How can I care for my lawn in the fall?

FALL PRE-EMERGENT LAWN CARE STRATEGIES

It’s time to prepare for fall, y’all! Doesn’t matter where you live, it’s time to think about your strategy. Far north, far south, or anywhere in between, there are some fall preparations we all need to consider, such as the following: 

Winter Annual Weeds

DEFINITION: Winter annual weeds and weedy grasses germinate and grow in fall and winter, survive dormant in the coldest parts of winter, and resume growth and flowering the following spring (this is when you see them usually). They spread out and drop seeds towards the end of spring and those seeds sit until the fall again, and the circle of life continues.

Just like in the spring when we hammer home the importance of preventing crabgrass (a spring/summer annual) it’s just as important to look at some prevention strategies for the fall and winter as well - especially those of you with lawns that you are not going to overseed this fall.

Cool Season Turf - Kentucky Bluegrass, Fescue, and Ryegrass - if you are not seeding this fall, this is for you and in fact, if you have any of the problems listed below, you may want to reconsider seeding in the first place and go on defense.

Warm Season Turf -Not many of you will be seeding anyway - that’s a springtime endeavor and not one we recommend anyway. And that is fine because you guys are the ones that suffer the most with winter annuals. Southern lawns don’t green up as fast as the winter weeds do and we get the panic emails starting every year in about February.

Pre-Emergent Strategies

We are going to talk a lot about soil temperatures again here. You’ll remember when we went over this in the springtime, and not we are approaching the fall when it makes sense to start watching them again.

Leading from summer to fall is when we need to pay attention and the milestone soil temperature we are looking for is 70F. (get a soil thermometer here, or use the Yard Mastery App or both)

70 F is the temperature at which the window is about to open for fall germination of annual weeds and weedy grasses. Your job if you want to play good defense, is to apply a pre-emergent herbicide BEFORE these guys germinate and as soil temps fall to 70 is the target. Right now here in August, the seeds are tucked away in the warm soil awaiting cooler temps and moisture to prevail.

This fall you can use Dithiopyr to execute your defensive, pre-emergent strategy. It’s a 45lb bag that will cover 11,250 sq ft at the recommended rate. 

We also had them juice up our Dithiopyr with some added potash to help your lawn with summer stress recovery. The product contains 20% potassium which will also bring a nice color pop. So you get pre-emergence control of the weeds listed below, as well as stress recovery nutrients all in one application.

Rates are:
4lbs/1,000 when soil temps fall to 70F. This will give you roughly 4 months of control and is just fine for anyone in the Midwest and up into the northeast.

Here is a blog with more details:

https://thelawncarenut.com/blogs/news/fall-pre-emergent-lawn-care-strategies#

If you want to know EXACTLY when to apply what for your lawn, get the Yard Mastery app, it’s free.

Keywords: fall, lawn care, pre-emergent, strategy, weed control