based on last year's disasters, I am looking at a major crabgrass infestation this year.

I'm in central Ontario. When would be the best time to put down
a) a pre emergent crabgrass product (although so far I've seen only weed and feed in the stores, nothing specifically for crabgrass

and
b) Corn gluten meal. I don't really think that CGM alone will be able to help me deal with this stuff but perhaps I could try a combination of the two, in order to use less chemicals?

When things warm up here, they warm up very quickly, and I don't want to miss the chance to address this problem.

Thanks
C.

Thanks for the tips.

S.

I didn't want to use herbicides, especially since I applied nematodes to deal with the grubs. So I waited until the crabgrass was of a size to handle easily and then got on my hands and feet and yanked it all out by the roots.
When I was done the entire section was pretty much all open soil, with very little grass surviving. I overseeded and the grass came in very nicely.

However, I had no illusions that there were a million seeds in there, which is what prompted my post.

This spring, then, I did use the pre-emergent and CGM. I wish they didn't feel that they have to add fertilizer to the preemergent but that's all I could find. I used CGM to further suppress germination but also to try to even out the areas that didn't get pre-emergent/fertilizer. I still ended up with some patches but that's sorted itself out by now.

So far, I've not seen any crabgrass in the lawn and the area that I've reseeded looks absolutely wonderful. In fact, it's come in so thick that I've had a bit of a chore trying to mow it with my reel mower. Time to sharpen those blades! :)