Scott’s Weed and Feed in Late Spring

[Farmerdave60]

Hello all,

I have had clover really come in bad this year. I was so focused on my pre m for Japanese stiltgrass and crabgrass earlier in the spring and didn’t do any post emergent apps. Normally I would use triplllet SF and tenacity, but my yard is 50,000 sqft and would prefer to do a blanket app.

My question is, knowing Scott’s weed and feed works well for clover, am I risking anything to my TTTF lawn by applying the weed and feed now in early June? Temps are supposed to be between 67-80 this next week with rain this week, and I see this as my last chance to do this before it gets back in the 90s here in MD. I was told putting down nitrogen around this time may not be good for the grass and the weed killer could possibly burn the grass depending on whether rain isn’t in the forecast after 24 hours. Thoughts? Or should I try and spray as much as I can around the house with something like tenacity and save the weed and feed for next season.

Dave

[turf_toes]

You won’t find a lot of proponents of weed and feed products here.

It’s just not the most effective way to kill your weeds.

Why apply weed killer to your entire lawn?

The best way to kill weeds is to fertilize them a week or so before applying the weed killer. Weed and feed products don’t do this.

If you have weeds, use a stand alone weed killer. That might mean buying a walk behind sprayer, if you have a huge property (as your post about stiltgrass seems to show) and you need to blanket spray.

But ideally, you could spot spray just the areas where you have weeds. In that case, you could use just a standard sprayer.

[Farmerdave60]

Yeah I never really used weed and feed but figured may be an easy way to target the large areas that are filled with clover. But my neighbor has a sprayer attachment I could use and mix some triplet or tenacity in. My biggest concern this time of year is burning the grass.

Each of these products say: apply when temps are below 85 degrees and I’m not sure if this means apply during that specific hour or two when temps are under 85 or apply when temps are consistently under 85 degrees. If I apply on a morning when it’s 70 degrees out but then by 2:00 pm it gets to 93 did I just ruin my lawn and will it burn? This is my confusion with post emergents.

[MorpheusPA]

It's usually best to try to apply when temperatures will be consistently below 85 for the day (and for a day or so afterward). Or close. There's a day or two coming up that look good.

That's actually true of Weed and Feed as well, so...all things considered, using the spray is both more economical and more ecological. As well as avoids feeding the lawn at the wrong time.

[JeffreyLebowski]

Maintaining a 50000 SF lawn sounds like a massive undertaking. Have you considered a tow sprayer?

[Farmerdave60]

Indeed. My yard is on a slope with lots of trees. Also surrounded by woods. Very hard to maintain, and weeds come in every year. My neighbor has a tow behind sprayer and I think I’ll have to borrow it more often. I have a tow behind spreader which helps too. Once I think I put one fire out another one starts with a different type of weed. This time it’s clover.