Thanks for the link, Gary. I started down that road a while back, trying to find someone who would do a test for me. Some of the places I found online wouldn't do it because I was not in their zip code. I was like, "Huh???" It didn't make sense to me. I don't know if it was a regional funding thing or what, but geeze, no one would take my dirt. :( I found one place on that list you sent that's at least in my area code, so that's the first place I'll call. Thanks.

must be nice!! Nothing is 100% effective as a preem. The reason is basic timing. A preem is effective for a certain time and then it decomposes into ineffectivness. If your weeds are sprouting while the preem is in an effective state, then you have a high probability of effectiveness. If the weeds are not ready to sprout, then you may miss the window. This year my wife wants me to apply corn gluten meal every month to help with weeds. It is a fantastic fertilizer so I have the best of all worlds working for me. Grass is very dense so that helps keep weeds out. Normally I would be fighting weeds all summer in the extremely shady back, but this year is all grass. The problem with continually moist soil is that weed seeds need continually moist soil in order to sprout. One possible benefit there is that once all the weed seeds sprout, there are no more weed seeds.

Hi Tom, I'm certainly not an onion expert. Yes I have grown them for about 35 years, but for most of those years not well :-) Up until about five years ago I only grew about 40' of onions, just enough for my batches of salsa that I can every year. I started from seed and transplanted in April, but the onions were generally small. In recent years I began reading more, planting more, buying the right varieties of onion plants, getting soil analyses, and boosting the nitrogen during the spring. Now my onions are properly large. The common factors over the years was compost and mulch. Feed hay is any type that is suitable for feeding to horses, usually timothy hay. Spoiled hay is bales of hay that have gotten wet, are usually moldy, and are no longer suitable as feed. Spoiled hay is cheaper, usually $2-4/bale depending where you are, and is sometimes sold as "mulch hay". I use the term "feed hay" to distinguish it from salt hay or straw. I get mine at a local horse supply farm - one bale covers about 100 sq ft. I have two onion beds (blocks), each having 6 rows that are 10' long and 12" apart, with onions planted 6" on center (120 onion plants per bed). This way I can kneel just outside the bed and be able to reach the center (I'm 6'4" tall). I wait until the onions are about a foot tall before mulching as it is easy to damage or bury smaller plants when putting down the hay. I apply the hay mulch all at once by pulling a good handful from the bale and gently tucking it between the rows and up against the plants, leaving the green leaves exposed to sunlight. The plants are delicate so this must be done carefully, and wear a dust mask when handling spoiled hay. I suppose you can mulch in stages, but it's more work and increases the chance of damage. Now if you apply grass clippings or a finely chopped hay, mulching in stages would be fine. As the onions start bulbing, the hay is compressed down to a couple of inches and I pull it up to but not on top of the bulbs, thus leaving the bulb tops exposed to the sun. In your situation, you can wait until the plants are a good foot tall to mulch, but then will likely have to weed again before applying. Or you can apply a couple of inches of grass clippings or other fine organic mulch now to suppress the crab grass, and then finish mulching with hay when the plants are stronger. Feel free to ask questions Tom, or if you prefer you can give me a call (732 721 4750). TomNJ

Japenese stilt grass is a summer annual ( like crabgrass it spreads mainly buy seed)that you should be able to control. If you have any existing patches you shoul pull them now. Chemical method of control is to apply pendamethlin ( a preemergent herbicide) in sometime middle to end of April. If the stiltgrass is in a mulched area where you can apply a nonselective herbicide such as round up at high label rate, if the stiltgrass is mixed with some in with some other ornamental plants (pretty much anything except ornamental grasses) you can spray fusillade (fluazifop-p-butyl), if the stiltgrass is in your lawn (and your lawn is ryegrass, fescue, zoysia,Kentucky bluegrass) use acclaim (fenoxaprop-p-butyl), or the home owner versions are Grass-out and Grass-B-Gon. Always spray young actively growing plants ( after a rain with no rain in the forecast for 24 hours) don't let the stiltgrass get to the seedhead stage. Non chemical controls: you pull stiltgrass it comes up pretty easy but make sure you pull it before seedheads form. The only problem with hand weeding is the more stiltgrass you pull up you expose more weed seed. You can also mow the stiltgrass in the late summer just before the seedhead stage and maybe the stiltgrass will not reach seedhead stage by the first frost which will kill the stiltgrass. Remember the most effective weed control is a dense healthy stand of turf grass so if the stiltgrass is in a turf stand reseed thin areas in the fall.