How to tell if crabgrass or fescue is taking over your lawn
All too often coarse tall fescue is incorrectly identified as crabgrass. Tall fescue is a thick bladed fast growing perennial grass that usually grows in clumps in the middle of a lawn. Tall fescue is NOT controllable with Drive XLR8, but we can get control by other means.
Crabgrass, however, is an annual grass that typically germinates during the month of May and will show up in a lawn sometime around the middle of June or early July. Unlike coarse tall fescue, crabgrass is controllable using a special crabgrass killer called Drive XLR8. Crabgrass is light green in color and usually grows in clumps on the edges of the lawn or in thin areas. People are often misinformed and are under the impression that crabgrass is only controllable with a pre-emergent weed control. Crabgrass is easily controlled after it has germinated by using either Drive XLR8 or a product called Tenacity, which are both post=emergent crabgrass killers. Crabgrass can be killed without damaging your desirable grasses these sprays and the crabgrass will die between 3-10 days after the application.
Crabgrass vs. Fescue Quick Reference:
- Crabgrass is an annual grass that is lime green or lighter colored and typically germinates in June and July.
- Crabgrass can easily be controlled after it emerges using either Drive XLR8 or Tenacity. Both of these pesticides kill crabgrass, but Drive XLR8 is also an excellent bindweed killer.
- Coarse tall fescue is a perennial grass that is a dark green colored grass type that grows in the lawn all year long.
- Coarse tall fescue cannot be selectively controlled, meaning it cannot sprayed without killing the desirable turfgrass. The only way to kill coarse tall fescue is to kill it with a product like roundup and then reseed the damaged areas.
If you have crabgrass growing in your Boulder or Fort Collins area lawn, call Organo-Lawn today and schedule aDrive XLR8application to kill the crabgrass quickly.
Examples of Coarse Tall Fescue
Examples of Crabgrass
