You might not realize it but September is the best time to get the weeds growing in your lawn under control. Late summer weed control is the “proactive” approach to weed control. Most of us take the “reactive” approach of killing dandelions and other lawn weeds in the spring when we see them flowering. After we wipe that initial round of flowering weeds out, we’ll have a lovely lawn all summer. Unfortunately the seeds of dandelions from other, untreated areas around our yards or a neighbor’s yard are blowing in all summer and sprouting in our lawn. These little seedlings of the perennial weeds are small and go unnoticed. They’ll survive the winter and burst into flower with the first warm days the following spring.
A more effective approach is to treat the lawn in September a “weed & feed” type lawn food with granular weed killer added or with a liquid spray weed killer. You’ll want to apply granular “weed & feed” when the lawn is moist (like in the morning when there is dew on the lawn) so the weed killer dissolves on the leaves of the weeds where it is absorbed into the weed. If the lawn is very dry, make sure to water it heavily the day before you apply your weed killer since weed killer applied to a very dry lawn may actually damage the grass or kill it along with the weeds. The longer this dissolved weed killer remains in contact with the leaves of the weeds, the better it will work. If the weed killer is washed off the leaves before 24 hours have passed, it won’t be very effective killing the weeds.
The most effective weed killers are liquid sprays. Liquid weed killers are sprayed onto the leaves of the weeds in the lawn. Since the weed killer is absorbed by the leaves of the weeds the same “no water for 24 hours after application” rule applies with them as well. Like granular “weed & feed” liquid weed killer should NOT be applied to a very dry lawn. Recently a new, organic liquid weed killer has become available. It is called “Fe Weed Killer” Fe stands for Iron if you remember your periodic table. The iron in Fe weed killer is absorbed quickly through the leaves of the weeds. So quickly in fact that it is toxic to the weed and kills it. The grass around the weed doesn’t absorb the iron so quickly so it isn’t killed. It does absorb some Iron so it may turn a darker green for a week or so after application but that’s it. Fe weed killer may take a little longer to work than the chemical weed killer but is proving to be more effective against tougher to kill lawn weeds like clover and Creeping Charlie. Having an organic lawn weed killer is great news for us, our pets and the wildlife that visit your yard.
By killing the young weed seedlings that are growing in your lawn now, you’ll find that you won’t have to take the “reactive” measure of trying to fit weed killing into a busy spring gardening schedule. You’ll also wipe out a higher percentage of the weeds if you treat in late summer since they’re smaller and it takes less weed killer to kill small weeds than mature weeds.
Thanks for the read!
