Lawn & Garden

Community & General Discussion Shoot the Breeze
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Officially, it is too early for pre-emergent crabgrass and weed control, with or without fertilizer, but I advise putting it down within the next couple weeks. Soil temps are rising to where weeds and crabgrass are beginning to germinate now.

Pre emergent remains active in the soil for three to four months, so if you put it down now it’s not like it wont be working through at least the middle of June.

If you have sandy soil, lime would be prudent as well. Weeds thrive in acidic soil, and the increased pH, where needed, helps grass grow greener and stronger.

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I screw this up every year
Thanks for the heads up

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I’m writing this because I just tilled my garden today and this was on my mind.

Problems Growing Tomatoes?

Soil pH is crucial to healthy turf, but also for a healthy garden. And, sometimes pH isn’t about acidity, but calcium. Wait, woot?

Last year I went crazy growing tomatoes, San Marzano and Roma plumb tomatoes for making delicious Italian things. I raised 14 plants.

Early on, the plants were doing great, but as soon as they started producing fruit, a couple bad things started happening. They would wilt after watering or a heavy rain, and the bottom of the tomatoes would turn black.


If this has ever happened to your tomatoes, or zucchini, eggplant or cukes, it is called “blossom end rot”, and this is what is going on.

Some fruiting plants, like tomatoes, need calcium in the soil to help with water (and nutrient) uptake. This is where garden lime comes into play. Garden lime is pure calcium carbonate, lawn lime (aka Dolomitic lime) is calcium magnesium carbonate.

Using the latter won’t necessarily hurt tomatoes but if your soil is already rich in magnesium, it can stunt the plant’s growth. When diagnosing lawn or garden issues, it’s best to do one thing at a time, so as not to confuse the matter.

To correct blossom end rot you need to do two things. A) Tomatoes like slightly acidic soil in the 6.0 to 6.5 range. Get a soil pH tester. They are cheap, like $10 at any garden center, and test your soil to figure out what the pH level is, and add garden lime accordingly. B) Water on a regular schedule, do not over water, do not underwater.

If the roots are too wet, they will get root rot. If the roots dry out, then are inundated, especially on a hot day, that will stress the plant, and if there is a calcium deficiency in the soil, that makes it extra worse, the plants will wilt.

So there ya have it. Test soil pH and make sure your plants are getting enough calcium using calcium carbonate (garden lime) and maintain proper soil moisture. no more rotten tomatoes.

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For years I dealt with the black rot
Now I throw a handful of bone meal into each hole when I plant my tomatoes and peppers - not a speck of rot.

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my grandfather saved egg shells and pulverized them. Any calcium helps
.

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I overseeded last fall since the dry summer caused a lot of browning and bare patches. would applying weed n feed in the spring have a detrimental effect on that seed from germinating?

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Yes. pre-emergent is basically birth control for plants, it stops seeds from germinating. When I reseed or overseed, I always use organic fertilizer so the seedlings don’t get fried by chemical fertilizer (though there are chemical fertilizers just for newly seeded lawns). I’ll throw down some pelletized slow release dolomitic lime if the pH is low, which is often the case with NJ’s sandy soil.

Lawns seeded in the late summer early fall tend not to fill in thick, meaning you will not see a carpet of turf in November. If you did it right, in a few weeks your lawn will blow up, thick and green.

Your best defense against weeds is proper soil chemistry that leads to a thick healthy lawn, it chokes out weeds.

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Too early to start tomatoes and bell peppers from seed indoors?

Seems I’m always starting my seeds too early or too late.

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Tomatoes like hot climates, soil temp above 60. it’s still a bit early, but if you have the right supplies, you can start them indoors in containers, like 4" plastic pots, and plant them in May.

In eight weeks they could be up to 12". Not impossible to manage, but will take up some space in a room with southern exposure and big windows, or under grow lights.

I’m seeing a lot of those tiny greenhouses pop up in back yards.

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Try a grow light and a heat pad, I start my seeds in late February in my shed with that set up.

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Crabgrass preemergent is OK to apply if your new grass is at least 1" in height. But as others have stated, it will interfere with grass seed germination if the seed hasn’t started growing yet. If you want to apply a crabgrass preemergent and seed at the same time you can either put down a lot of seed and some of it will grow anyway (not a bad option if your just doing a few small spots, but expensive if doing large areas) or buy a crabgrass preemergent that can be applied with new seed (such as Tupersan) which is typically double the price of regular preemergent.

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Tupersan was discontinued a few years ago. We switched to Dimension, which does not work the same as Tupersan did but it is gentle enough on established turfgrass seedlings.

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@scorpio64 Is this a good bag for pre-emergent crabgrass control and feed? Or do you recommend a different NPK combo?

https://www.siteone.com/en/702021-lesco-dimension-015-18-0-4-30polyplus-opti45-25biosolids-pre/p/356320

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That’s the exact same stuff we use at work, it is a very good product. I’ve literally spread tons of it. The only thing I do not like about it is there is zero “P” phosphorus in it.

(N)itrogen is for leaf/blade growth, (P)hosphorus is for root growth, and (K) is potassium, that is for disease resistance.

Phosphorus is important for root growth, that’s why u see it in all starter fertilizers. The problem with fertilizers with no phosphorus is big machines like our commercial mowers tear up the grass.

It grows like hell and looks great on top when high nitrogen fert is thrown down, but without potassium, the grass cannot withstand kids playing on it or a big mower making turns. Just rips the grass right out of the ground. No roots.

Watering every day only makes it worse. THEN, if there is a drought (watering restrictions), you have no roots deep down where the soil is still moist. Promoting root growth is a combination of not watering every day AND using some amount of phosphorus to help the roots grow.

What I do for myself… not lawn customers, is throw down about 3/4 of a typical fertilizer (only fertilizer) that has no potassium, and then do a light application of starter fert to get some potassium into my lawn.

In early spring, I’ll spray Dimension to get it into the soil quickly, then about 6 weeks later I’ll use a granular herbicide with dimension AND 2,4-D. When using granular herbicides, it’s best done in the early morning when grass is wet with dew, so it sticks to the weeds. If the grass is dry, hose it down before spreading so the grains stick.

If you use the Lesco product you linked, you will have a nice green lawn with little to no crabgrass. If you happen to have a fire pit, or wood burning stove, save the ash and spread it on your lawn. It is full of potassium.

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Speaking of discontinued chemicals, I thought 2,4-D was discontinued many years ago? I guess not?

Looks like Mesotrione is replacing Tupersan for crabgrass control while seeding.

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You might be thinking of DDT.

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“If you use the Lesco product you linked, you will have a nice green lawn with little to no crabgrass. If you happen to have a fire pit, or wood burning stove, save the ash and spread it on your lawn. It is full of potassium.”

I don’t have a fire pit or wood burning stove. Would potash be similiar? Do the big box stores sell that? I’ll have to take a look.

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Potash is a common source for potassium, but the Lesco product already has it in the formula. I only mentioned wood ash as most people throw it away when it can be used to help lawns be more disease resistant.

Also, I should have mentioned something about phosphorus. If you use lime, you may not need to use a fertilizer with phosphorus. It’s not that lime has phosphorus in it, but that there is already trace amounts of phosphorus in the soil and lime makes it more available to plants.

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When do you think is the latest date to put it down? I’m on a RV trip right now, and was thinking to put it down before I left, but since it was still so cool, figured the weeds wouldn’t be sprouting yet, so I held off. Something I remember was to put it on when the forsythia starts blooming, but I don’t know when that date is this year.