
Product Reviews
Best Weed Killer for Lawns: Match It to the Weed
There is no best weed killer for lawns, only the right one for your weed: the seven chemistries that matter, what each kills, and the one that kills grass too.

Selective Post-Emergent Herbicide (contact-acting, broadleaf and sedge)
★★★★☆ 4/5
our editor rating how we score4.1/5 from 37 shoppers at Amazon — their number, not ours.
$76–$90
Typical price · 1 gallon concentrate — professional volume
Affiliate links — see our disclosure. Commissions never influence verdicts.
One of very few actives that covers yellow nutsedge and broadleaf weeds together — and it works by contact, which decides how you must use it.
Bentazon occupies an unusual position: it is active on yellow nutsedge and on a broadleaf list, which almost no other single homeowner-accessible product does, and it is tolerated by a wide range of turf species. The catch is the mode of action. Bentazon is contact-acting rather than strongly translocated, which has three consequences you cannot design around. Coverage must be thorough, because untouched tissue is untreated tissue. It works on young, actively growing sedge and disappoints on a mature stand. And because it does not move well into nutsedge tubers, it suppresses rather than eradicates — for an established nutsedge problem halosulfuron is the better tool, and bentazon is the choice when you also have broadleaves to deal with in the same pass. A surfactant is required by the label for acceptable results. Practical reservations: a gallon at around $82 is professional volume for a homeowner, and 37 ratings is a thin evidence base compared with the sedge and broadleaf products beside it.
Product type
Selective Post-Emergent Herbicide (contact-acting, broadleaf and sedge)
Active ingredient
Sodium salt of bentazon 44% (equivalent to 4 lb bentazon per gallon)
Price range
$76–$90
Coverage
1 gallon concentrate — professional volume
Best for
A lawn with young yellow nutsedge and broadleaf weeds together, where one thorough pass can address both
our editor rating
4 out of 5
Label read on EPA's label database
EPA Reg. No. 7969-326
We opened this product's accepted label on EPA's own Pesticide Product Label System — the strongest source available for what a product is registered to do.
Full label read 2026-08-02 on EPA PPLS (accepted 2024-09-11). 'Basagran T&O Herbicide', EPA Reg. 7969-326, sodium salt of bentazon 44%, stated on the label as equivalent to 4 pounds per gallon bentazon. Noted as a MASTER LABEL, which means a specific retail jug may print a narrower site or weed list than the registration allows — check the booklet on the container against any rate here.
Where this page and the container disagree, the container wins — the label is the legal authority on rates and restrictions. How to read one yourself.
Matched against each state's actual disease, weed and pest pressure.
Application window: April–May and September, and check every label against centipede before it leaves the shelf
Application window: June through July, inside the same short window everything else happens in. There is no autumn second chance
Application window: May–June and September; high-altitude sun makes stressed turf easy to injure, so spot-treat rather than blanket-spray
Application window: Broadleaf sprays in May–June and again in September, when the weeds are moving sugars to the roots; skip July and August, when a stressed cool-season lawn takes the injury and the weed does not
Application window: April to late May, then September into October. Skip July and August entirely: this is the transition zone, and a stressed tall fescue lawn takes the injury the weed shrugs off
Application window: Late April into June, then September into October; skip the July and early August heat, which is also when UI's own fertilizer schedule goes quiet
Application window: October is the most effective month for broadleaf weeds; never apply above 80°F or to drought-stressed turf
Application window: October, and October is most of it — but check the wind and the date against what is happening in the fields, because early-summer growth-regulator drift is a real seasonal risk here and your own spray carries the same way
Application window: April into May and again in September–October; avoid July and August, when a tall fescue lawn here is already at its limit
Application window: March–May and October–November; avoid applications above 85°F and never on drought-stressed St. Augustine
Application window: June, then a narrow late-August to mid-September window. Maine's usable autumn is the shortest in New England
Application window: April–May and September–October; autumn is the knockout window for the ground ivy and violet the Piedmont is full of
Application window: A narrow autumn is the real window here: late September into October, after the summer heat and before New England's early frost closes the season
Application window: May–June and September; autumn is the stronger window for perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: April–May and September, avoiding the midsummer heat restrictions on most labels
Application window: April–May and September–October; skip summer sprays on drought-stressed fescue
Application window: June, then late August into September. In a sub-100-day valley there is no third chance
Application window: Late spring and again from late August through September, when perennial broadleaf weeds are moving reserves to the root
Application window: Late May into June, then late August through September. The autumn window closes earlier here than anywhere else in southern New England
Application window: May and September–October; autumn is the knockout window for perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: May and September–October; autumn is the knockout window for perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: April–May and September–October; avoid spraying heat-stressed fescue in July–August
Application window: Early to mid-June, then late August into early September. There is no third opportunity
Application window: May–June and September; fall applications hit dandelion taproots hardest
Application window: May and September — fall is the knockout window for perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: Broadleaf work in May–June and again in September; the September pass is the one that holds, because the weed is moving reserves down
Application window: April–May and September–October, and never above 90°F — centipedegrass is sensitive to 2,4-D both at spring green-up and in summer heat
Application window: Early to mid-June, then late August into September, which is the pass that actually holds on perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: April–May and September–October; skip sprays on drought-stressed summer fescue
Application window: April–early June and September–October; avoid herbicides above 90°F
Application window: Late May through June, then a short late-August to mid-September window. Vermont's autumn window is the narrowest in New England
Application window: April–May and September–October; skip sprays on heat-stressed fescue in July and August
Application window: April–May and September–October; WSU caps applications at 80°F, stricter than the 85–90°F ceilings used elsewhere
Application window: April into May and again in September–October. Skip July and August: this is transition-zone country and a heat-stressed tall fescue lawn absorbs the injury the weed does not
Application window: Early to mid-fall is the favourable window for dandelion and other perennial broadleaf weeds
Application window: June, then late August into September. UW's own framing is useful: a slow-release application covers a 90 to 100 day growing season, which is roughly the entire Wyoming season
Common questions
BASF Basagran T/O Herbicide, 1 Gallon typically runs $76–$90, covering 1 gallon concentrate — professional volume.
BASF Basagran T/O Herbicide, 1 Gallon targets yellow nutsedge, clover, chickweed, ragweed.
Sodium salt of bentazon 44% (equivalent to 4 lb bentazon per gallon), registered under EPA Reg. No. 7969-326.
Contact-acting — thorough coverage is mandatory and missed tissue is untreated
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Product Reviews
There is no best weed killer for lawns, only the right one for your weed: the seven chemistries that matter, what each kills, and the one that kills grass too.

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