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Weed killer...Kill my seeds?

17 years ago

Here in nebraska, I seemed to have a dandellion explosion the first week of May. Tons of em (didnt do any winterizing last fall...ooops). As i mowed the yard, my grass is going to seed, I would like to know if granular weed killer w/2-4-d as in Scotts weed killer would also keep the grass seeds from germinating as well as helping my weed problem. Ya i now about "active" weeds and all, but i was wondering about natural grass seed heads. Should i cut my losses and put down the weed killer now and wait till fall time to reseed if the weed killer prevents germinating.

I really need help on this one 'cause my yard is finaly going in the right direction after all these years (5). When i started as a real noob my lawn was a 4 well i can say i am up to a 7 out of 10...So i hope to get more input on this...thanks

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Comments (5)

botanical_bill
17 years ago
My question back to you is why are you seeding your lawn? If you are having a problem and you have to re seed because your grass is dying back, find out what that problem is and corret this first.
Second question, how big is your lawn? Is it possible to hold off on the granular weed killer and do some spray spot weeding? Let the new grass seed grow and spray weeds with a liquid weed killer. That way you get the nice new grass covering the large patches (assuming your seeding a large area) and a few dead spots where you sprayed.
In shorter form, let the grass come in and keep the weeds in check, not eliminated.
It boils down to what is eaiser and what you want.
razzy
Original Author
16 years ago
No i am not reseeding, i'm trying to say that the grass plants themselves r producing seeds. My lawn is about 6000 Sqr feet. My spray can got one heck of a work out week ago, and alot of weeds did die, but i still have quite a few left over. I am probably sure i didnt see all the little ones, so i'm just wondering granular, or even hose end sprayer for the job, if it doesn't matter about the seed heads.
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I see. Temperatures won't be as high this week nor next week. The highest it's gotten is 80F and the lowest is in the mid 50's. I read the instructions and it said germination is better when seeding between 60F-80F. Today it hit 76F and we'll have showers tonight at 52F. Tomorrow rain all day and the max will be in the low 70's and min in the low 60's. Hopefully it'll grow. It took me a lot of sweat and blisters to remove all that dirt, bring in new one, rake, make it flat, rake, add new topsoil, add starter fertilizer, spread the seeds and add a thin layer of compost. Birds were having a field day but hey, it's okay. They need to feed. Believe it or not, just today, more seed germinated. I did not know they could grow that fast in a single day. More is filling up. I'm doing what I can to water. I can't water on odd days. I'm allowed to water on even days but from 6pm-6am. Even then, I bought a 2gallon spray pump to soak it once i saw dryness or when I'm not allowed to water my lawn by the town.
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Billl
16 years ago
Your grass won't self seed in any reasonable way. Kill whatever weeds you need to now. If the lawn is still thin by the end of summer, you can seed at that point.
jeannie7
16 years ago
Herbicides don't know the difference between a weed and a seed, it will kill both.
Such as when you apply a pre-emergent, a hherbicide will kill that too.

You should apply a generous application of weed killer and wait for a reasonable time to let it do its work. Let your grass grow as it will, the higher grass will also shade out weeds and help the herbicide do its job. Then mow your grass and overseed; sprinkling often.
smikes1031
16 years ago
If you don't overseed in the fall, it's a great time to apply herbicide, and you won't see as many weeds next spring.

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