Fighting Grass Burs with Pre-Emergent !!!!

Grass burs are pretty much from the devil, I’m convinced. We all don’t like them, they hurt when you step on them, they might just hang around in your living room carpet, and God forbid you have a cattle pasture because grass burs if left unchecked can single handedly ruin a whole plot. Grass burs are hassle; there's really no two ways around it. Therefore the importance of any tool that we have to get rid of them is very valuable. In this blog we will talk on one of the biggest weapons that we have against grass burs, Pre-Emergents. 

• What are Pre-Emergents? 

Well, put simply Pre-Emergents are essentially a weed fabric. That’s a really dumb down way of telling you what they do, but you’ll have to hear me out for this to make sense. Pre-Emergents do not kill anything like there counterpart Post-Emergents. “Pre” in (Pre-Emergents) means before the plant has broken above the soil level. The idea behind these chemicals is that when applied to lawns that have grasses that are already established, the pre-emergent chemical will keep any other grassy weeds or broadleaf weeds from coming up out of the ground in your lawn. When Done properly Pre-Emergents have the power to totally eliminate some weeds in your lawn over the course of just 2-3 years. 

• How do you use Pre-Emergents?

Pre-emergents come in multiple ways so you can have different options for application. The most popular are liquid Pre-Emergents & Granular Pre-Emergents. The Granular Pre-Emergents are simple to apply, you apply them the same way you would fertilizer. Most granular Pre-Emergents are 100-130 lbs per acre. However, remember that it is important to always read application instructions for the specific one you might get. The more popular of the Pre-Emgergents is liquid Pre-Emergents, there are many different brands of liquid Pre-Emergents and most are mixed at a rate of 1-3 oz. per gallon of water. These types of Pre-Emergents are mixed and applied in a sprayer any size sprayer will do as long as it’s a size that suits your needs for the size acreage that you are trying to do. Below Agri Products has listed a couple of Pre-Emergents that we recommend both granular and liquid.

Liquid:

1. Pendimethalin or Pendee
2. Princep 
3. Prowl H20
4. Pendimethalin Aquacap 
5. Dimension 2EW 
6. Prodiamine 4L
7. Dithiopyr 2EW

Granular:

1. Barricade 
2. Pendulum 2G
3. SnapShot 2.5 TG
4. Tebuthiuron 80 WG

OUR FAVORITES: 

Liquid: Prowl H20

Granular: Barricade

• Why to use Pre-Emergents for grass burs?

Simple, Post-Emergent herbicides aren’t capable of killing off grass burs. The only Post-Emergent weed killer that will get rid of grass burs comes from the RM line up & Glyphosate chemicals which are designed and meant to kill all vegetation, AKA they will kill your lawn too. This poses a problem obviously, so therefore we fit stuck up weeds and grass burs with alternative methods (Pre-Emergents). Pre-Emergents are a more conservative way of controlling weeds and weed growth. The route to a lawn that is weed free not just for half a season but for years to come is through Pre-Emergents. 

• Key takeAways & Side Notes:

1. Pre-Emergents work best when paired with good watering and fertilizing throughout the year.
2. Pre-Emergents should be thoroughly watered into the soil within the first 72 hrs of the application.
3. Pre-Emergents should not be over applied, they should also not be used in or around areas that need to be re-seeded or over seeded.