“There’s no mixing required and a lot of people use Snapshot when they’re putting their mulch out. “The advantage of a granule is that it’s ready to use,” Breuninger said. Smaller landscaping companies that don’t have spraying equipment and are only treating a few homeowners’ beds can opt for the granular version known as Snapshot (trifluralin and isoxaben).

That’s a really strong benefit because you don’t know what a homeowner is going to have in their beds.” It’s over 500 plants listed it can be used around. Team can be used to control crabgrass, barnyard grass and spurge, to name a few, in both established cool-season and warm-season grasses.įor those looking for long-lasting broadleaf weed control that can be used in ornamental beds, Breuninger suggests using Gallery (isoxaben), which can be sprayed.Īnd Loughner adds: “Gallery also has the widest label for safety to ornamental plants. It can be applied along with fertilizer, but it does not have the post-emergent properties of Dimension. The company’s Team herbicide (benefin and trifluralin) comes only in granular form. “You know, you get some early germination along the driveways, along sidewalks, and those areas are always prone to have more crabgrass, so that’s an advantage of having a product like Dimension,” said Jamie Breuninger, technical leader for Dow AgroSciences Turf & Ornamental. While it was originally designed to take out crabgrass, which is still Dimension’s major market, it’s also effective against 45 other broadleaf and grassy weeds. “If they miss that opportunity or if they get a real warm spring and the crabgrass starts to germinate, Dimension gives them the opportunity to continue to make applications in the middle of May, late May, when the crabgrass is just germinating up to about what we call tiller stage – about five leaves on the crabgrass plant – and it will control it,” Loughner said.ĭimension comes in both liquid and granular form. Dow AgroSciences productsĭow AgroSciences has five different pre-emergent products that landscapers can choose from depending on their needs.įor landscapers looking for flexibility in both application method and when they can apply, Dimension (dithiophyr) boasts of post-emergence control as well as typical pre-emergent properties. In the end, it comes down to personal preference, but here’s a look at some of the well-known labels out there and what the experts have to say about them. So, now that you know when, how do you decide what product to use and in what form to apply it?

Crabgrass is the most common weed targeted and it tends to germinate when the soil temperature has been above 50 degrees for several days. The general rule of thumb about when to spray or spread a pre-emergent is to apply the chemical two or three weeks prior to the emergence of the targeted weed. “It stops the roots from growing essentially.”īecause pre-emergent herbicides aren’t killing the weeds but simply shutting down cell division so they can no longer grow, there is a limited window of time to apply these chemicals so they can take effect before the weed germinates. “Basically what they do is inhibit root growth, so the roots cannot expand once they come in contact with the herbicide,” said Dan Loughner, a field scientist for Dow AgroSciences Turf and Ornamental. This is where pre-emergent herbicides come into play. No one wants weeds in their yard, and the best way to go about eliminating them is to prevent them from growing in the first place. For lush, weed-free lawns like this, landscapers have to be proactive and apply pre-emergent herbicides.īeing proactive is always preferred over responding after a problem appears, and this is why applying pre-emergent herbicides is such an important feature of any lawn-care provider’s business.

Spectacle herbicide