Hit it with tenacity herbicide and overseed on labor day weekend.

What is tenacity herbicide and can I purchase it at a regular nursery and garden center? What is the difference between tenacity herbicide and weed and feed?

Tenacity: http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/tenacity-herbicide-p-1877.html

It might be able to be purchased locally through John Deere (SiteOne) or turf store. I ordered my bottle from link above, but Amazon probably carries it too. Ortho Weed B Gon w/crabgrass control would will help knock out most of the weeds and that can be found practically anywhere.

I read this somewhere a long time ago, but basically use herbicides and fertilizers separately. Also looks like, or at least to me, presence of some grassy weeds as well, but I'll others who are far more versed chime in.

This is where I bought it. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/tenacity-herbicide-p-1877.html I have also seen it on Amazon. The difference is weed and feed is usually a pre emergent, so it only stops things like crab grass from germinating, it doesn't kill it once it has. If you use this on already germinated seeds, you are basically just fertilizing your weeds.

If by chance you are talking about a post emergent weed and feed killer, the differences are:

1) It is a professional grade product. This is (some of) the stuff a landscaper would use if you called them to care for your lawn.

2) It is special in that you can use it at the same time as when you seed. If you did this with other post emergents, you would kill the seed.

#2 is why i mentioned it. You could use another post emergent herbicide, like weed-b-gone 2,4 D, Q4, but they would kill the weeds, and by the time you were able to seed (you usually have to wait like a month) you may miss the fall planting window in NY. So you would go from having a weedy lawn, to a lawn with bare spots that would fill up with weeds again next spring.

gmarsh123 - Thank you. #2 is exactly what happened to us...whatever we have used to get rid of weeds left us with bare spots and weeds just took over again. We were going around in a circle, do a lot of work but not accomplishing anything.

Yup. The struggle is real. Just make sure you read and follow the directions.

Most dry weed and feed formulation contain post-emergent herbicides. They tend to be frowned upon as they are extremely inefficient in dealing with weeds, apply far more herbicide than is typically necessary and are huge contributors to water pollution. They can also be harmful if you have small kids or pets that use the lawn routinely.

Using a dedicated liquid broadleaf lawn weed herbicide is a far more efficient method of addressing existing weeds. You can choose either a spot/direct spray method or a broadcast method. Once dry, they are harmless with respect to the heath and safety of pets and kids and because they are fully absorbed by the plant parts or the top surface of the soil, they do not contribute significantly to any pollution. There are lots of brands on the market and most work in a very similar manner with very similar ingredients. And you can get them anywhere. Save any pre-emergents for after you have seeded the lawn and it is adequately established.

Hi self ridge,

How long ago did you reseed? If it was more than 8 weeks you don't need to use tenacity. If that's the case then you can just apply some post emergent. Then lay down a pre emergent next spring. I suggest oxadiazon as it's the only pre that doesn't hurt the roots of your good grass. You can get some for $25 at domyown.com

We seeded in May.

Don't worry about summer annuals. They will die. Use a post-emergent weed killer in the fall for the broadleaf perennials. What you have is very, very respectable for a May seed. I'm actually impressed. What grass type? If you have no spreading grasses in there, Tenacity might actually be a good idea if you plan to overseed.

@mishmosh- i don't remember the type of grass. We used the seed that the garden center recommeneded.

If I use post emergent weed killer how long do I need to wait to sees the bare spots?

You can seed in just day or two, although most manufacturers suggest waiting a week to 10 days.

That's true if you use non selective herbicide like round up. However if you use selective like weed b gone you have to wait a month.

I would use something with 24d and maybe quinclorac if you've got some crab grass. Couple treatments of that should take care of weeds. Just make sure to read directions.

Might not have enough time to overseed this year

May is the third worst month to seed northern grasses in your area. Only July and June are worse. So that is part of the reason you have so many weeds. To someone's credit, though, I would have expected far more weeds than grass by this time of year. You're doing something right!!

The garden center that sold you the seed in May should be off your list of future purchases, because they don't give good advice. Based on that I also question the quality of their recommended seed.

You have plenty of time to overseed this year. Fall is the time to seed. New York is a big state. If you live in the north then start with the herbicide now to seed in early Sept. If you live in the south then you can wait a week or two and seed later in Sept. Seeding early in the fall gives the new grass time to come in and for you to evaluate whether you need to thicken it up with more grass seed.

Go back and reread gardengal's first post in this topic. She has a very good way of explaining those concepts.

There are many Weed-b-Gon products. "Basic" WBG is a 2,4-d product, at least in my neighborhood. A slightly different product is Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer. That one has Triclopyr (longer wait period). Formulations for these products may vary from state to state as different regulations apply.

I would suggest you read more here on this forum to see what you can learn about lawn care. You can't rely on TV ads to tell you when to do things. Here are some general concepts that have become common knowledge on this and other lawn forums.

New seed (northern grasses) should be applied in the fall.

Weed n Feed products rarely work as advertised. Spot spray herbicides work better.

Deep and infrequent watering is the way to go. Frequent watering leads to shallow roots and general brownish appearance.

Spring fertilizer should go down late, not early. Wait until May or late May.

Fall winterizer goes down after the grass has stopped growing but before total dormancy (before you have regular freezes). For most this is around the end of November.

Mulch mow always. The clipped grass returns valuable organic material to the soil.

Mow most grasses at your mower's highest setting. This leads to deeper rooting. Deep roots take advantage of moisture and nutrients deeper in the soil.