How to Stop Clover Growing Without Killing Your Grass

Quick answer: Clover usually moves in when a lawn is hungry for nitrogen, thin, or compacted. To get rid of it without hurting your grass: feed the lawn properly, mow a little higher, and then spot-spray the clover with a selective broadleaf herbicide labeled for your grass type. Fall is the best time to spray, because that's when clover is easiest to kill for good. Fix the cause as well as the clover, or it'll be back next year. 

What Is Clover?

Clover is a hardy, perennial weed commonly found in lawns. It belongs to the legume family, which means it can pull nitrogen from the air into the soil, enriching it. Several types of clover can invade lawns, but the most common ones are white clover (Trifolium repens), red clover (Trifolium pratense), and lesser trefoil (Trifolium dubium). 

White Clover (Trifolium repens)

The most common by a mile. Low-growing, with three rounded leaflets (often with a pale crescent mark on each one) and white or slightly pink, globe-shaped flowers. It spreads by stolons, which are creeping stems that root as they go, so one plant turns into a patch surprisingly fast. 

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Taller and more upright, up to about 2 feet if you let it go, with purplish-red flower heads. More common in rough or rarely mowed areas than in a well-kept lawn. 

Hop Clover/Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium)

Smaller, with little yellow flowers. It's an annual that likes dry, sandy, low-fertility soil. 

Not sure it's clover at all? Black medic and yellow woodsorrel (Oxalis) are common look-alikes. Black medic has yellow flowers and a tiny point at the tip of the middle leaflet; oxalis has heart-shaped leaflets. 

Why Is Clover Growing in My Lawn?

Your lawn isn't being dramatic; it's trying to tell you something. Clover can pull nitrogen from the air and fix it in its roots, so it doesn't need the soil to feed it. Grass does. When soil nitrogen runs low, grass thins out, and clover moves right into the gaps.

University of Minnesota Extension says white clover can indicate low nitrogen, compaction, and drought stress in soils, and Penn State Extension notes it's more likely to form large patches in turf that isn't adequately fertilized with nitrogen. So a lawn full of clover is usually hungry, thin, or both.

Should You Just Keep the Clover?

It's a fair question, and there's no wrong answer. Clover has some real upsides:

• It feeds the soil. Because it fixes nitrogen, it adds a little free fertility around it.

• Pollinators love it. Bees work clover flowers hard, which is why some "bee lawns" include it on purpose.

• It stays green in dry spells when grass starts to struggle.

And some real downsides:

• It doesn't look uniform, which matters if you want that even, golf-course look.

• It stains clothes and wears poorly in areas of heavy foot traffic.

• Bees on the flowers aren't ideal where kids play barefoot, or anyone has a sting allergy.

• It keeps crowding grass out if you leave the cause unfixed.

If you're happy with a mixed lawn, the advice below on feeding and mowing will still help your grass hold its own. If you want clover gone, read on.

Step 1: Fix the Cause First

This is the part most people skip, and it's why the clover keeps coming back. Herbicides kill the clover you can see. Healthy, well-fed grass stops the next lot moving in.

Feed Your Lawn Enough Nitrogen

Nitrogen is the big one. Clover doesn't depend on soil nitrogen and grass does, so a properly fed lawn tips the balance back toward the grass. A balanced fertilizer applied on your grass type's normal schedule (mainly fall for cool-season grass, late spring and summer for warm-season grass) goes a long way.

Lebanon Country Club Complete 14-7-14 Fertilizer is a good, even-feeding option if you want one product that covers the basics.

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Test Your Soil and Check the pH

Most lawn grasses do best at a soil pH of about 6.0 to 7.0. Clover is much less fussy, so a lawn with pH far outside that range gives clover a head start. The only way to know is to test, rather than guess.

A MySoil Test Kit tells you your pH and nutrient levels, so you know exactly what to fix.

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If your results show acidic soil (pH too low), MAG-I-CAL® PLUS for acidic soil helps bring it back into range.

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If they show alkaline soil (pH too high), use MAG-I-CAL® PLUS for alkaline soil instead.

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Got your results and not sure what they mean? Our guide, Soil Test Kit Results Back: What Next? walks you through it.

Mow a Little Higher

Taller grass shades the soil, making life harder for low-growing clover and helping your grass develop deeper roots. Aim for the higher end of the recommended range for your grass type, usually somewhere between 2 and 4 inches for most home lawns. Mowing regularly also stops clover from flowering and setting seed.

Water Deeply, Not Often

Deep, infrequent watering pushes grass roots down, so the lawn copes better in dry spells, which is exactly when clover usually gets ahead. Water early in the morning so the grass dries out during the day, which also helps keep disease away.

Relieve Compaction

Clover handles compacted soil much better than grass does. If your lawn has hard, heavily walked areas, core aeration helps water, air, and fertilizer reach the roots again. Our guide on how to fix compacted soil covers how and when.

Step 2: Remove Small Patches by Hand

Only got a few clumps? Pulling them is quick, cheap, and chemical-free.

• Do it after rain or a good watering. Moist soil lets the roots slide out rather than snap.

• Get the whole plant, including the creeping stems. White clover roots wherever those stems touch the ground, so any bits you leave behind can regrow.

• Fill the gap. A bare spot is an open invitation for the next weed. Rake in a little seed that matches your lawn.

A Note on Smothering

You'll see advice to cover clover patches with black plastic or landscape fabric for a few weeks. It works, but be clear about what it does: it kills everything beneath it, including grass. It's really a last resort for a dense patch you plan to reseed anyway, not a way to remove clover without killing your grass.

Step 3: Use a Selective Weed Killer

For anything more than a few clumps, a selective herbicide is the most reliable fix.

What kills clover but not grass? 

A selective broadleaf herbicide. These target broadleaf plants like clover while leaving lawn grasses alone, as long as the label lists your grass type. The active ingredients recommended by extension services for white clover include dicamba, MCPP, fluroxypyr, triclopyr, and quinclorac. Products that combine two or more of these usually work best. One thing worth knowing: the University of Minnesota Extension notes that 2,4-D on its own is weak against white clover, so look for a product that pairs it with a compound like dicamba.

Avoid Non-Selective Killers on Your Lawn

Non-selective herbicides like glyphosate kill any plant they touch, grass included. They're the wrong tool for clover in a lawn. The only time they make sense is when you're killing off an area completely to start again, or treating weeds in a driveway or patio crack. If that's your plan, Roundup QuikPRO does the job, but keep it well away from the grass you want to keep.

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When Is the Best Time to Kill Clover?

Fall is the best time to kill clover. Penn State Extension says fall applications of herbicides are often the most effective way to control white clover, and Minnesota Extension goes further, noting that springtime applications are often ineffective.

Here's why. In fall, perennial weeds like clover start moving sugars down into their roots to store for winter. Spray them then, and they carry the herbicide down with those sugars, right to the roots. In spring, the plant is pushing energy up into new leaves instead, so you often burn off the top and the roots regrow.

Heading into fall now? Our Ultimate Guide to Fall Weed Control covers the other weeds worth tackling at the same time. 

How to Spray Clover Safely and Effectively

These tips apply to every product below, so we've put them in one place. Your product's label always comes first: it's the legal guide to using it, and it overrides anything here.

1. Check the label for your grass type. This is the most important step. A product that's perfectly safe on fescue can damage St. Augustine or centipede.

2. Pick a calm, dry day. Wind carries spray onto plants you didn't mean to hit, and rain can wash it off before it works. Check the label for how long it needs to stay dry.

3. Keep it under the label's temperature limit, usually 85 to 90°F. On a hot day, spray in the evening.

4. Don't mow for about 2 days before or after spraying (or as long as the label says). The weed needs its leaves to absorb the product.

5. Add a surfactant if the label calls for one. A surfactant is a wetting agent that helps spray stick to waxy leaves instead of beading off. Hi-Yield Non-Ionic Surfactant works with most of the products below. Velocity® PM is the exception: don't add a surfactant to it.

6. Spot-treat where you can. Spraying only the clover patches uses less product and is easier on your lawn.

7. Use a proper sprayer. A 4-gallon backpack sprayer with a TeeJet foliar spray tip gives you far more control than a hose-end sprayer. Not sure which to choose? See our backpack vs hose-end sprayer comparison.

8. Keep kids and pets off the treated area until the spray has dried, or for as long as the label says.

9. Don't spread cuttings from treated areas onto untreated parts of the lawn or garden beds for the first couple of mows.

10. Stay away from water. Don't spray near ponds, streams, or drains; store products safely, and follow your local rules for disposal.

What you'll need: a non-ionic surfactant for the products that call for one, and a backpack sprayer for accurate spot-treating.

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The Best Clover Killers for Lawns: Quick Comparison

Grass can be surprisingly stubborn, but so can clover. Here's how our top clover herbicides compare. Always confirm your grass type on the label before buying.

Originally published on June 6, 2024