I'd bet it came when you tilled. I've made that mistake, too.

If you have areas of solid crabgrass, then you'll probably want to rake the dead crabgrass away to make for better soil contact for whatever seed you're going to use to reseed the area. (Fall overseeding time approachethâ¦)

Be sure to time your herbicide applications to leave enough time for your fall seeding. Check the label for how long you need to wait 'til seeding.

New sod needs to be watered 3x per day for several weeks. Crabgrass seed LOVES that spring watering regimen. You'll get crabgrass every time that happens. Now that your grass is in and maturing, you should be watering no more than once a week. But now that the temps are cooling off, you should be watering once every 10 days to 2 weeks. As it cools off more you will eventually get to watering once a month with temps below 70. Each time you water you should apply a full inch as measured by how long it takes to fill several cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard.

Spraying RoundUp on bare soil is a waste of time, effort, and money.

Yes, now is likely the time to overseed.

For future reference, if you were going to have a box blade run over the grass anyway, then you did not need to scalp or till. In fact you never need to till in preparation for grass. Yes, I know both Scotts and Pennington recommend it but they're dead wrong. If you till then you will eventually be disappointed and buy more products from them to correct it. But you will not associate the problems months later to be caused by tilling.

So if you get your turf dense this fall (now??), and you get your watering correct, then using pre em in the spring should be overkill. You can use it if it makes you feel better, but usually you would not need it. I have not used pre em for years (and years). Sometimes Mother Nature will give you daily rains just at the wrong time for crabgrass, so keep an eye on that.

Thanks guys. Based on some other threads I've read here, I had no plans to "overseed or reseed". As the bermuda goes dormant for winter, I don't want scattered patches of green. I'm hoping the bermuda will continue to fill in the areas where the CG dies off for another month or so.

Dchall, I've cut back the watering to an inch a week unless Mother Nature adds some additional after I've watered. I guess you're saying since the CG dies off and it's an annual, it shouldn't come back if the turf is dense and watering is 1" per week. Therefore, no pre emergence should be needed? I think I'll do it this first year to try to prevent as much as I can from popping up in any less dense spots. I'm mowing 2x a week at about 1.25-1.5". Plan to follow TW's bible this spring and scalp and mow next year at about 1". I've noticed a lot of thickening in most of the yard and even in the areas where I've killed off CG. Still have a few problem areas and then scattered infestations.

Thanks guys. Based on some other threads I've read here, I had no plans to "overseed or reseed". As the bermuda goes dormant for winter, I don't want scattered patches of green. I'm hoping the bermuda will continue to fill in the areas where the CG dies off for another month or so.

Dchall, I've cut back the watering to an inch a week unless Mother Nature adds some additional after I've watered. I guess you're saying since the CG dies off and it's an annual, it shouldn't come back if the turf is dense and watering is 1" per week. Therefore, no pre emergence should be needed? I think I'll do it this first year to try to prevent as much as I can from popping up in any less dense spots. I'm mowing 2x a week at about 1.25-1.5". Plan to follow TW's bible this spring and scalp and mow next year at about 1". I've noticed a lot of thickening in most of the yard and even in the areas where I've killed off CG. Still have a few problem areas and then scattered infestations.

Your lawn will not be dense enough by early spring to fight off crabgrass, should Mother Nature be a problem. Also, the 1 inch per week is only for the hottest part of summer. In early spring it will be more like once per month. Then once every 3 weeks. Then once every 2 weeks. Watering once per week could be enough to keep the soil moist enough for crabgrass.