The Grass Doctor

What should I do first, fertilize the lawn or re-seed some areas?

Have some patchy areas on my lawn that need reseeding, but also need to fertilize with crabgrass preventer. How warm does it need to be to do either? I got a fertilizer that has a crabgrass inhibitor in in.

Public Comments

1. Crabgrass preventer will keep the grass seeds from germinating. Also, January is usually when that is applied unless you are in the far north, then is can be a little later. Also, crabgrass preventer is not a fertilizer.
2. Apply your fertilizer first if it includes a crabgrass preventer. This product inhibits germination of seeds which includes your regular grass seed. Crabgrass will germinate when the soil temperature is above 60F for about a week. Wait and see if the grass fills in the bare spots and if not, then seed several weeks after applying the fertilizer product. For future reference, the ideal time to re-seed is in the early fall (when kids go back to school) since that's when grass is doing most root development (until it goes dormant in early winter).
3. crabgrass inhibitor will stop the grass seed from germinating, but you want to kill the crab grass so I would do the fertilizer now and then read the fertilizer bag to see when it says you can reseed....it should say it on the bag good luck smile