Pre-Emergent vs. Post-Emergent Weed Control: What’s Best for Your Sarasota Flower Beds

Choices can be hard, like when you’re faced with choosing either a brownie or ice cream for dessert. Actually, this is an easy one — have both.

Now that’s settled, what about those weeds in your flower beds? What’s the best weed control for Sarasota? Pre-emergent? Post-emergent? Actually, you need both to keep weeds from taking over your flower beds. 

Have a brownie with ice cream and keep reading to learn more about Sarasota flower bed weed control, including:

• Pre-Emergent vs. Post-Emergent Weed Control: What’s the Difference?
• Why You Need Both Types to Battle Weeds
• Snapshot to the Rescue
• Getting Mulch? Weed Control First
• Why We Don’t Follow Directions
• See a Weed? Don’t Pull It
• Post-Emergent Weed Control in Sarasota

First, Pre-Emergent vs. Post-Emergent Weed Control: What’s the Difference? 

Your big clue here is the “pre” and the “post.” Pre-emergent weed control helps prevent weeds from sprouting in the first place. Post-emergent kills the stubborn weeds that sneer at pre-emergent and sprout anyway. (Weeds aren’t the best-behaved plants out there.) 

Pre-emergent weed control creates a barrier in the soil that prevents weed seeds from germinating and growing. Timing is important. The herbicide needs to be in the soil at the time of weed germination for it to be effective. 

Post-emergent herbicides work when applied directly to weeds that are already growing. The product is absorbed through the leaves and stems, then moves through the plant’s system, causing it to die.

Effective weed management in Sarasota involves a one-two punch of both methods.  

Why You Need Both Types to Battle Weeds

Here at Tropical Gardens, we use both pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control all year long. 

That’s right — weeds never take a break around here. 

Spurge will grow anywhere, from in your lawn to your flower beds to sprouting out of sidewalk cracks and along walkways.

It’s kind of pretty, with its oval blue-green leaves and tiny pale pink or green flowers, but don’t be fooled. 

Give it full sun and it can really take over, crowding out plants and greedily hogging their sunlight.

This common Florida weed has a super fast growth cycle, going from germination to flower and seed in 30 days, making it among the most challenging types of weeds in Florida. 

Sedge is no picnic, either. It’s tough to control. 

It looks like grass, but grows faster and taller, like an annoying weedy show off. 

Here at Tropical Gardens we use a selective herbicide called SedgeHammer specifically designed to kill sedge. (“Selective” weed control products kill lawn weeds without harming the grass or other plants around them.)

Unlike pre-emergent products that target weeds in the spring before they emerge, SedgeHammer can be used year round. 

And don’t get us started on torpedo grass. Oops, too late. 

Torpedo grass, despite its fun name, is not fun. It spreads via underground stems, called rhizomes, which have hard, sharp tips that allow them to spread through soil and even under landscape edging.

Even small pieces of the rhizomes can establish new plants, making it difficult to eliminate once it's introduced into your unsuspecting flower bed. 

What a terrible trio of weeds, right? 

Here’s how we attack your annoying flower bed weeds: 

Snapshot to the Rescue

Snapshot is a granular pre-emergent weed control product that works around the clock for months to prevent more than 125 different broadleaf weeds and annual grassy weeds from sprouting. (You don’t actually have 125 different weeds in your yard. Some days, it just seems that way.)

There are other pre-emergent products in liquid form but many leave an unsightly yellow stain behind. The only thing more frustrating than a bunch of weeds in your flower beds is an ugly yellow stain left behind. You don’t need that aggravation. 

Getting Mulch? Weed Control First 

We apply Snapshot granular pre-emergent weed control in Sarasota before we put down fresh mulch. Most customers get new mulch either in March or November. 

Why We Don’t Follow Directions 

We appreciate directions as much as the next guy. But in this case, we improve on the directions.

The pre-emergent directions say to apply it every 90 days. That’s fine if you live in a place where the weather is normal and weeds aren’t like insane super-villains intent on ruining your nice lawn. 

But here in Florida, it won’t last 90 days. Our frequent rain means weeds grow super fast around here and that same rain tends to wash the granular product away. 

So we apply pre-emergent weed control in Sarasota every 60 days. Better weed free than sorry. 

See a Weed? Don’t Pull It 

We get it — your gardener instinct tell you to yank that ugly sedge trying to take over your bed of pretty iris ‘Regina.’

Be strong and leave it there. Here’s why: 

That pre-emergent forms a chemical barrier in the ground so if a weed seed tries to push through it, it gets the chemical on it and dies. Sounds good, right? 

But once you hand pull a weed, you break the barrier. Then it has to be applied all over again. Our crews will deal with it next time they’re at your yard. 

Which brings us to…

Post-Emergent Weed Control in Sarasota 

Post-emergent weed control is designed to kill weeds once they’ve sprouted, showing their ugly, slimy, evil, disgusting selves. (Can you tell we don’t like weeds?)

Tropical Gardens weed warriors use a liquid post-emergent weed control and spray it every other week. We do half your yard one week and the other half the next. 

Our post emergent is non-selective so it kills whatever it touches, which means crews are careful to only spray the offending weeds. 

Best Weed Control for Sarasota? Talk to Us

How to get rid of pesky weeds in your pretty flower beds?  Put pros on the job who know exactly when to apply the crucial pre-emergent herbicides to keep some weeds away, and how to quickly target others when they pop up. 

Sadly, weed control in Sarasota isn’t a one-time thing. Plan to battle weeds year round.

Invest in pre- and post-emergent weed control services in Sarasota FL to keep your property weed-free throughout the year. 

Tropical Gardens provides tailored, full-service landscape maintenance services in Sarasota, FL and nearby communities that ensure your property gets the care it needs — including weed control — all year long. 

Hire Sarasota FL landscaping services who will make this easy, so you don’t have another hassle on that long to-do list. 

We can’t wait to get started. 

Give us a call or fill out our form today! Don’t let weeds get you down. Let our skilled, attentive crews handle it. Go have a brownie sundae.