How To Get Rid Of Crabgrass & 40+ Other Weeds Without Killing The Grass

Today’s article has one goal… how to kill crabgrass in lawn plus most other commons weeds like clover, dandelion, chickweed and many more.

I’m going to help you learn how to control your weeds in a way you probably have never seen before.

You’re going to learn to do it like a pro, but I’m going to take you through step by step so that anyone can get this job done.

When I first started it felt like I would roll the dice when I would try to kill the weeds and usually I just killed the grass instead.

I’m going to go through and help you from doing the same mistakes I did… so read on.

This post is going to show you one product and one process that we professionals use and so are homeowners who know about how effective this stuff is.

I’m going to give you how to step by step follow through so you get the same results as a professional does.

This stuff works on the most majority of weeds:

  • Crabgrass (large & smooth)
  • Barnyardgrass
  • Carpetweed
  • Chickweed
  • Clover
  • Dandelion
  • Foxtail
  • Goosegrass
  • Henbit
  • Yellow Nutsedge
  • Purslane
  • Thistle
  • Wild Carrot, just to name a few.

These are the worst ones you’re ever going to get and there hard to get rid of.

In fact most of the time you can never get rid of them until NOW.

So what I needed was a product that was going to work.

Look I tried the stuff at Lowe’s.

I tried the products at Home Depot, but the trouble is.

these products they sell just aren’t designed to do real weed control.

The product I chose is called tenacity.

How To Kill Crabgrass In Lawn With Tenacity Herbicide

tenacity best priceTenacity herbicide is a professional product used on golf courses for years and it’s only recently become available for use on Residential Properties.

What makes tenacity different is it can kill nearly every weed you’ll have at home. In fact, it’s been used to treat over 40+ different weeds… and it does not kill the grass.

Tenacity is super concentrated and comes in an 8oz bottle and that tiny little bottle can treat about two acres.

So when you buy yours today, having a shelf of 5 years max… you can keep it for a long time and it comes with its very own syringe for easy mixing and measuring.

You see there is no needle, it’s only used to help you measure out the product when you’re mixing it up.

So enough talk. What I’m going to do now is show you how I mix the product how I applied the product and then show you the end result and I think you’ll be blown away. So let’s

take a look.

Professional products are going to work better, but they need a little bit more work themselves to use.

You’re not going to just be able to buy tenacity put it in a bottle and spray it.

Chill, don’t worry I’m going to tell you what to do and it’s not that hard but the results are worth it.

Tenacity herbicide is the product that’s going to kill the weeds but here’s the catch.

It cannot stick to the leaves properly by itself.

So to help it out we have to use another ingredient called surfactant.

Surfactant For Herbicide

Surfactant is like, think of it as a glue.

You have it mixed in your sprayer so that when you spray tenacity onto the plants, this surfactant will allow that chemical to stick to the leaves.

Once it sticks to the leaves, it’ll go ahead and kill the weed.

So this is the second part of the system and it is critical to not buy tenacity and just mix it up and spray.

Pretty much you are throwing money down the drain as most of the tenacity will just go right into the soil and you will not be able to kill your weeds.

So now that you’ve got your chemical and glue.

You need one more thing.

The only reason why you need this last ingredient is that both of the chemicals you are using are clear.

So when you put them in your sprayer and start spraying you won’t be able to tell where you have been.

This runs the risk of over spraying, wasting chemicals, and will give your grass a hard time to survive.

You’ll double, triple spray it and you’ll really make a mess.

So what you need is something to apply with both of these that can let you see where you’ve worked or sprayed and that’s easy.

All we use is a die or a color in the water.

Some people use cooking food dye but I like to use Turf Mark Blue Spray Indicator Dye

You will mix a small amount in with your solution.

And now that you’ve got these three mixed together you will:

  • Be able to see where you’ve sprayed with the dye. You can use soap flakes instead of dye.
  • Surfactant which acts as a glue to make the Tenacity stick to the pants.
  • Tenacity to kills the weeds.

How to make this mix for best results

You should always read the label that’s on the tin, but what I’m going to tell you is a mix that I use.

You still have to read what’s on the tin for what you’re spraying, but the purpose of this is to show you how I do it and how simple it is.

So to make this easy what I’m going to show you is the amount you’re going to mix up to make one gallon of Final Solution which will get you around 1,000 square feet of treatment.

You going to need a sprayer that holds more than 1 gallon. Looking for a new sprayer… make sure to check out our 2024 review on the best backpack sprayers

Step 1

So step one is the tenacity herbicide and the amount you will need for one gallon of the final solution is going to be 1/2 teaspoon of tenacity.

This stuff is very concentrated so that be all you’re going to need.

Add that into your sprayer using the syringe that is provided.

Step 2

The next thing you’re going to need is your glue and that’s the surfactant.

You’re going to be needing one and a half teaspoons. Add that to your sprayer and now the last step.

Step 3

And lastly are going to add the dye or color. This stuff you will want around one teaspoon. You can go more if you want it darker, personal choice so you can’t stuff it up.

You can use the syringe measuring all these ingredients it doesn’t matter if the cross-contaminate. It won’t do any harm.

Final Step

The final step is to add the water to the backpack sprayer.

Now you’ve added the three products.

You’ve topped it up with water to the 1-gallon mark.

Now all is left is just have to close up your sprayer and give it a shake to mix it up and you’re all ready to rock n roll.

There really isn’t a set technique here to spray, just make sure you get them all and with the color in the spray, you can see where you’ve been and where you gotta go.

If you use the blue color in your spray and you don’t like it, well bugger, cause you’re going to have to live with for a day or two.

But this is important because you can see where you have been and only putting a light spray of tenacity on is all you need.

You do not need any more than a light spray ok.

And in fact, if you keep retreating the same area, you will kill the grass as well as the weeds.

So just do a light spray and go over the weeds. You don’t have to worry about the grass because this is safe on Turf.

You can douse those weeds and the blue shows you Exactly where you’ve been.

Don’t expect those weeds to be dead in 24 hours, 36 hours and even more.

Tenacity takes about a week to work on the weeds and they are going to turn white and I don’t mean white like light gray-white.

I mean bright white like paper, like in the image below.

So for a little bit of time, they’re almost going to look worse.

But the reason you use tenacity is because it is going to kill those weeds within about 2 to 3 weeks depends on your temperature.

How to kill crabgrass in lawn wrap up.

As a commercial, tenacity works the best hands down. Admittedly there are a couple of extra steps needed but you get the best results.

Always wear your PPE, safety glasses, gloves and any other protective clothing when using and mixing chemicals and herbicides.

Did you know the best time to aerate and oversees is in or the start of fall… but here are some tips for you to aerate in the spring time.