See what type of herbicides lawn care professionals across the country choose for various turf types.

Lee Kral

Lawn Service Manager, Mountain High Tree & Lawn
Location: Lakewood, Colo.
Turf types: Kentucky bluegrass/ryegrass mix, fine fescue, creeping red fescue, tall fescue
Preemergent: Liquid
Postemergent: Liquid
Trade tip: “It’s far more about results than cost for me because it costs more money for me to send a truck back out and respray the weeds than to buy something that really works. So I’m much more interested in effectiveness than cost of the product.”

Luke Hawthorne

Owner, Emerald Lawns
Location: Round Rock, Texas
Turf types: St. Augustinegrass, Bermudagrass, zoysiagrass
Preemergent: Liquid and Granular
Postemergent: Liquid
Trade tip: “If someone is just starting out, I’d probably tell them to use granular. They can kind of learn along the way. If they make mistakes, it’s not necessarily going to be the end of the world for them. If they’re experienced, I’d say use liquid because it’s better coverage, more effective and less money.”

Bryan Kirchner

Lawn Care Manager, Linnemann Lawn Care & Landscaping
Location: Columbia, Ill.
Turf type: 95 percent fescue
Preemergent: Granular
Postemergent: Liquid
Trade tip: “We use Z-Spray machines, so we can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. Even though with liquids you’re not having to take the time to blow off sidewalks, granular is faster for us.”

Andrew Ziehler

President, Ziehler Lawn & Tree Care
Location: Centerville, Ohio
Turf types: Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue
Preemergent: Granular
Postemergent: Liquid
Trade tip: “During (the preemergent) time of the season, we’re still dealing with freezing conditions off and on. We don’t want to worry about liquids, sprayers, pumps and all that freezing over night. In the past, we’ve used liquid, and we had to keep the trucks inside and use heating elements to keep the pumps from freezing overnight. Or you have to blow out the lines every day, which becomes kind of a pain compared to granular application. It’s just for a few weeks in the early spring that you have that problem, but during that time, it’s a little easier to use granular.”

Michael Rogers

President, Kathleen’s Lawn & Ornamental Pest Control
Location: Augusta, Ga.
Turf types: Fescue, zoysiagrass, Bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass and centipedegrass
Preemergent: Liquid
Postemergent: Liquid
Trade tip: “Postemergent really makes a difference to me because when I spray that weed it goes to work then. If I had to use a granular, I’d have to wait for the homeowner or nature to water it before they get started.”

Ask the Expert

“One determining factor when choosing liquid vs. granular is grass types. In the cool-season grasses (Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, tall fescue), a lot of times people will choose granular because there will be a fertilizer component with the herbicides applied to the granular, so they’re putting on their fertilization at the same time. In the warm-season environment (Bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, St. Augustinegrass), you often make these early preemergent applications before the grass is greening up. It’s still dormant, so in that situation you don’t want to stimulate the grass to grow, you want it to come back to life on its own without stimulation. So you’ll generally use a liquid application without fertilization for the first early preemergence applications.” —Dan Loughner, field scientist, Dow AgroSciences