
Weed Control
Best Pre-Emergent: Purdue Says the Active Barely Matters
Purdue's finding is awkward for the aisle: prodiamine, pendimethalin and dithiopyr give equivalent control at the correct rate. The split decides it, not the brand.

Pre-Emergent Herbicide (liquid concentrate)
★★★★☆ 4/5
our editor rating how we score3.9/5 from 139 shoppers at Amazon — their number, not ours.
$38–$45
Typical price · 1 quart liquid concentrate; rate per label
Affiliate links — see our disclosure. Commissions never influence verdicts.
Pendimethalin rather than prodiamine, and the label names sandbur — a weed most crabgrass preventers do not mention at all.
Worth knowing for one specific reason: sandbur. Most homeowner pre-emergents are prodiamine or dithiopyr and their labels talk about crabgrass; sandbur is a sandy-soil problem across the South and lower Midwest that gets ignored, and it is genuinely painful to walk on. Pendimethalin is a dinitroaniline like prodiamine, so the mechanism and the timing logic are the same — it must be down before germination, which per Michigan State means applying when soil at the 0 to 2 inch depth consistently reaches 50 to 55°F. Two practical warnings. Pendimethalin is bright yellow-orange and stains concrete, pavers and shoes; keep it off hardscape and rinse anything it touches immediately. And Purdue's seeding table is stricter on pendimethalin than on most: applications after the turf has filled in and at least four mowings, which means it forecloses overseeding for longer than a prodiamine product does. The 3.9 rating across 139 ratings is modest for the category, so buy it for the sandbur claim rather than as a general crabgrass preventer where better-rated options exist.
Product type
Pre-Emergent Herbicide (liquid concentrate)
Active ingredient
Pendimethalin 38.7% (microencapsulated)
Price range
$38–$45
Coverage
1 quart liquid concentrate; rate per label
Best for
Sandbur prevention on sandy Southern and lower-Midwest lawns, where standard crabgrass preventers do not list it
our editor rating
4 out of 5
Label read on the registrant's own PDF
EPA Reg. No. 70506-230-98985
We read the printed label published by the company that holds the registration. EPA hosts no PDF for this one, so this is the best available text.
Label read 2026-08-05 from Ike's own published PDF. EPA Reg. No. 70506-230-98985 — three parts, so it is a distributor version of 70506-230 and may omit uses the base label carries. Pendimethalin 38.7%, other ingredients 61.3%, and one gallon contains 3.8 lb of MICROENCAPSULATED pendimethalin in an aqueous carrier — the encapsulated formulation is why this one does not stain like older pendimethalin products. Signal word CAUTION, not a restricted-use pesticide, and no state restriction appears anywhere on the label. Turf sites are broad and cover both families: Kentucky bluegrass, fine and tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, bentgrass and established Poa annua (non-greens and tees) on the cool-season side; bahiagrass, bermudagrass, buffalograss, centipedegrass, seashore paspalum, St. Augustinegrass and zoysiagrass on the warm-season side. The rate detail worth knowing is that the label caps RESIDENTIAL turf lower than commercial: 1.1 to 1.6 fl oz per 1,000 sq ft at home, against 1.1 to 2.3 fl oz for golf, commercial and other non-residential turf. Named weeds include sandbur, crabgrass, goosegrass, Poa annua, foxtail, barnyardgrass, fall panicum, oxalis, prostrate spurge, purslane, knotweed, henbit, chickweed and lawn burweed.
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: Late February on the coast to mid-March in north Alabama — the earliest pre-emergent window of any state we cover
Application window: Largely beside the point: crabgrass and the summer annuals that drive pre-emergent programmes in the lower 48 are not the problem here, and a pre-emergent applied on a mainland schedule is money spent on an absent weed
Application window: Mid-February for summer weeds, and again late September for winter weeds germinating in the overseed
Application window: Early March in the south to early April in the Ozarks at soil 55°F
Application window: Mid-January (Los Angeles/San Diego) to late February (Sacramento/Bay Area) — before the last winter rains water it in for free
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — mid-April along the shoreline, into early May in the hills; forsythia dropping its blooms is the local cue
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — typically mid-March in Sussex and late March to early April in New Castle County, with a second application six to nine weeks later because one pass does not cover a Delaware season
Application window: Early February (Orlando/Tampa) to early March (Panhandle); South FL applies year-round for tropical weeds
Application window: Mid-February (Savannah/South GA) to early March (Metro Atlanta), with a second application about eight weeks later — the state is long enough north to south that one date cannot serve it
Application window: There is no single spring flush to time against — warm-season weeds germinate through much of the year, so pre-emergent here is a repeated programme on label intervals rather than a February or March decision
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — usually April in the Treasure Valley, May in the north and at elevation. Cool-season turf here grows fastest when soil sits at 55 to 65°F, which is the same signal
Application window: Late March at the Ohio River confluence to late April in Chicagoland — the widest single-state spread in the Midwest, and the reason calendar-based advice fails here
Application window: April, on soil temperature — and Purdue's note is that any nitrogen in a pre-emergent product should be slow-release, capped at 0.75 lb per 1,000 sq ft
Application window: Mid-April to early May at soil 55°F — a narrow, late window compared with the states south of here
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — typically late March to mid-April moving northwest, with a second application six to eight weeks later in the wetter east
Application window: Mid-March in the Jackson Purchase to early April in the mountains at soil 55°F — and over Inner Bluegrass karst the barrier is worth splitting into two applications, because the ground drains faster than the label assumes
Application window: Late February to mid-March, before soil warms past 55°F — the earliest window of any state we cover
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — mid to late May on the southern coast, June inland; north of Bangor crabgrass pressure is often low enough that the honest answer is to skip it
Application window: Mid-March on the Eastern Shore to mid-April in the mountains — forsythia bloom is the traditional Maryland signal (soil 55°F)
Application window: Mid-April on the coast to early May in the Berkshires at soil 55°F — forsythia is the working signal here
Application window: Late April (Metro Detroit/South) to mid-May (Up North), as soil reaches 55°F
Application window: Mid-May, as soil warms — the season opens later here than anywhere else we cover
Application window: Late February on the coast to mid-March in the north
Application window: Late March in the Bootheel to mid-April along the Iowa line — soil 55°F moves south to north across about three weeks
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches, which is generally May and can be late May at elevation — and crabgrass pressure in much of Montana is low enough that this is a decision rather than a default
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — usually late April in the south-east, into mid-May in the north and west
Application window: February in Las Vegas to April in the northern high desert
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — late April to early May on the Seacoast, and up to three weeks later in the north; crabgrass pressure itself falls off with elevation
Application window: Mid-April in the south to early May in the northwest, as soil reaches 55°F
Application window: Crabgrass and summer annual pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — February to early March in the southern valleys, April to May in the north. The state spans two months on this decision
Application window: Mid-April (Long Island/NYC) extending into early May (Buffalo/Upstate), as soil reaches 55°F
Application window: Early to mid-March in the Piedmont, when soil temps approach 55°F — earlier along the coast
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches, usually mid to late May — and crabgrass pressure here is genuinely lower than in the states to the south, so this is a decision rather than a routine
Application window: Late March along the Ohio River to late April in the Lake Erie snow belt at soil 55°F — a month of spread across one state
Application window: Early March in the south to early April in the panhandle at soil 55°F; on western sand, split the rate rather than trusting one pass to hold
Application window: Late February to March west of the Cascades — the earliest cool-season window anywhere, because the valley barely stops growing
Application window: Mid-April around Philadelphia to early May on the northern plateau at soil 55°F — three weeks of spread across fifty miles where the ridges rise, which is why a neighbour's timing is not yours
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent once soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — usually the second half of April on the bay and coastal towns, into early May inland
Application window: Early March on the coast to late March in the Upstate, before soil warms past 55°F
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches, generally mid-May — and pressure is lower here than in the corn-belt states, so it is a judgement rather than an annual purchase
Application window: Early March in Memphis to late March in Knoxville — soil 55°F sweeps west to east
Application window: Mid-February (Houston/San Antonio) to mid-March (Dallas/Panhandle), soil temps 55°F for crabgrass
Application window: Late March to mid-April along the Wasatch Front at soil 55°F
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — usually mid-May in the Champlain Valley and later in the hills; in the coldest towns crabgrass pressure is low enough that the question is whether to bother
Application window: Early March (Hampton Roads/Tidewater) to late March/early April (Northern VA/Richmond), as soil reaches 55°F
Application window: Mid-April to early May as soil reaches 55°F; crabgrass pressure is low west of the Cascades, where annual bluegrass and moss matter more
Application window: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — typically late March to early April in the valleys, into late April at elevation, with a second application six to nine weeks later
Application window: Late April to mid-May, as soil temperatures reach near 60°F for several consecutive days — forsythia bloom is the usual reminder
Common questions
Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart typically runs $38–$45, covering 1 quart liquid concentrate; rate per label.
Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart targets sandbur, crabgrass, goosegrass, annual bluegrass.
Pendimethalin 38.7% (microencapsulated), registered under EPA Reg. No. 70506-230-98985.
Stains concrete, pavers and footwear bright yellow-orange — keep it off hardscape
Real feedback
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55°F is when you spray, not when crabgrass germinates. Purdue puts germination at 57–64°F and the flood at 73°F. Confusing the two is why people are late.

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