Try to save or till it over

[JohnL48]

This is what my clover / chicory looked like last yr and what it looks like now do to my busy schedule and no maintenance. Grass has taken over. Would you spray with cleth and hope for the best or terminate it and start over ?

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[dogghr]

Save it. Don't mow again this month. Spray Cleth with AMS and crop oil in Sept, Fert with 0-20-20 and it will come back no problem. I usually overseed in fall also. Mine looks like crap also from dry weather thru July.

 

[Drycreek]

I assume the bottom pic is the recent one, but there's not enough detail for me to see how much is grass and how much is clover stem. My experience with cleth, if that's what you would spray with, is that it's best used on grass that's young and tender. I've not had great luck spraying mature grass and getting a good kill.

 

[DrDirtNap]

If it looked that good a year ago then no way am I going to terminate it now. I agree with dogghr...give it a good dose of 0-20-20 and as soon as it cools down it will bounce back in a hurry....assuming your pH is good.

 

[X-farmerdan]

I guess I don't understand the fascination with spraying weeds in the fall. If you have annuals they are going to be dead, killed by frost, in 6 to 8 weeks. If you have perennials you might make a case of it - if you can identify and have knowledge that the particular practice you want to employ will lead to good results in the spring.

I would leave it alone. Do no more than you've already done.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I guess I don't understand the fascination with spraying weeds in the fall. If you have annuals they are going to be dead, killed by frost, in 6 to 8 weeks. If you have perennials you might make a case of it - if you can identify and have knowledge that the particular practice you want to employ will lead to good results in the spring.

I would leave it alone. Do no more than you've already done.

You're thinking like a good farmer but this is a deer plot. Deer never eat grass. The sooner his grass is dead the sooner he will have a nice clover plot again. Spraying sooner rather than later, and adding 10 oz of roundup to the cleth is what's needed for this plot. Spray now and you will get enough early fall growth to hunt this plot.

 

[dogghr]

I agree best results on grass is in spring. But I would/have sprayed mid Sept as weather cools and clover rejuvenates to kill the grass. I would not use Gly in the fall, only the spring personally. I also overseed my perennial with WR. Gives good feed, early spring green up, and weed control in plot. But I'll be honest, the days of my clover plots looking like Johns first pics are over. I let the weeds and some grasses have their way within reason. My plots look ugly in pics anymore but a lot less effort and the deer love just as much. I mowed my clover yesterday with rain coming and I couldn't help but notice how the WC was actually taller around some of the so called weeds. Deer haven't complained.

 

[FarmerD]

Clover is hard to kill and I would go the clethodim route and take care of the grass. You likely have a huge seed bank in there, that you'll have clover again next year. It will germinate with cooler temps and the rains this fall.

 

[RICH223]

My clover looked terrible to, around here we had a ridiculous amounts of rain and have only been able to cut it in late June and last week but it’s coming back if it ever dries out I will spray the grass, but we are having a huge downpour as I am typing so it’s not going to any time soon if this year. I think if you give the clover a chance to bounce back then spray the grass you should be good.

 

[Rempump870]

I am thinking you should be good to go unless the grass went into super mode and really over took the plot. The first 2 pics are a great stand of clover. I cant really tell how much clover is left in the bottom pic. I have tried Cleth several times on established grasses and It has been a mixed result each time. On another plot, I sprayed gly to kill the weeds and everything in the plot. The clover was knocked back a bit but seems to be thriving now. I figure a little clover in the new plot cant hurt anything so I guess it was a bonus.

 

[JohnL48]

Thanks for the tips, hopefully I can get it back. The deer can't get enough of it