Prodiamine and tenacity are two of the most popular pre-emergent that you can consider using on your lawn.
Before deciding which one between Prodiamine and tenacity to use in your lawn, backyard, or gardens, you might wanna take a look at their differences.
So, here’s a quick comparison for you to understand them both better.
A Quick Comparison Table
Having a clear understanding of two of these emergents will help you decide which one to use for better results or both to use together.
So, let us take a look at this quick and brief comparison between two of these chemicals.
| Specification | Tenacity | Prodiamine |
| Usage | Killing unwanted weeds | Killing unwanted grass and broadleaf weeds |
| Time to Spray | Early Spring | Virtually Any |
| Area Coverage | 0.36 ounces per 1000 sq. ft | 0.5 ounces per 1000 sq. ft |
| Emergent | Pre and pro emergent | Pre-emergent |
| Effectiveness | Short-term | Long-term |
Key Differences Between Prodiamine And Tenacity
Let us now dig into some detailed features of these two products and compare between them. Doing so would help you understand what makes them different and how they stand out from each other.
- Usage
First comes the usage of the two chemicals.
Starting with tenacity, it is solely used to kill the unwanted weeds you often find among the grasses. The weeds create a hindrance for your grass to grow.
They act like parasites that would take all the nutrients out of the grasses in your lawn and make them rough, and sometimes even kill them.
In order to save your green grass from such kinds of unwanted weeds, tenacity would work best.
Now coming to Prodiamine, well, it does not kill unwanted weeds rather it stops their growth on the grass.
It also kills broadleaf grasses that would fight to survive with the beneficial grasses in the long run. So, to save the beneficial grasses, Prodiamine kills all the unwanted grasses.
- Time to Spray
There is specific timing for the emergents to work efficiently on your grass. Randomly spraying would do no good if they are not sprayed at the right time to do their respective job of killing unwanted grass and weed.
For tenacity, early spring or fall is the best time for it to be effective on your grass. You just need to make sure that the soil temperature does not exceed 80 degrees.
Again, it depends on what purpose are you using it for. If used as a pre-emergent, it should be applied when the soil temperature is around 55 Fahrenheit. As a post-emergent, it should be applied when the grass is all grown up.
In the case of Prodiamine, it can be applied anytime you want before the weeds are grown. Fall can be a good season for applying as it can control the weed that would go on to grow in the Spring.
Just remember that the chemical or product needs to be applied before the grounds of your lawns are frozen or cold.
- Area Coverage
There is a limitation when it comes to the area these products can cover.
You need to take perfect measurements of the chemicals and also know how much of it can you apply to how much length of the area.
For tenacity, you can expect it to cover about 1-2 acres of land with a mixture of 0.36 ounces per 1000 square feet.
As for Prodiamine, it cannot cover larger areas than tenacity can.
About 1 acre of land of grass can be covered by Prodiamine. It would need a mixture of 0.5 ounces for every 1000 square feet.
- Emergent
As discussed before, emergents can be of two types. One is pre-emergent, which is used before the unwanted grass and weed are grown. Another is post-emergent, which is applied to kill the already grown weeds and control them.
Tenacity can be used in both ways as a pre-emergent and also as a post-emergent for killing and controlling the weed growth and also the growth of unwanted broadleaf grass.
On the other hand, Prodiamine works only as a pre-emergent for plants. It cannot kill unwanted weeds like tenacity but it can be used in controlling the birth and growth of them.
- Effectiveness
The chemicals used as emergents for the plants do not start working right away. They will start working only after a certain period when they are ready to function.
The tenacity pre-emergent is a short-time application with its scheduled time. Whereas, Prodiamine pre-emergent has to go with a long-term plan for application and show results afterward.
Which Emergent Will Be the Best Fit for Your House?
Emergents are chemicals used in the grass of your lawns or gardens to prevent weeds or unwanted herbs to grow and damage the grass. They can be both pre and post according to the requirements of your lawn or garden grass.
There are several kinds of pre and post-emergent used for the lawns to grow healthy grass by preventing weeds or unwanted grass to grow.
It gets very hard to choose between the two Morganite and Milorganite. Both are used for different kinds of functions. But if you have to choose between Tenacity and Prodiamine, we would suggest you slightly lean towards Tenacity if you wanna save some bucks. Why?
Well, Tenacity works as both pre-emergent and post-emergent. So, you can get 2-in-1 service from it. But Prodiamine works better as a pre-emergent than Tenacity.
Apart from them being different in functionality, the chemicals are harmful when applied with bare hands. Excess of the chemical than the required account may result in damaging the grass in your yard and also your skin if you are holding it with your bare hands.
That is why keep in check how much of the product are you using and how much would be extra. Here is a complete overview of Tenacity for you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Here are a few frequently asked questions about the two emergents.
Tenacity and Prodiamine are not the same. They both are emergents for plants but they both have different functions and working mechanisms. Where tenacity is a short-termed schedule emergent, Prodiamine is a long-termed scheduled chemical or emergent for the grass in your yard.
Mixing Prodiamine and Tenacity does not seem like a good idea to follow. Although you can use them both together as emergent. If you use tenacity today, you would want to use Prodiamine the next day. You can also use Prodiamine as a pre-emergent and then tenacity as a post-emergent for your lawn.
Tenacity is a very good emergent for using it on your lawn. It kills unwanted grass creating problems for your grass to grow. Other than that, it also works as post-emergents for the grass and protects it from the already existing weeds growing in your backyard or lawn.
Final Words
Now that you have known about both the emergent, you know which one to use for your lawn and when to use it. But always remember that applying an excess of the chemical won’t save your grass quickly from the weeds, rather it would destroy or damage the grass and its growth.
So be careful while using any of them.