Cutting Crabgrass

[Richard Martin]

Does anybody have any tips for cutting crabgrass and obtaining good results in a decent amount of time?

I know the obvious, treat the crabgrass, put down pre-em etc etc but sometimes these are not an option.

I have a few lawns that the crabgrass is going crazy in and it seems to take a while to obtain a decent looking cut.

The crabgrass stays wet all of the time, even in late afternoon.

[Evan528]

I think double cutting is the only way! We had no rain for about 6 weeks before last weekend..... emediatly after the rain the crabbgrass went nuts! Even Most of the lawns I put dimension on has crabbgrass every where! I know pre- emergent isnt supposed to have a 3 year residual efect but why is it that the lawns i have been treating for 3+ years have absolutly no crabbgrass.... lawns ive only been treating for 1-2 years have crabbgrass every where dispite gettin the same dimension treatment at the same rate as the lawns ive been treating for many years! This would lead me to beleave that in reality the pre- emergent really is building up in the soil from year to year!

[Richard Martin]

Evan528,
What kind of blades are you using? Does your mower have a tendacy (sp) to drop cow pies of crabgrass?

[Evan528]

I use high lift blades on all my mowers! All three of my mowers throw glops of crabgrass. Even my toro that will cut soaking wet grass without clumping cant cut grabgrass with out thowing clumps. I think double cutting is the only way around the problem..... there is just so much water content in crabgrass!

[John DiMartino]

I think the lawns that have been treated 3+ years ago,all the crabgrass seeds are dead,or so old the germination rate is real low.The seeds in the lawns that are newly treated,are fresher,and will have a higher germination rate.On my bag of demension,it has diffeent rates for lawns,depending on location,if it is a newly treated area,or one that has had pre-M every year.

[Ssouth]

Richard, I've been battling the crabgrass for two months now. today I tried a set of single gators and that reallllllllly seemed to help. I don't know why because I've tried every combination of blades except the single gators. They do not disperse as well, but I only had to cut once.
Good luck and if you find anything better for crabgrass be sure to post it for us.

Ssouth

[geogunn]

it's highlifts on crabgrass for me.

I tried regular lifts and standard gators and the highlifts do the job for me.

in years past it was only the seed pod that kept me going.

this year we are so green that this stuff is killing me. ILUVIT, ILUVIT!

GEO

[Richard Martin]

Geogunn wrote:
.............................
this year we are so green that this stuff is killing me. ILUVIT, ILUVIT!
.............................

Well, I don't know if I exactly love dealing with crabgrass but it is very good for the bottom line.

I know this is blasfamy but this is how I'm cutting crabgrass lawns. I start with 2 trips around the perimter of the yard blowing in towards the center of the yard to keep from getting grass on the house, fences etc. Then I turn the mower around and cut with the mower blowing all of the clippings into the area I had just cut (yes, I'm cutting in circles or laps as we like to call them here).

Then I get the blower and blow away any clumps or cowpies that were dropped.

And finally I cut back and forth to put the stripes down.

It takes a while but there are no visable clippings, clumps or cowpies and the lawn get striped.

Also, I am using Gator Magnums on both mowers.