How Pre-Emergent Weed Control Saves Time and Money in Lawn Maintenance

Does tackling your lawn maintenance feel like a never-ending job? Are you frustrated with recurring weed problems and are seeking long-term solutions? Our question for you: have you tried pre-emergent weed control?

Pre-emergent weed control is a lawn maintenance technique designed to save homeowners time and money by preventing weeds before they appear. To give you an inside scoop on how this treatment works and the best times to apply, we at Colonial Lawn & Garden, your local trusted lawn care provider, have prepared this comprehensive explanation just for you!

How Pre-Emergent Weed Control Works

Compared to post-emergent weed control, which kills weeds after they have sprouted, pre-emergent weed control is a highly effective weed prevention method that stops weeds before they become a problem.

Essentially, this lawn spray service works by applying a blanket treatment to your entire lawn. Unlike traditional herbicides that simply kill everything, pre-emergent weed control is a targeted treatment that will soak into the soil, coating weed seeds, and create a barrier between the soil and the surface to prevent weeds from germinating.

While it is vital that pre-emergent weed control treatments are applied at the beginning of a weed seed's growth cycle, this treatment will effectively stop the seed's growth cycle before it can begin. This, in turn, provides homeowners with critical time and money-saving benefits.

Time-Saving Benefits of Pre-Emergent Weed Control

As a homeowner, one thing you can never have enough of is time. The last thing you want to do on your precious hours off is weeding. Taking advantage of pre-emergent weed control as a part of your lawn maintenance routine will help eliminate the need for frequent manual weeding.

Since pre-emergent treatments stop weeds from sprouting in the first place, it will help keep your lawn well maintained with less effort and reduce your reliance on post-emergent herbicides and spot treatments. Combined, all this will save you copious amounts of time, giving you the opportunity to spend your time doing more of what you love.

Cost-Effective Advantages

Maintaining a beautiful lawn can become expensive if you do not properly instigate lawn maintenance techniques. Pre-emergent weed control does more than save time; it saves money as well in five different ways:

• Prevents Weed Treatments: By preventing weeds from sprouting in the first place, it saves money on post-emergent weed treatments, lawn maintenance services, and homeowner action.
• Reduces Fertilizer Treatments: Preventing weeds from taking essential nutrients and resources from the soil leaves more for your lawn, thus reducing the need to add excessive fertilizer treatments.
• Reduces Pest Control Services: By preventing weeds from stealing lawn nutrients, your turf will be stronger and less susceptible to insect infestations, thus reducing the need for pest control services.
• Reduced Lawn Diseases: By preventing weeds from weakening the health of your lawn, you reduce the chances of your lawn obtaining common lawn diseases. Therefore, the need for lawn disease treatment and repair is reduced.
• Minimizes Repairs: Preventing weeds from growing saves money on costly repairs caused by invasive weeds damaging grass and soil health.

Overall, these five prevention bonuses can save homeowners hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year!

Best Times to Apply Pre-Emergent Weed Control

Timing a lawn spray service for pre-emergent weed control is crucial. The best time to apply these treatments is during the spring and fall or when your region is most likely to be in the emerging phases of weed development.

What you need to look at is soil temperature. The majority of weed species typically start to germinate when soil temperatures rest between 55°F and 70°F for about a week.

For example, in the springtime here in the Tri-Cities, as the soil temperature begins to warm up after the winter, dormant summer weed seeds will germinate once that temperature range remains consistent. By applying pre-emergent weed control at this time, you can prevent the growth cycle from starting. This is especially helpful against crabgrass.

Similarly, in the fall, you want to catch the soil temperature as it lowers to the trigger range for winter weeds. For example, here in the Tri-Cities, applying pre-emergent weed control treatment before the soil temperature drops below 55°F helps to prevent our common winter weed, chickweed.

However, we do want to note that there are a few factors to keep in mind to ensure the greatest success rate for the treatment. First, you must distribute the treatment evenly across the entire treatment area and ensure the lawn is adequately watered afterward to activate the product. Second, you want to prevent disrupting the treatment for at least 72 hours, meaning you want to suspend walking on, playing on, or driving in the treatment area during that time.

For help with your own yard, call the Tri-Cities office at (509) 371-1655.