In order to maintain a healthy warm-season lawn like Bermuda, centipede, St. Augustine or zoysia, it is important to care for it year-round. Since many cool-season weeds grow actively in late February and March in eastern North Carolina, thoughts turn to them since they are visible in dormant lawns.

This time of year you also see or hear advertisements for weed-and feed-products. Control the weeds and fertilize the lawn at the same time. It sounds reasonable enough. You accomplish twice the work in half the time. These products may work OK for cool-season grasses but not for warm-season grasses. Warm-season grasses are still dormant and applying fertilizer with nitrogen now will be a waste of time and money and potentially harmful to the environment due to runoff. Sometimes using these products can cause early greening of warm-season grasses that may result in damage by freezing temperatures or diseases. Fertilization of most of these grasses doesn’t start until May.

Chickweed, dandelions, henbit, small hop clover, Carolina geranium and other winter broad-leaf weeds can be controlled in warm-season lawns before the lawns start to green up with commonly available broad-leaf herbicides. Most of the products easily available for homeowners to use this time of year contain three ingredients in varying amounts: 2,4-D, mecoprop and dicamba. Two applications two weeks apart may be needed for best control. Complete these applications before green-up starts.

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