Question
Hi There.  First lawn, so many questions.  My St Augustine lawn was recently invaded by crabgrass and other weeds.  We decided to resod half of the yard (the worse side) and killed off most of the crabgrass/weeds with Round-up.  The other half we left alone (because it was better) and sodded over some of the crabgrass in parts of it.  Now the crabgrass is beginning to take over what was the better side and growing up over the new sod.  What should I use to control these weeds before they completely take over again?  Is it too hot to use Atrazine right now? I live in Ft Lauderdale. Thanks in advance for your help - Kelly

Answer
Definitely, it is too hot for atrazine. Crab grass is difficult to control once it has started growing. You can wait and hope for a winter hard enough to kill it but mild enough to spare our landscape. In any case I expect that it will turn brown as Christmas approaches. You can pull it then but seeds will remain. When spring returns, these seeds will want to germinate. You will foil them by applying a pre-emergent chemical beforehand. The problem here is that if you apply a pre-emergent early enough to take care of all seedlings, it might be gone when the crab grass seedlings appear later on. You might have to make two applications.