Hey Missoula, Now is the Perfect Time To Deal With Your Dandelions

It’s getting cold and although fall isn’t a boom time for most plants, it may be the best time to deal with many western Montana weeds. Sandy Perrin from the Missoula Weed Extension Plant Clinic offers some yard advice.

"If you're looking at your lawns, you do probably want to give them one last mowing, maybe not real short, but a little bit shorter if we have a snowy winter that would help prevent disease like snow mold. A late application of fertilizer, a little closer to Halloween, is always good to get your lawn prepared for next season."

Dandelions can be pernicious in Spring, but now is one of the best times to try to rid them from your yard.

"At this point, their growth is going downward, and their putting energy back into their roots," Perrin said. "It is really good for herbicides, because it goes down as the plants are actively taking in minerals and water, so that flow of herbicide goes into the plant and the roots very well."

Perrin has one important warning for those spraying their noxious weeds: make sure the temperature is above 50 degrees while you’re spraying otherwise it won’t be absorbed.