Are Pre Emergents plant specific or can "one" take care of Sticker Burr, Windmill Grass, and other PITA weeds?

Fishing Fools said:

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Are Pre Emergents plant specific or can "one" take care of Sticker Burr, Windmill Grass, and other PITA weeds?

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Pre-emergents, generally speaking, are not "plant specific".Once germination occurs, the chemical inhibits further growth of the seedling.

They are specific to annual, not perennial weeds (but they will help prevent perennial weed seeds from germinating).

Use Prodiamine 65 Wdg which is generic Barricade. Can get 5 pounds for about $70 bucks.

Apache said:

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Pre-emergents, generally speaking, are not "plant specific".

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I've had more than a few clients put out pre-emergent after seeding winter rye discover this fact.

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Planning on throwing down rye seed this fall. When should I apply the pre-emergent for crab-grass, etc.?

Very tough to do both in the fall as overseeding & pre emergents both need to go down at the same time.

How bad have your winter weeds been? You'll be mowing the rye grass, which will help keep weeds down & they won't be as visible in the rye vs a dormant lawn.

IMO, just do the perennial rye & skip the October pre emergent.
You can do the spring preemergent treatment in late January for summer weeds.

Whatever you do, never use Bonus S or other Weed & Feeds. Product should be banned IMO.

91AggieLawyer said:

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Apache said:

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Pre-emergents, generally speaking, are not "plant specific".

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I've had more than a few clients put out pre-emergent after seeding winter rye discover this fact.

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Planning on throwing down rye seed this fall. When should I apply the pre-emergent for crab-grass, etc.?

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Late winter early spring for crabgrass. Where are you located?

When I worked for a large commercial landscape company in Austin many years ago, they would seed perennial rye early and once it sprouted they would put down pre emergent. It worked, with all the water restrictions these days I don't know if you could do it that way.

I haven't used Scotts or similar in decades and don't touch the stuff. I get all of my lawn care tips from GCI Turf and Lawn Care Life (I think it is) on YT. I have concentrates of most of the stuff they used and put down pre-emergent in late Winter this year. However, I either didn't put enough down, put it down too late, or didn't water it in properly because I still got loads of CG and other weeds. I did another kill-off with Glyphosate a few weeks ago and am contemplating throwing down some more Bermuda if/when it actually cools down (DFW) and I think there's enough time before the time to put down rye.

For pure fertilizer, I use the old Jerry Baker formula through a sprayer. I know people say there isn't any science behind it, but it has worked extremely well for me. Not so much the greening but it dethatched my yard 3 years ago. Heck, if that's all it does, it is well worth it.

This damn crabgrass is driving me nuts. Some popped up a few weeks ago where there wasn't any before. The heat definitely isn't helping. The YT videos are a little less specific about dates and when to lay everything down. I'm thinking rye in winter will help with weeds in the spring as healthy grass is a good deterrent.

BurnetAggie99 said:

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Use Prodiamine 65 Wdg which is generic Barricade. Can get 5 pounds for about $70 bucks.

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What am I missing here? Seems like a killer deal, but maybe I'm missing something or looking at the wrong thing.

Average Joe said:

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Use Prodiamine 65 Wdg which is generic Barricade. Can get 5 pounds for about $70 bucks.

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What am I missing here? Seems like a killer deal, but maybe I'm missing something or looking at the wrong thing.

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Thats the RTU version, so it's diluted down. Regular dry prodiamine is a 65% active water dispersable granule, and it goes out at 1 lb/acre. Theres also a 4 lb liquid formulation.

To address the OP's question, most pre's are specific to annual grasses and small seeded broadleaf weeds. As someone else mentioned, no effect on perennials like buttonweed or bermudagrass. So when is the best timing? Depends on what weeds you're after and what product you choose. For example, pre's like prodiamine inhibit cell division on newly germinated seeds prior to emergence. So we need to have these out prior to the soil temp that spurs germination for that weed. But herbicides break down by sunlight, microbes, and other mechanisms, so you cant put it out now and expect it to prevent next spring's crabgrass crop.

Others like indaziflam inhibit cell wall development and need to be applied prior to the germination process to get max control. I.e. earlier is better with this one. And is a much wider spectrum of control, both monocots and dicots.

I am curious the opinion of timing on the application of pre-emergents from this board..

Not sure where the OP lives... I'm in the DFW area. Neil Sperry says for this area, September 1-10 is the window to apply which is obviously coming up soon. My plan was to apply Dimension as it has some broadleaf control characteristics as well.

RogueAg said:

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I am curious the opinion of timing on the application of pre-emergents from this board..

Not sure where the OP lives... I'm in the DFW area. Neil Sperry says for this area, September 1-10 is the window to apply which is obviously coming up soon. My plan was to apply Dimension as it has some broadleaf control characteristics as well.

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It's not perfectly fool proof, but easiest for me to remember is March 1, June 1, Sept 1 in DFW… with the absolute lack of rain and 100+ days that don't seem to be slowing down. I will probably wait until Labor Day or so…

Yeah I was planning on doing the same. With the ridiculous heat and no rain I figured I'd just apply on Labor day also.

What is y'all's go to pre emergent for the Labor day application? Granule or Spray? I assume this is to handle winter broad leaf weeds? Plus maybe annual bluegrass?

Well.. I was planning on using Dimension which is dithiopyr. But based on this thread I may go with prodiamine instead, which is a little more readily available anyway. Either would be granular.

I've used the Hi-Yield pre-emergent that has Dimension and have gotten good results with it.

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Whatever you do, never use Bonus S or other Weed & Feeds. Product should be banned IMO.

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I dont use them, but I'm curious why....

They dont work...or they're harmful?

Is an early September application not going to be too hot for Barricade in Central Texas?

Because they aren't formulated correctly for Texas soils and climate.

It might be early. Early September is the recommended timing for north Texas. Probably going to be a week or two later in central Texas.

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They dont work...or they're harmful?

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Pre-Emergents need to go down late January or early February to prevent weeds.
Fertilizer needs to go down after danger of last frost & after a couple of mowings, usually mid to late April.

Install Bonus S early, the fertilizer is wasted. Install it late, the Pre-Emergent which contains atrazine is too late for most spring weeds & is instead taken up by trees and can kill them if done repeatedly.

I got fiber earlier this year. Everywhere their machine went nothing will grow, not even weeds and we've had the wettest summer in a decade. So just rent a fiber optic cable burying machine

Don't think Rezilon has been mentioned, probably the best pre-emergent available, doesn't need immediate rainfall, has about a 90 day efficacy, longer than any other I'm aware of.
The negative: price--- at a 3-5 oz/acre application, it's $35 to $50 per acre.

I've been told Rezilon is an excellent chemical especially for sticker burrs.

This is the spray rig I've been looking at in Abilene. 50 gallon with 14' boom.

Apache said:

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Very tough to do both in the fall as overseeding & pre emergents both need to go down at the same time.

How bad have your winter weeds been? You'll be mowing the rye grass, which will help keep weeds down & they won't be as visible in the rye vs a dormant lawn.

IMO, just do the perennial rye & skip the October pre emergent.
You can do the spring preemergent treatment in late January for summer weeds.

Whatever you do, never use Bonus S or other Weed & Feeds. Product should be banned IMO.

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Given the recent cool-down, the rain, and the 14-day forecast in North Texas calling for temps consistently ranging from lows in the low to mid 60s to highs in mid to high 80s, when should I be considering putting down the rye? Are current daytime highs too hot for the stuff?