Q. For whatever reason, you seem to dislike Dimension when it comes to stopping crabgrass. Can you tell us why!

A. By itself, Dimension is an excellent product when it comes to preventing crabgrass on sunny lawns. The problem is what the “secondary formulators” add to Dimension in the production process. This is what makes Dimension unacceptable for homeowners. Let us explain!

Let’s say “Company X” wants to add Dimension to its product line. The company contracts with Dow AgroSciences to buy Dimension in the liquid form. In the production plant of Company X, they spray Dimension on a granular “carrier” such as vermiculite, corn cobs or whatever. To increase the sales potential of their product, Company X invariably adds something else in the production process, generally a cheap fertilizer to help lawns green-up in a hurry. It’s this “cheap fertilizer” in the bag of Dimension that makes us turn our back on the product. Why?

Cheap fertilizers always contain salt, sodium chloride. Once fertilizer granules are applied to the lawn, you must irrigate the lawn every two or three days to provide moisture on the lawn so salt doesn’t siphon off water from grass roots, killing the grass in the process. If secondary formulators added something beneficial for the lawn in their bag of Dimension, we would recommend the product, but it’s never happened in all the years Dimension has been available for residential lawns.

Then we come to Scott’s Halts (pendimethalin). Halts stops the germination of crabgrass for about 90 days. If you don’t make a second application of Halts around the 80th day, you will be up to your neck in crabgrass soon after. No matter what the Halts’ label says, pendimethalin couldn’t hold a candle to Barricade or Dimension.