here's what it does if i don't pay attn to it for a couple of weeks. LOL here's what it looks like when i pulled it out, with some long roots. i had to have tabor "my son> hold it up LOL but this is a small one, just to give ya'll an idea what this crud is like. and some have really thick stems!! do ya'll have any idea what kinda grass it is?? by chance and how to kill this stuff?? its all over my garden and everywhere else in my flower beds. i don't want to use any heavy un organic things. so far i've been using newspapers, and i put 5 of them down, overlapping and them things grew right on up through them!! i was never so amazed in my life!! i have some osb down in an area, and it still grows, i don't mean like a month later i lifted the board, i'm talking 3 months later. this is some stuff on steroids!!! LOL its just crazy!!! LOL what are your target plants??

How well Corn Gluten Meal works as a pre emergent depends on when it is applied. Many people, after applying it at the wrong time (too late in the spring, during the summer, in the fall) will tell you it does not work. If applied about 6 weeks before the "weeds" it is supposed to control start to germinate CGM works quite well, but if applied after the "weeds" start to germinate, or much longer than those 6 weeks, it will not be very effective. If you can keep the crabgrass you now have from producing seeds you will have less (depending on how many birds fly over after eating crabgrass seeds) crabgrass next summer. Most of us have the species of crabgrass that is an annual and since it needs soils of a fairly warm temperature with the right amount of moisture to germinate working on getting your grass to grow in thick to help keep the soil cooler will help keep that from happening.

Well, you guys have convinced me. I have some crabgrass that is hit and miss in small spots around the yard but I also have some pretty good sized concentrations. Even the smaller spots with just one or two plants, the plants themselves are mature, large and spread out so that it would be fairly easy to spray just that plant and not get too much else around it. Also, the RoundUp I had for another area where I didn't want anything else growing back for a while was the RoundUp Extended Control. Regular RoundUp says you can replant after 3 days. So, I think I'm going to try and hit the worst of the infestation with RoundUp, then I'll go over the whole yard with a light spray of Tenacity for the Yellow Nutsedge. When the crabgrass starts to knock back and die off, I'll rent a dethatcher and go over the yard with that, then rent an aerator, then a power seeder and reseed and fertilize. Oh, and unless we have an unseasonably cold fall or a really fast-coming winter, we can stay in at least the mid-40s at night and mid-60s to mid-70s all the way until Thanksgiving around here. It's really hit or miss and, my luck, we'll have a really cold fall, but I'm really not too worried about sowing grass in mid to late September. I've looked at some of the information from the local county extension agents and they say that as long as the seed is in the ground by the end of September in our area, the grass should have time to be well rooted before winter hits. Sometimes it will still be good when seeding as late as mid-October but, with the way the weather is around here anything past the end of September and I'd really be pushing my luck. Soooo, that gives me a month to kill the worst of the crabgrass, dethatch, aerate, power seed and fertilize. Oh, I need to find the time to close down and winterize my pool too. It looks like September is going to be a really busy month! I may have to cancel my vacation days before Thanksgiving and take a few Fridays off instead to extend a few weekends and get everything in. Thanks for the advice guys. - Byron

We really do need to see photos to determine what is going on, otherwise we are just guessing and you then may be following advice that is not appropriate or could even prove harmful. FWIW, horticultural oil is NOT a suggested treatment for borers.......if that is what you have. Because the larvae tunnels (bores) into the wood of the tree, any sort of topical approach has to be carefully considered and timed to have any effect. The bugs are not inside the bark....they are inside the tree and it often requires a systemic (seldom recommended for edibles) to ensure effective control. And the appearance of sap - aka gummosis - can arise from a multitude of conditions, not all of them serious or requiring treatment. Photos, please!!