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Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart — pre-emergent herbicide product photograph on a plain background
Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart — pre-emergent herbicide (liquid concentrate)

Pre-Emergent Herbicide (liquid concentrate)

Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart Review

★★★★☆ 4/5

our editor rating how we score

3.9/5 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.

Our Verdict

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.

✅ Pros

  • Label covers sandbur, which most homeowner pre-emergents do not name
  • Liquid concentrate, so it goes through a sprayer rather than needing a spreader
  • Pendimethalin is a different dinitroaniline from prodiamine, useful for rotation
  • Around $41 for a quart

⚠️ Cons

  • Stains concrete, pavers and footwear bright yellow-orange — keep it off hardscape
  • Purdue's seeding restriction is stricter than prodiamine's: turf filled in and at least four mowings
  • 3.9 across 139 ratings — modest for a category with better-reviewed options
  • Pre-emergent only; no effect on anything already up

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

Where our facts come from

Label read on the registrant's own PDF

EPA Reg. No. 70506-230-98985

Read the label yourself →

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.

What we found when we read it

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.

Where This Product Matters

Matched against each state's actual disease, weed and pest pressure.

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Late February on the coast to mid-March in north Alabama — the earliest pre-emergent window of any state we cover

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) in compacted, wet ground

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua) in winter rye

Application window: Mid-February for summer weeds, and again late September for winter weeds germinating in the overseed

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Early March in the south to early April in the Ozarks at soil 55°F

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Mid-January (Los Angeles/San Diego) to late February (Sacramento/Bay Area) — before the last winter rains water it in for free

Crabgrass

Application window: Late April to early May as soil reaches 55°F

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

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

Crabgrass

Application window: Early February (Orlando/Tampa) to early March (Panhandle); South FL applies year-round for tropical weeds

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

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

GoosegrassCrabgrass

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

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) in irrigated, closely mown turfCrabgrass in the warmer southern valleys

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

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

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Mid-April to early May at soil 55°F — a narrow, late window compared with the states south of here

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

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

Annual bluegrass

Application window: Late February to mid-March, before soil warms past 55°F — the earliest window of any state we cover

Crabgrass (southern and coastal Maine more than the interior)

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

Crabgrass

Application window: Mid-March on the Eastern Shore to mid-April in the mountains — forsythia bloom is the traditional Maryland signal (soil 55°F)

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Mid-April on the coast to early May in the Berkshires at soil 55°F — forsythia is the working signal here

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass

Application window: Late April (Metro Detroit/South) to mid-May (Up North), as soil reaches 55°F

Crabgrass

Application window: Mid-May, as soil warms — the season opens later here than anywhere else we cover

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Late February on the coast to mid-March in the north

Crabgrass

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

Crabgrass and foxtail in the warmer valleys and in thin ground

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

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: February in Las Vegas to April in the northern high desert

Crabgrass (heaviest in the south, thinning northward)

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

Crabgrass

Application window: Mid-April in the south to early May in the northwest, as soil reaches 55°F

Crabgrass in irrigated turfAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua) in over-irrigated cool-season turf

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

Crabgrass

Application window: Mid-April (Long Island/NYC) extending into early May (Buffalo/Upstate), as soil reaches 55°F

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Early to mid-March in the Piedmont, when soil temps approach 55°F — earlier along the coast

Crabgrass, real but a smaller problem than further south

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

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassSandbur (the western sandy-soil weed that standard crabgrass preventers do not list)Annual bluegrass (Poa annua)

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

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua)Crabgrass (east side and hot summers only)

Application window: Late February to March west of the Cascades — the earliest cool-season window anywhere, because the valley barely stops growing

Crabgrass

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

Crabgrass

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

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass

Application window: Early March on the coast to late March in the Upstate, before soil warms past 55°F

Crabgrass and foxtail in thin or disturbed ground

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

Dallisgrass (a perennial the quinclorac that clears crabgrass will not touch)CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Early March in Memphis to late March in Knoxville — soil 55°F sweeps west to east

CrabgrassGrassbur (sandbur)

Application window: Mid-February (Houston/San Antonio) to mid-March (Dallas/Panhandle), soil temps 55°F for crabgrass

CrabgrassAnnual bluegrass (Poa annua)

Application window: Late March to mid-April along the Wasatch Front at soil 55°F

Crabgrass (a valley problem more than a hill-town one)

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

Crabgrass

Application window: Early March (Hampton Roads/Tidewater) to late March/early April (Northern VA/Richmond), as soil reaches 55°F

Annual bluegrass

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

Crabgrass

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

Crabgrass

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

Common Questions

How much does Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart cost?

Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart typically runs $38–$45, covering 1 quart liquid concentrate; rate per label.

What does Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart treat?

Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart targets sandbur, crabgrass, goosegrass, annual bluegrass.

What is the active ingredient in Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart?

Pendimethalin 38.7% (microencapsulated), registered under EPA Reg. No. 70506-230-98985.

What is the biggest downside of Ike's Sandbur & Crabgrass Preventer, 1 Quart?

Stains concrete, pavers and footwear bright yellow-orange — keep it off hardscape

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