rarely "pull" it out effectively without this type of technique.
I effectively eliminated crabgrass in many yards with this simple technique as the other grass was more readily able to grow without interference and crabgrass much less likely to return and was crowded out.
Each year, if you choose early in the spring, you can use a pre-emergent and later in the season, just cut out any new pieces. Again, you really should remove them anyway and by doing so you've essentially done 2 things in one.