North Texas. Time for PreM?

[beedix]

I thought last year was weird.

My soil temps are hovering around 50 but with a warm week, I'm thinking we might hit 55 this week. Weather was extremely odd\mild this year.

Is it seriously already time to lay down some PreM, consider scalping, and start guessing when we are outside of freezing temps for a first dose of nutrients?

Crazy.

[Jeff20]

I here ya beedix, I think we are all getting the itch. It's 73 here right now and no cold weather in site. But we always have a nice cold snap before Easter. I took a chance and scalped, aerated, top dressed and pre m Feb 17th last year and it worked out great.

[Billy]

Time for PRE? YES! A split application with the first timed now and the second ~ 6 wks later will give you control for about as long into he summer as you could reasonably expect. For PRE apps, you almost can't be too early (within reason).

Consider scalping? Don't bother. All it does is encourage weeds by letting more sunlight to the soil, which warms it faster and speeds up PRE breakdown.

Nutrients? P and K can be added just about any time, but N apps aren't any good until the turf is mostly greened up (80% or so). Apply much earlier than that and you're just wasting your fertilizer (and money).

Good luck this year -- and I hope you don't get any of those March/April freezes or ice storms that can zap everyone's gardens every few yrs in TX!

[killerv]

I'd go ahead ahead and do it.

Gonna do mine right before the next rain. Everything is starting to wakeup early here. daffodils are going to town, phlox, etc. I swear its all 6 weeks to two months earlier than usual.

[PARTSPHIL]

What are the drawbacks to putting it down too early, if there are any? I was thinking about doing it this weekend. I am in central Texas.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

In San Antonio I did not consider myself out of the freezing temps until March 15. Now in Bandera, cooler at higher altitude and farther from the coast, we already have some plants in full bloom. So now would be the time to apply preem for us.

partsphil, the only drawback would be spending money when you don't need to. The problem is you can't really know what the exact date is to apply. If you miss it, then you'll get some weeds. You may get some weeds anyway. Personally I've never had a good experience with preem.

[ritholtz]

Is it time to prune rose plants and shrubs? Is it better to apply weedkiller before applying pre-m? What is the sequence for week killer, pre-m, scalping and applying fertilizer.

Thanks