In the US there are a number of different products designed for residential home-owners to prevent weeds from sprouting in the Spring and taking over your yard in the summer. The most common types of products that prevent weeds from germinating are collectively called weed pre-emergents and the best pre-emergents for lawns tend to be the cheapest ones. The trick however is getting them applied to your lawn at the right time of year.
Before I cover the best options available to homeowners let’s first list all of the options and then narrow it down a bit.
To stop most grassy weeds from overwhelming your grass you should apply one of the following active ingredients which are used in various brands of pre-emergent weed preventers.
- Prodiamine
- Pendamethalin
- Dithiopyr
- DCPA
- Mesotrione
- Corn Gluten Meal
Here’s a video where I present my typical weed prevention strategy. This will apply to most people living in most locations growing the most common grass types.
Now with that out of the way let’s start diving into the most common questions I get about weed pre-emergent products.
Which Pre-Emergent Will Prevent Weeds Best or Longest?
Generally speaking Prodiamine will prevent most residential weeds for a reasonable cost. It can easily be found in granular form which makes it easier for most people to apply it to a lawn space. It is very effective in both cold and warm season geographies and on commonly found cold and warm season grass types.
Below are the best pre-emergent products available for the prevention of grassy and broadleaf weeds. Many of these products are applied in the early Spring to prevent weeds from becoming a problem by summer while others are applied at the end of summer to prevent the germination of fall weeds that typically become a problem near the end of winter.
First I’ll list the most common products used in lawns across America and then I’ll list the best pre-emergent options for different grass types as well as for different usage situations.
The Most Common Pre-Emergents Applied To Lawns
The vast majority of pre-emergent weed preventers purchased by home-owners use one of 3-4 different active ingredients: Pendimethalin, Dithiopyr, Prodiamine, and Mesotrione. Below I’ve listed my personal recommendations for each of these products:
1. Pendimethalin
Info Coming Soon
2. Dithiopyr
Info Coming Soon
3. Prodimaine
This is a liquid prodiamine that is a generic version of the popular Barricade herbicide. It is sold on Yard Mastery’s marketplace and is notably cheaper than buying the name brand stuff on Amazon. You can price it out and buy in through this link: https://shrsl.com/2d3a3
Alternatively you can get a granular Prodiamine packaged with 7% potassium fertilizer for bit of weed suppression and a boost in turf health with Yard Mastery’s 0-0-7 Prodiamine .38%. You can pick that up through this link: LINKLINKLINK
4. Mesotrione
This is a generic version of Tenacity which is typically used for weed suppression during and after seeding. It can also work as a mild post-emergent killing weeds by interfering with their photosynthesis process.
You can price it out and buy in through this Yard Mastery link: https://shrsl.com/2d39b
There are other products however that may be better suited to you and your grass type or for your particular situation so let’s go into that in this next section.
