On Sep 10, 7:18 am, Phisherman wrote:
On Sun, 9 Sep 2007 22:22:46 -0400, "C & E"
wrote:







"Phisherman" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 9 Sep 2007 18:56:05 -0400, "john246"
wrote:

Crabgrass has taken over most of my lawn..I live in Northeast PA and
treated
my lawn in the spring for crabgrass & weeds (dandelion etc,)..we have had
a
very dry summer and since I didn't cut my grass (nothing was growing the
lawn turned brown) crabgrass took over,,2 yrs ago I had a company do
everything & the lawn looked great but it was getting to costly so I did
it
myself..What can I do to stop the crabgrass & prevent the spread of
it..CAn
I do anything in the FALL or do I have to wait until SPRING...please
HELP!!!!.

The crabgrass will die at the first frost. What you need to do now is
to heavily overseed your lawn and apply a time-release STARTER
fertilizer. Remove any dead grass from your lawn before overseeding
and mow to the lowest setting the day of the overseeding. You may
need to protect areas with straw. Keep watered for 2 weeks. Next
spring apply pre-emergence and apply again after 90 days. Overseed
again in fall 2008. Crabgrass seeds can remain dormant for over 15
years, but it has hard time sprouting in a thick lawn. Buy the
highest quality weedless seed you can find.

Are you recommending the use of broadcast seeding by hand or is it necessary
to rent a seed drill?

If there is a layer of thatch either remove that or rent a slit
seeder.

If he has a thatch problem, that should be solved without regard to
reseeding. A slice seeder is always the best way to re-seed,
without regard to thatch, because that does give the best seed/soil
contact. And it's fast and easy.



The seed must be in direct contact with the ground, else it
won't sprout. If you use a broadcast spreader, rake the seed into the
grass. In PA you really need to get this done ASAP.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'd do it now if he didn't have the crabgrass. But given a severe
crabgrass problem, I'd wait a couple weeks, till late sept or first
week in Oct, so the crabgrass is dying off as the new grass is
establishing.