Crabgrass Control in Los Angeles

9 years ago

I recently bought a house in Los Angeles and have been trying desperately to make the lawn more respectable. I'm about 2-3 miles from the beach so it's a very consistent 50-75 degree weather year round, with more sun than marine layer, no large trees so very little shades besides from the house/garage). I gave the lawn a good overhaul 2 years ago and it did improve. Scraped it, new seed (Bermuda Mix - Riviera, Yukon, La Prima XD) , and it got better. Over the next year, the kikuyu that was there returned as those roots must have been very strong and/or I didn't turn the soil enough times because it's back and in full force. At least I got rid of the other 8 types of grass the lawn did have so I've relinquished to the fact that I have a bermuda/kikuyu blend. I wouldn't call it a knock-out, but it's at least green and its in the shape of grass blades. :) I needed to put more seed down this year to fill in some light spots and to seed a large area where I re-graded for a fence, so I didn't do a pre-emergent this year. You guessed it, I now have crabgrass all over. I've been reading about how to kill crabgrass and it sounds like once it's emerged, I can do little to combat it besides pull what's the there, and I should wait until winter for it to die on its own and make sure to do pre-emergent the next spring. I won't really get a frost here, so will the crabgrass really die in LA? Is it too late to put down a pre-emergent? I did do one round of seeding about 4 weeks ago and have now mowed the lawn two weekends in a row. I think I'm cutting around 2". I still have about 3 pounds of Bermuda that I was going to put down again in my 900SF front yard in the summer when the heat will really help it germinate. (What else can I do with it?) Besides the unsightly giant crab grass blades that catch beautifully in the sun's rays :/, the lawn isn't nearly as bad as it was. How best can I fight the crab grass in Los Angeles where it sounds like the crabgrass will thrive all year long? (Lucky me).

Comments (3)

dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
Crabgrass is a summer annual plant in all climates as far as I know. Can you post a picture of the grass you're calling crabgrass. It probably is crabgrass but there are some who refer to other weeds as crabgrass.

One problem is that crabgrass thrives under the same conditions that bermuda thrives under - hot weather and mowed short. Then if you water more than once per week, you're guaranteed to get crabgrass. I used to live between Aviation and the 405 in Hawthorne. My lawn was miserable, but I didn't know what I know now about lawns. If I had it to do over again for that location I would put in either Kentucky bluegrass (fine blade) or St Augustine (coarse blade). Either of those should keep the crabgrass out of the lawn without any effort.

Here's a friend's house in Huntington Beach...

{{gwi:86786}}

That is KBG. He mows and waters once per week. Fertilizes with used coffee grounds whenever he remembers - about once per year. It never goes dormant that close to the beach.

The reason I mention alternatives to what you have is the fact that you have both crabgrass and kikuyu. Those are the most noxious weeds you can get and you have both. Furthermore you have common bermuda. There isn't anything I consider worth saving or even spending any money on. Bermuda is one of the hardest grasses to keep looking really nice. I know St Aug is really easy and I suspect KBG can be really easy in your area. So, are you really going to keep the bermuda? There's going to be a lot of dead bermuda if you really want to clean things up.

The hard part about bermuda is keeping it dense enough to fight off weeds. That requires mowing twice weekly at a low setting, watering once weekly, and fertilizing once monthly. If you can't do that then you face a life of weeds and herbicides. Other grasses get mowed much higher (helps fight off weeds), watered weekly (all grasses need water once per week), and fertilized at most 3x per year.
First_Lawn
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the response. Your friend's lawn looks beautiful. Ours, not nearly as nice. Unless we can just start throwing KBG seed in the lawn, unfortunately the bermuda/kikuyu is here to stay. If we have to go through scraping and overhauling again, the grass no matter the type, is going to stay out. My husbands been wanting to do a xeriscape in its place, but I was hoping to keep at least a little grass in the yard. Should I attempt a pre-emergent to stop anything else from popping up? I will try to take a pic in the morning, but I'm pretty positive it's crab. Low lying, huge blades, growing in shape of a crab.
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First_Lawn
Original Author
9 years ago
Here's a photo. Should I hit them with a bunch of herbicide? Just keep pulling until winter? I don't want to kill everything.

Thanks!