Clover problem

We have a fairly large yard, 2 acres, and a high percentage of it is clover. Since it is a rural area we also have many dandylions and buckhorn. The seeds blow in from plants in the ditch lines. We spray LV-4 twice a year but the weeds still thrive. Some of our young trees are permanently stunted due to the spray so I am reluctant to do it more often. Is there another product available to get rid of the weeds but not endanger the trees or new flower gardens we are starting?

Gary

What is LV-4?

Sorry about that. LV-4 is our local co-op version of Weed-B-Gone. Farmers use it on their fields prior to planting crops. It kills weeds, supposedly, but not grass. I think it merely retards growth of weeds long enough for the crops to get large (tall) enough to deprive them of sunlight necessary for growth. According to the label it also kills clover. In my yard I can see the dandtlions and buckhorn shrivelled after spraying. At this point the clover gains ground. I've seeded grass during this time but the clover prevents growth. By now the weeds have recovered. At least the dandylions blooming was minimal but the weeds are still there.

Six years ago we planted 25 ash trees; seedlings 18-24" tall. I sprayed as usual that fall and the next spring before it dawned on me they lacked the strength to combat the herbicide. I stopped spraying for two years but we still lost 15 trees. A few of the remaining are doing well, about 8' tall, the rest are 4-6'. During those two years dandylion and clover population increased dramatically in the yard. I went back to spraying but only in the spring until last year. The weeds are still way ahead of me.

Gary

This is an all natural killer for weeds. You can multiply this to make what you need.

1 Tbsp gin
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1Tbsp baby shampoo
1 quart of warm water

Mix and drench with sprayer. This is from a master gardener.

Thank you, Smoky. I'll give it a try.

That's not going to be specific to your weeds though, it's a broad spectrum herbicide and is likely to kill your grass too, so be careful where you spray it. The advantage of lawn weedkillers like Weed B Gone is that they won't kill your grass, although they can damage your non-grass plants in the garden if you have problems with overspray. Unfortunately there is no weed killer that does exactly what you want...you can buy ones that kill grass but not other things, or you can get ones that kill other things but not grass, or you can get things that kill everything, but there's nothing that would leave the grass alone and leave your garden plants alone but kill the weeds in the lawn, so no matter what you use you're going to have to be careful how it's applied so that it doesn't get onto something that you didn't want killed.

Thanks for the heads up. I would have felt bad losing the 45% grass in the mowing area I still have. I have mulch around everything except one of the new flower beds. When using my 15 Gallon sprayer I try not to directly spray mulched areas. There is undoubtedly some overspray but I'm thinking leaching of the herbicide is the problem. Then again, if leaching is a problem farmers wouldn't be using it as a pre-emergent herbicide. There is much about farming and gardening I don't know.

I'm amazed when re-checking plants I want to see do well haven't grown a noticeable iota but standing alongside them are 3" tall weeds that weren't there yesterday.

Gary

Typically herbicides damage by overspray, most of them have to land on the leaves of the plant in order to kill/damage it, so unless you're pouring gallons on your soil it shouldn't be leaching that's causing damage. Pre-emergent herbicides aren't going to bother your other plants (unless you were hoping for things to reseed, it'll prevent desirable plant seeds from germinating as well as the weed seeds) but they also won't do anything for weeds that are already there. I don't know what the ingredients in your stuff are so I couldn't tell you if it's just a pre-emergent or if it's a regular herbicide, but I suspect if you were seeing live weeds shrivel and turn brown after spraying it's got some regular herbicide in it. Maybe it's got a pre-emergent in it too though.

Alternately, you could just think of the clover as a feature, not a bug, to use a computer metaphor. It fixes nitrogen, stays nice and low, and is a great resource for pollinators. Who needs two acres of pure grass? I can understand why the dandelions would be annoying, because they send up those tall flower stalks overnight and make the yard look really ragged, but if what you're doing is working well on them, maybe you should just learn to love the clover?

I had a horrible clover, crabgrass, and dandilion problem. I used a broad spectrum spray-in herbacide by Ortho. It took about 2 days to start wilting the clover and about 3 weeks to completely knock it out. During this time, I raked out as much as I could.

Shortly after it was completely dead, I aerated, overseeded and fertilized. It takes time and backbone.

ALSO - Once you get the problem under control, it's imparitive that you winterize your lawn in the fall otherwise you will struggle the following spring.

FInd a spray that has 2-4D in it. Kills everything but the grass.