Seeded my front a back lawns recently, the front is going a lot better. The back of my house backs on to fields though and I’ve had loads of trouble with weeds seeding especially with the high winds. Do I need to let my lawn really establish before doing anything, or should I just pull them up and put more seed down. Was also thinking weed and feed but any help would be appreciated thanks.
by Markthemangooo
31 Comments
Let it continue to grow. After two cuts you can apply a selective herbicide and possibly overseed this fall if needed.
Check the label, but most herbicides say 2-4 mowings. Some will give a duration from germination, but the label is your friend.
Tenacity. Or Scott’s for Seeding. You want the mesotrione in it.
Deal with the weeds when the grass is nice and mature
Ignore until grass established, then use a selective weed killer. You can hand pull, but I would avoid walking on grass seedlings.
The roots aren’t strong enough, let it grow. You can deal with weeds in the fall
I’d be going around the pulling/digging the weeds by hand.
I wouldn’t use a herbicide while the grass is so immature, and the lawn is small enough to manage by hand.
Kill all the grass and start again
For that small of a space I’d pull them. Or get pruning shears and lop them off just below the soil surface.
Use a pre-emergent next time
The best way is to nurture your grass and deal with weeds later
Wait a few weeks or pull by hand. Can prob do it in 15 minutes
mow it for awhile and let the grass choke out some weeds then spray them out with your choice of turf herbacide. I personally like foundation herbacide.
“Best” way would be to pull them individually by hand.
If a non composted topsoil was used for your project, it will have a healthy seed bank of common weeds found in fields. Many of these will not tolerate normal mowing heights and will disappear. For those that remain after several cuts, deal with it in the fall as others have suggested. Looks like a decent start though.
You could pull this by hand easily.
Don’t do anything about weeds until you have mowed the grass twice.
I have the same question but for nutsedge, which I know I shouldn’t pull.
I would use a weeder tool to pull them up if you can. I’d wait on herbicide until the grass is more established
Leave it alone until your grass is at least 6 weeks past germination or 2 mows. I had to do the same after a full renovation this Spring.
Hit Amazon and buy Triad QC Select and Triad TZ Select, as well as Mesotrione by Liquid Harvest. Combine them for a stable 6-in-1 herbicide that is 3 to 4 times stronger than anything in the big box stores plus they’ll last you a while. By the time you buy a couple of bottles of the weak store stuff, you’ll have paid for the Triads and Mesotrione anyway.
https://youtu.be/JyTXki6Jgj4?si=fWxbmc8Xy9heNPLB
Not sure about where you live, but where I live in the northeast US the best way to avoid weeds when growing new grass, is to only plant new grass seed in early September when the sun angle is lower, the heat a bit less intense, and weed germination has slowed. Around here, planting new grass seed in the Spring or Summer months means you’re attempting to establish new lawn during the highest heat of the year (when grass naturally goes dormant), and your seed is competing with the most explosive time of year for weed germination, which is a losing game.
Healthy lawns have some weeds. Do nothing until grass is hearty. I use a targeted lawn weed spray in early spring and usually after Step 2 all my weeds are gone for remainder of season.
Hand pull what you can until the grass matures. Then spot spray using a selective herbicide mid to late fall. I wouldn’t broadcast a selective herbicide until the grass is at least a year old.
For future reference. Spray Mesotrione on the seed right after seeding.
Tenacity
You, spouse, and kids go out there for 2 hours and pick them all now. Apply fertilizer to the make the existing grass happy and spread/grow.
Be proud remainder of summer.
Then start all thee things everyon else is saying.
It sometimes takes weeks/months and money to kill all this stuff. 2 hours to make yourself proud is almost free family time.
I used a piece of small diameter metal piping, and went around and mashed down the centers of all the weeds growing.
Worked pretty well to destroy the weed or at least stress them and reset them, without disturbing the new grass at all.
Let it grow, the grass will thrive, mow at 3 inches, spray weeds out this fall or in spring
I normally don’t recommend it but this would be a good case for Tenacity
Hand pull
Seeding is coming in nice! Leave the weeds until you can spray at 8 wks minimum. You can pull them by hand once you can walk on the grass.