Pre-emergent Crabgrass Killer

I've never used this, but I think I'm going to have to in my vegetable garden this year.

I till, mulch, hoe, and pull, but I always have a big problem with crabgrass in my garden. In the spring it comes up 'bout as thick as hair on a dog's back. lol

I'm sure it's going to be real bad this time, because I let it get away from me last fall. Much of the garden got away from me after harvesting was done - and I mean clumps of crabgrass knee-high and two feet across, and it went to seed. I plowed deep and tilled before winter, but those seeds are in there.

Tell me about the pre-emergent herbicide for crabgrass, please. What kind should I get (we have a Lowe's in town), when and how do I apply it, and will it affect the early seeds I want to plant (like beets)? I have a tractor with a turning plow and a good tiller, and I intend to apply fertilizer and give the garden a good tilling anyway before planting - but at what point do I use the crabgrass killer? Thanks.

I'm thinking about doing the same thing - and like you, I've never tried it before. I'll be planting seeds in the next month or so. I guess I'll have to wait until the seeds are up before I apply the pre-emergent. I wonder how long it lasts? I plan on planting additional veggies later in the season.
Jo-Ann

In my opinion using weed killer either pre or post emerge in a vegetable garden is not a good idea. A better option is to mulch. You can use newspaper,landscape fabric,cardboard, straw, leaves ect for crabgrass control. Anything that blocks out light will work. Even black plastic, which does not allow air and water to move freely about the soil, is a better option than spreading poisons. If you decide to go the poison route my suggestion is to let the garden go fallow for a year. Just my opinion.

Absolutely agree. Almost any kind of material will make good mulch, old carpet, cardboard, newspapers, grass clippings, leaves. We use up everything, even shredded paper around new plants. The pre-emergent only works once anyway, and the surrounding area will still have roots that will spread to the garden again as soon as the poison is weakened by time. Here's a chunk of crab grass that had a root over six feet long, nothing stops that stuff from spreading except lack of light.

Yeah, when I posted that question I told my wife that some of the folks here would suggest using chamomile tea, or waving an old horseshoe over the garden, or something. I was hoping that viewpoint wasn't universal, and that someone here would offer useful information. Guess not.

It's funny how modern technology and (horrors!) chemicals have allowed the world to feed three times the population it could before those things were invented - and now they're somehow viewed as "bad". I guess it would be better if 2/3 of the people now living had starved to death because we kept growing food the old ways, huh?

Incidentally, crabgrass is an annual so those old roots are dead - the seeds are the problem. And I said I'm already mulching. I'll get my information somewhere else.

If you take notice I stated this was simply my opinion. You are correct when you say that pesticides are responsible for increased crop production. I was in the nursery and turf business before retiring and I can give you a list a mile long of herbicides,insecticides and fungicides that were thought not to be harmful to animals or people but when people began getting sick they were removed from the market. The worst thing that ever happened was allowing non professionals access to very potent materials. Do you remember the defoliant used in Vietnam Agent Orange and seeing GIs dusting themselves with it. Have you ever heard of Temik. These formulations were perfectly safe according to the EPA. There is no magic bullet for weed control. Did you stop to think why farmers apply the same chemicals every year to eliminate the same weeds. One application will not solve your problem. If you apply a preemerge weed killer you will certainly kill the surface seed but when you till the soil or even moderately disturb the surface the viable weed seed will be brought to the surface for germination. Just to let you know I was treated for pesticide poisoning despite wearing a $400 respirator and all the proper garments. JUST AN OPINION

Well I guess I'll just have to forget mulching and go back to the old method of throwing chicken bones and chanting.

In the future, if you've already made up your mind about poisoning your vegetable patch, don't bother asking for suggestions.

I went thru the same thing with quackgrass getting away from me in a flower bed. I removed all the flowers and hand dug the entire bed, sorting roots by the shovelful. I don't have any grass now, and I wish I had taken pictures of my efforts. That flower bed is now a garden. I never put the flowers back. I hope you find a good solution for your garden.

Meezers, love the birds behind you!

I'm posting in this thread again because now I've got information that may be helpful to others with the same crabgrass and grassy-weed problem in their gardens.

I did some research, and yes, there are some scary chemicals used by commercial growers to kill weed seeds in the soil. Those are used by professionals, and I wouldn't even think of messing with them.

But the pre-emergent herbicide I found at Lowe's was 100% organic CORN GLUTEN - a byproduct protein that comes from milling corn kernels. It's child-safe, pet-safe, and you can use it right around vegetables as often as it's needed with no restrictions. Cute baby seals and Ethiopian orphans could eat the stuff, and it'd do 'em good.

The process of using corn gluten as a weed-seed herbicide was patented in 1991. It works by drying out the seeds as soon as they split open to sprout, and that kills the root and the plant. There's a long list of weeds it works on, including crabrasss, quackgrass, and dandelions. It has no effect on plants that are already up, and it doesn't work on weeds that have large seeds.

My idea is to till and mulch between rows, as I always do for weed control. But within the rows themselves, I think the corn gluten may save me a lot of work. It can be worked into the soil right around transplants as soon as they're in the garden, and right around veggies grown from seed once they're up. A useful tool, I bet'cha.

I'll save the throwing chicken bones and chanting for a backup plan, though - I liked that!

Much better choice Ozark. This material usually takes 3-4 years at 2 applications per year for maximum effectiveness. If you have a particularly wet period at the time of application corn gluten will lose much of its potency. I used it on a bent grass field hockey field for crabgrass,poa annua(annual blue grass) and chick weed. We had to go this route because the athletes were using the facility. My experience was it was marginally effective at triple the cost of chemical herbicides. We only used it for one season so I cannot speak as to how well it would have done if we continued for the 3-4 year cycle. We had to discontinue it's use due cost. Each application cost $1200 as opposed to $400 for chemical based products. Anyway, I would be very interested in hearing how you made out. Good luck

While I've never tried any of the pre-emergents in a vegetable bed, I have used it in my perennial and annual beds. My main perennial bed has a bird feeder in it. The birds tend to scatter the seeds & I'll have sunflowers and whatever else growing there. I've used the brand Preen in these beds with mixed success. While it did cut down on much bird seed sprouting, it did not eliminate all. My concern is using it in vegetable beds, where I will be planting additional seeds at some point in the future.

I wrote to the makers of Preen, asking how long before I can replant a veggie garden, Here's their reply: