Looking for a few simple ways to get rid of crabgrass from your lawn, flowerbeds and garden spaces late this summer and fall and stop it for good? All without having to resort to harsh chemicals or sprays?
Crabgrass can be quite an issue for anyone who maintains a lawn. Especially in mid summer to late fall, when the invasive plant can suddenly explode with growth. One thing is for sure, once it appears, it spreads like wildfire – quickly weaving and growing all throughout a lawn. And is it ever unsightly!
Unfortunately, once crabgrass takes hold, there are a couple of factors that make it extremely difficult to control. For starters, a single plant can produce tens of thousands of seeds. Seeds that can easily release, blow away and find a new home anywhere a tiny spot of bare soil exists.
Making it even tougher, not only are the plants prolific seed bearers, the seeds themselves are some of the toughest around. In fact, crabgrass seeds can stay fertile for three or more years. All the while waiting patiently dormant for their chance to come alive in your lawn.
But there is some good news. With just a little effort in the late summer and fall to keep crabgrass from setting those seeds, you can start to gain the upper hand. But the key is to act fast before those seeds start to form and fly around!
How To Get Rid Of Crabgrass This Fall
The First Step – Get Rid Of Existing Crabgrass
There are actually two different methods you can use to effectively eliminate the crabgrass you have growing right now. The first is spot treating – and the second is hand digging.
Although hand picking might sound labor intensive, it’s actually not that difficult. By far – it is the most effective! Even better, hand weeding works fast, and only needs to be for the short term.
Hand Weeding Crabgrass
Crabgrass is fairly easy to spot in a lawn. That is one of the reasons it’s so unsightly in lawns where it grows. To remove, use a small shovel or a weeding fork to pop the roots from the ground. Crabgrass actually will pull up quite easily once the main stand is dislodged.
This is where it’s vital to be sure to get the entire root – or it will come back. Stand up hand weeders can actually make this chore very fast and easy. Not just for removing the crabgrass, but for saving your back as well! Affiliate Product Link: Stand Up Weeding Fork
It’s important to hand pick crabgrass before it flowers and goes to seed. Walk your lawn on a regular basis to locate and remove any new starts. More importantly, once you remove the crabgrass plant, reseed the area with grass seed and cover with straw. This will keep any open soil from having new seeds blowing in and taking hold.
Spot Treat With Industrial / Horticultural Vinegar
You can also choose to spot treat crabgrass with all natural industrial or horticultural vinegar. This vinegar type is much stronger (30 to 45% acidity) than traditional store bought vinegar (5%) and will kill crabgrass quickly. Affiliate Product Link: Nature’s Freedom 45% Vinegar (2 Gallon)
The key is to only spot treat the individual plants and not the lawn around them. It’s best to do this with a small spray bottle, targeting the foliage of crabgrass. Vinegar is safe once dry for pets, kids and adults. You will want to use gloves and eye protection when applying, as the vinegar is very acidic.
Raise Your Mower Height
More than anything else, the best offense and defense against crabgrass is a thick, healthy lawn. Just as with fighting weeds in flowerbeds, the more open soil spaces there are, the more easily it will be for crabgrass to find a home to seed and sprout.
One of the easiest things you can do immediately to help is to raise the height of your mower. Mowing your grass low is like sending an open invitation for crabgrass to come calling. When blades of grass are higher they help to shade open lawn space and keep bare spots from exposure to crabgrass seeds.
Even more, crabgrass seeds need soil, sunlight and warmth to germinate. And if you have a healthy, thick cover of existing turf, the seeds simply can’t get what they need. A thick lawn also helps conserve moisture in the soil, allowing existing grass to grow healthier and stronger.
Eliminate Bare Spots & Mow High – How To Kill Crabgrass In Late Summer & Fall
This is exactly why you should be sowing any bare spots with grass seed as soon as you see them. By keeping your lawn thicker – you will eliminate most of your crabgrass worries right away. See our article: How To Plant Grass Seed – 2 Big Secrets To Get Grass To Grow Fast And Thick!
So how high should you mow your lawn for protection throughout the year? For traditional lawns, a good height is somewhere between 3.25 and 4 inches.
Finally, if you do have crabgrass going to seed in your yard and happen to have a bag on your mower, it is best to mow the turf with the bag on and not allow the clippings to fall. By bagging in late summer or early fall, you can put a quick stop to the spread of seed.
Spring Treating – The Final Step
Last but not least, an application of a pre-emergent seed control product is essential to totally get rid of crabgrass. And the good news is that you can use a 100% organic product to do it!
Springtime is a critical time for the development of crabgrass. In the spring, the seeds of crabgrass begin to sprout and the plant’s root system starts to develop. But by putting down a pre-emergent control application, you can block both from occurring.
A pre-emergent application prevents a seed from germinating. It basically sterilizes the seed. The good news is there are 100% organic pre-emergents that are safe for kids, pets and your lawn. They use natural ingredients like corn gluten to both thicken up the lawn and block weed germination. Affiliate Product Link: Natural Corn Gluten Weed Control/Fertilizer
The key to success with a pre-emergent is to put it down before crabgrass begins to sprout and develop. That means putting it on early in the spring, well before temperatures warm up enough to allow germination.
A Consistent Approach
Last but not least, it’s important to understand that in order to get rid of crabgrass permanently, it takes a consistent approach. With its heavy seeding rate and explosive growing capabilities, it takes a bit of time to get crabgrass under control.
The real key to success is to be vigilant in your approach. By simply employing a few of the methods above, you can more than have your lawn free of crabgrass within a few seasons. And even better – keep it that way with ease!
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This Is My Garden is a garden website created by gardeners, for gardeners. Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books and speaking for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. They publish three articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Sign up today to follow via email, or follow along!