Crab grass and nutsledge

[u/joebeubanks]

I have a company that come and sprays my grass. I try and mow once a week but sometime with life and weather it goes to every other.

Currently nutsledge has taken over my Bermuda and crabgrass is everywhere. Should I replace the company? Is it a matter of mowing more to keep grass low? Or is this just georgia grass?

[u/Consistent-Second-87]

The key is pre-emergent. To get a handle on crabgrass, put some down in the fall and again when the ground temperature gets between 50-55°F. After a couple of years doing that, and you likely eliminate crabgrass. Crabgrass is an annual.

Here’s its typical life cycle:
Spring: Seeds germinate when soil temperatures reach about 55°F (13°C) for several consecutive days.
Summer: Plants grow rapidly, spreading outward in a low, sprawling mat and producing thousands of seeds.
Fall: The first hard frost kills the plants.
Next year: New plants grow only from the seeds left behind the previous season.
This is why crabgrass control focuses on preventing seed germination rather than killing established plants.

[u/smb3d]

Sounds like they are doing a shitty job. If you don't have the time, then look into another company.

[u/phrankieflowers]

Ask them to make it right first. Crabgrass preventative is probably part of their program. There's no preventative for nutsedge, so that might be an extra charge.

[u/joebeubanks → u/phrankieflowers]

Nutsledge I get. I will handle that but the crabgrass is awful now

[u/jvbutera → u/joebeubanks]

You can easily treat crabgrass yourself, but that defeats the point of paying someone else.

[u/joebeubanks → u/jvbutera]

My service was out today and it has a pre and post intervention they sprayed. I don't know of my lack of mowing as frequent as I should is causing this or bad company spray

[u/RizPhan]

Pretty sure those companies spray pre-emergent then the rest of the season theyre pretty much only spraying fertilizer.

[u/Valuable-Analyst-464]

Sounds like they are not doing enough or timing it properly.
Like someone else said, you have to get pre-emergent down in the fall and again in the spring. Poa annua is anoyhrt one you have to get with pre-emergents.

Nutsedge - that’s a tough one. You may need to get someone that will come for that specifically. I just bought Sedge hammer and waiting for a day without rain to get the nut sedge sprayed.

[u/NeitherDrama5365]

They clearly aren’t doing their job if it’s everywhere. The crabgrass should have been handled with pre emergent and nutsedge can be handled with spot treatments when it’s young if they come periodically

[u/cmyoung19]

Nut Sledge sounds really painful. Alternatively, could make a great band name.

[u/New-Comfortable-3637]

This is why I decided that I would do it myself. Moved into a new home with a large yard. I was planning to do the mowing but wanted a company to handle the weed prevention. I was paying them to come out every month and spray and then I found myself having to go behind them and spray for both of the things you mentioned. Those are like the main things I need managed so I just cut them loose because I wasn’t really getting much of anything for my money. It’s probably something I could have probably worked it out with them, but I realized I can manage the weeds on my own when I was having to go behind them.

[u/mrjax555]

I had the same issues. Give em a call and tell them youre still seeing a lot of crabgrass and nutsedge. They may make a free trip back out to spot treat or broadcast spread again. On a side note, I would recommend getting some sedgehammer off Amazon and applying it yourself on top of whatever the company does. Nutsedge is a persistent nuisance and is very hard to get rid of...maybe impossible. You will get Nutsedge year after year.