rush-348481_1920(2)After spending hours making sure your lawn is green and beautiful, there’s nothing worse than seeing crabgrass take over. Crabgrass is an opportunistic lawn weed, and it’s a real eyesore. It grows very well in hot, dry conditions, which makes it a big problem for us in Florida. Orlando lawn care experts are well acquainted with this weed.

Crabgrass Basics

Crabgrass sprouts in the late spring. It only needs bare soil, water, and sunlight to grow. Once it sprouts, it spreads quickly, which is bad news for lawns. Each crabgrass plant can distribute thousands of seeds before the next spring, so in no time, our lawns can be taken over by weeds.

If your lawn is infested with crabgrass, you’ll know it. This unattractive weed sprawls low across the ground from a central root. It’s also a lighter shade of green than the rest of your lawn. When you look out at your lawn, you’ll see the patches of crabgrass. Fortunately, there are many ways you can prevent or treat crabgrass.

Prevention

Keeping your lawn healthy is the best way to prevent a crabgrass infestation. To keep your lawn in tip-top shape, make sure to mow it at the proper height. Usually, this means mowing at one of the top two settings on your mower. When your grass is taller, the soil underneath gets more shade. The shade can help prevent crabgrass seeds from germinating.

Another part of keeping your lawn healthy is watering it carefully. To strengthen your lawn’s roots, it’s best to water deeply and less frequently. Thoroughly watering your lawn once a week is better than turning on your sprinklers for a short time every day. When you wet the soil to a depth of four to six inches, you encourage your lawn’s roots to go deeper into the soil. This makes your lawn hardier and more resistant to weeds. Shallow watering makes the grass roots weaker and more susceptible to weeds. Crabgrass needs bare soil to grow, so it’s important to keep your lawn thick and healthy. If you have any bare patches on your lawn, reseed them. The best time to do this is in the fall.

Treatment

By summer, it may be too late to prevent crabgrass from invading. That’s because it thrives in the hot, dry conditions. If you’ve already got crabgrass, don’t panic. Specially-formulated treatments can be used to manage the crabgrass. This helps maintain your lawn’s density and color.

If you’re worried about crabgrass, get help from an Orlando lawn care company. Take the guesswork out of lawncare and crabgrass management by hiring the experts at Apex Pest Control. Contact us today to take back control of your lawn.

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