Weed N Feed

I went out and purchased some Scott's 'Weed 'N' Feed' fertilizer for my lawn, which is supposed to prevent weeds before they germinate. Reading the bag closer, I see that I'm supposed to use this stuff to prevent weeds, but use a different formula to prevent crab grass. That seems like an awful lot of fertilizing going on. Will this stuff fail to prevent crab grass? If so, is there anything out there that does double duty, so I'm not dumping mounds of fertilizer on my lawn this Spring?

You can buy a pre-emergance crabcrass product, without any fertilizer, in many different brand names. I think the Scotts brand is called 'Halts'. You will pay a lot more for the Scotts name. Many other brands use the same active ingredient, but the chemical name slips my mind right this minute.

Balan, Tupersan, among many others

I would actually suggest that you stay away from the weed-and-feed products and get separate bags of pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer. The reason for this is that timing the application of weed-and-feed products is critical. To early, and the fertilizer won't do a thing for your lawn. To late, the pre-emergent will not be effective and you have just fertilized the very weeds you wanted to get rid of.

Scoots Plus 2 weed n feed is not a pre-emergent for crab grass. Crab grass is an annual which dies each year leaving beyond it's seeds to germinate the next year. If you had crab grass last year then you need a pre-emergent crab grass preventer (Scotts Halts) before germination, if you going to plant grass seed this spring this product is not selective and will prevent any seed, including grass seed from germinating for about 8 weeks. If your problem last year was weeds (dandelions etc) then use the plus 2 product in late spring/ early summer when the weeds are actively growing ... not before ... follow the package direction for proper application. Good Luck, Tom

Thanks to all for the feedback.

I was pleased to find an organic pre-emergent made by Concern that is basically corn gluten. It reportedly works well to inhibit seeds from growing, but is also safe enough for the kids and pets to go trampling over the lawn immediately after application.

I do wonder, though, how long I will have to wait before I can seed some bare spots in the lawn. Perhaps 8 weeks to be safe?

I've hear you have to wait out the whole season to plant after using the corn gluten.

Corn gluten effects last only 5-6 weeks, with no carryover. You can plant after that time interval.