How to Kill Clover in Your Lawn

While clover can be beneficial to the lawn as it fixes the nitrogen in the soil and encourages grass growth on decomposition, it is a nuisance for homeowners who want an even, green lawn due to its colorful florets. In this article Eden will be providing you with different methods to kill clover in your lawn, tips to identify clover and the reasons why clover is taking over your yard. 

Use a Weed Killer to Kill Clover

If the clover is spreading rapidly and putting your lawn at risk, using a weed killer or a post emergent herbicide will be effective in killing the clover. These kinds of weed control products generally contain chemicals like Mecoprop, Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and Dicamba which disrupt the growth of the clover, causing its stems to crack and leaves to cup. 

While lawn safe weed killers are selective and don’t damage the grass around the area of application, they might be harmful to some beneficial lawn insects and garden plants. Therefore, if you are using chemical fertilizers, Eden recommends applying the weed killer to the problem spot directly instead of applying freely. 

Keep a Well-Fed Lawn to Get Rid of Clover

If there is constant weed invasion in your lawn, then it means there is a different underlying problem in your lawn – lack of nutrition in your soil. The best way to tackle clover or any other weed is to make sure your grass is well fed as this will prevent weeds from invading your lawn in the first place. 

Feeding your lawn on a regular basis (about four times a year) is beneficial to ensuring your grass has all the nutrients to grow strong and healthy with a deep root system. This will help it fight weed growth as thick and lush lawns are effective in crowding out clover and other weeds.

You will need a spreader to ensure the even spread of fertilizer throughout the lawn. For small lawns a handheld spreader will suffice while larger lawns will require a walk-behind spreader. Make passes in the opposite directions as you would when mowing the lawn to ensure every part of your lawn is covered and no spots are missed.

Pull Clover Out by Hand

When you notice clovers springing up in small areas of your lawn, the best way to get rid of them is to do so by pulling the clover out with your hand. Make sure that you rip them out from the roots as clover propagates through stolons, that is through root connections in the soil. 

You will need to use a spade or a weed knife to loosen the soil before you pull out the weed to ensure the root does not break and comes out completely. Loosening the soil will also allow you to spot any other hidden roots.

Spray a Vinegar Solution to Get Rid of Clover

A good household remedy for clover is vinegar solution created by mixing equal parts of water and vinegar (about one cup each) and adding a drop of dish soap to this solution. You will need a spray bottle to spray this solution over the clover to treat it. For a detailed explanation on the preparation process you can refer to Eden’s article on preparing vinegar solution for lawn care.

The benefits of this method is that this is an easy weed killer you can make yourself using ingredients that are available in every home. The application method is also easy as you just need to spot treat the clover by spraying the solution over the clover.

Apply Nitrogen Boost

Clovers belong to the legume family and hence they thrive in lawns that have insufficient nitrogen as they can produce their own nitrogen. Therefore, one method of tackling clovers is to make the soil rich in nitrogen, not for the entire lawn, only for the patches where the clover is growing.

A quick, efficient and affordable way to do this is to apply quick-release nitrogen fertilizer to these patches in your lawn. This will cause an overdose of nitrogen for the clovers, thus killing them. Eden recommends this method if you have a lot of clovers you need to kill. 

Deprive Clover of Oxygen and Sunlight

Clover needs sunlight and oxygen to survive and spread. Therefore, an effective natural way of getting rid of clover is to smother it so that it is deprived of oxygen and sunlight. To do this, you will need a plastic sheet or a garbage bag. 

The benefit of using this method is that it is natural and does not harm the other living elements of your landscape with chemicals. Also, you only need a garbage bag for this method so it is also affordable.

You will need to re-seed or re-sod the area after you are done killing the clover. Therefore, Eden does not recommend using this method for small patches of clover as a lot of healthy grass will also be killed in this process. Use this method only to fight large patches of clover.

Spread Organic Fertilizer to Kill Clover

If there are small patches of clover in your lawn then a good way to get rid of them will be to use nitrogen rich organic fertilizer instead of using chemical fertilizer. These fertilizers are slow release fertilizers and will slowly kill off the clover due to nitrogen overdose. 

The benefit of using organic nitrogen rich fertilizers is that they don’t harm your landscape in any way and they encourage healthy lawn growth in the long run but the downside is that they act slowly. Therefore they can only be used when the weed coverage is small enough that you can afford to wait for the organic fertilizer to do its job.

Use Corn Gluten Meal to Get Rid of Clover

Using corn gluten is a good preventive measure to prevent clover growth and other dicot weeds like dandelions and plantains. If you face frequent weed invasion issues especially with clover, then you can use corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent herbicide. It is important to apply it at the right time for effective weed control..

Corn gluten releases organic peptides which do not allow the weed seeds to sprout thus preventing clover from growing in your lawn. For effective weed control about 20 pounds of corn gluten meal needs to be applied per 1000 square feet of the lawn. This can be applied using a fertilizer spreader.Eden does not recommend using this method if you have recently reseeded the lawn.

Mow Grass High to Kill Clover

Homeowners might want to mow their grass short to reach the low growing clover to cut it all off but this will not be beneficial as the clover will grow right back and continue to spread. Instead, you need to adjust your mower setting to mow your grass higher than three inches. Mowing your grass lower than three inches stresses the grass and weakens it, allowing the clover to gain a foothold over your grass.

Also, the long grass blades will block the sunlight, depriving the clover of it and preventing its growth. You will need a lawn mower with well-maintained and sharp blades for this.The benefits of this method is that it does not require any special time investment as mowing grass is part of the maintenance routine of every lawn owner. 

How do I Identify Clovers in My Yard? 

Clover is a legume that made its way to North America in the latter part of the 17th century and its origins can be traced back to Europe. Eden brings the three most common types of clover and their distinguishing characteristics to help you identify them.

• White clover (Trifolium repens): White clover is the most common clover species found in lawns. It is a perennial, low growing and hardy clover species that spreads really quickly through stolons. 
• Red clover (Trifolium pratense): Red clover can thrive in both dry or moist conditions. This type is bushier and taller than white clover and you can identify rec clover by the florets whose color ranges from red to magenta. 
• Strawberry clover (Trifolium fragiferum): The growing patterns of strawberry clover are similar to white clover, the difference being that strawberry clover can thrive in coastal areas or near river estuaries as it has a higher salinity tolerance. You can identify strawberry clover by its pink and white florets that are smaller than those of white clover.

Why is Clover Taking Over My Backyard?

If you are experiencing a sudden invasion of clovers in your lawn then it might be because of the following reasons:

• Your lawn has low nitrogen levels: Clover is part of the legume family which means it’s a plant that fixes the nitrogen of the soil by producing its own nitrogen. Therefore, when the nitrogen levels of the soil are low, clover will thrive in such a lawn as it does not require nitrogen to grow while your grass does. 
• The pH of your soil is unbalanced: Most turfgrass prefers a pH range of 6.0 to 7.0 to grow healthily but there are no such restrictions for some species of clovers. Strawberry clover has a wide range of pH tolerance from 5.3 to 8.2 while red clover can thrive in soils with pH higher than 7.0. 
• Your soil is compacted: Compacted soil can suffocate your grass as proper air, nutrients and water are not available for it. But clover does not require a lot of nutrients; therefore it can grow even in compacted soil. 

What Products will Kill Clover but not Grass?

Eden brings you some lawn care products that will kill the clover but not harm your grass.

A.D.I.O.S.: A.D.I.O.S kills the clover in your lawn without harming the grass. Simply spraying it on the clover will make it die. This is safe for all grass types.

• Ortho WeedClear Lawn Weed Killer: This product kills major broadleaf weeds, clover, dandelion, oxalis, etc., without harming the lawn grass. This is safe to use on all grass types except the Floratam hybrid of St. Augustine grass.
• Bonide Chickweed, Clover and Oxalis Weed Killer: This Bonide product claims to kill multiple other weeds in addition to clover. Though this needs multiple applications to be effective, 
• Scotts Turf Builder Weed and Feed 3: This product provides good dandelion and clover control while also feeding your lawn with fertilizer so that your grass can grow thick and healthy to crown out the weeds. 

If you are facing constant weed problems in your lawn, then it could be because of underlying issues like soil fertility, improper irrigation, pH imbalance, etc., and you need to fix the issue at the root level if you want a healthy lawn. Consult the lawn care professionals of Eden to inspect your lawn to find out what is causing the problem and then fix it. Eden provides reliable and high-quality service through experts who are knowledgeable and skilled in their fields.