Best way to remove clover from kikuyu and mixed lawn?
Hi team – I am a complete newbie trying to establish a new lawn – we are north of Auckland near Warkworth in costal spot that is hot & windy.
In September last year, after laying 150-200mm of topsoil, the lawn was hydroseeded. I understand a combination of perennial ryegrass, creeping red fescue, browntop, and tall fescue seeds (I can’t tell one from the other). Started out well but with only occasional watering the lawn dried out a few times over summer.
So now the lawn is now quite patchy, with lots of clover intrusion – a bit of a mess really. There is some kikuyu intruding also – but I am OK with this as it is probably the most reliable lawn for our location in the long term – probably should have sown it to start with.
So the plan is to instal a proper automatic irrigation system ASAP, and work hard on the lawn over the next few months and see if I can get an improvement next summer.
So advice please – i plan to start with getting rid of the clover first, and then move on to topdressing.
My first question is – what is the best product to use for killing off the clover – noting that i want to keep the Kikuyu. And should I fertilise now?
Thanks in advance!
Apply a fertilizer like all seasons, clover is a sign of low nitrogen levels in a readily available form for grass .
Bwc herbicide safe on warm and cool seasons grasses. Kikuyu is a warm seasons, nz's brown top, rye , fine fescue blend is cool seasons grasses.
Once kikuyu establishes , herbicide like msf600 will take out rye and a lot of other grasses but not fine fescue or kikuyu.
Bwc no composting, it's a small quantity of bow and arrow herbicide.
Rye might of died off. I'd be curious of the grass growing well beside the clover as it's a nitrogen fixer but clover doesn't share the nitrogen.
@Stephen thanks very much for the input Stephen
Going off those photos, I’d be inclined to kill the lot off in spring and start again with a single cultivar. Something like NZLA ETF would suit your location perfectly. Have a read through the Lawn 101 guide on the NZLA website under the Lawn Tips section, that’ll give you a good grounding in the basics around fertiliser, irrigation and general care. At the moment it’s a bit of a dog’s dinner and, in my opinion, it’ll be more work trying to fix it than starting fresh. Before doing anything, spend a bit of time learning the basics first. If you set on the kikuyu being the end grass then it’s a summer job since that’s a warm-season species and will respond best then. BWC herbicide is safe on all the grasses you mentioned for broadleaf herbicide. MSF600 will take out grasses and leave the kikuyu/FF.
@KJ thanks so much for your comment. Found the idea of starting again quite challenging but think you are right!
But some questions to be sure …
- can I be confident that ETF work well in an exposed coastal (not beach) location?
- concerned about kikuyu intrusion over the long term - is there a product that will deal to that and leave the ETG in good shape?
- I need some sort of a lawn thru winter so would kill the clover and kikuyu now and then fertilise to get the existing grass giving reasonable coverage. Would that work?
Really appreciate your insight
@NigelV Honestly, there’s no easy fix here. Kikuyu will always try to come back.
The go to approach most people use is a gel glyphosate, dabbed onto the runners as they emerge. The gel formulation works well for this because you can apply it precisely without getting it onto turf you want to keep. Glyphosate translocates through the plant and gets down into the root system, which is what you need. Timing matters a lot with this. Late summer through to autumn is the window to focus on. As the plant starts to wind down for winter, it moves carbohydrates back down into the root system. Glyphosate follows that same pathway, which is why you get a much better kill at this time of year than you would in the middle of summer. Hit it outside that window and you’ll knock back the foliage, but it’ll reshoot. As Gary mentioned below, there are other active ingredients that’ll damage it, but they tend to do the same thing, burn the top growth without doing much to the root system underneath. Glyphosate is about the only solid option for actual control.
Even then, it’s an ongoing job. You’ll need to stay on top of any runners that keep pushing through.
To answer the ETF coastal question, yes, tall fescue is fine in coastal locations.
Have you done anything with it since September? It looks severely underfed, which is why the clover is thriving. That’s not a good place to be heading into winter. You need to get some All Seasons down ASAP to help feed the turf through winter, otherwise it’s not going to be in a good place in a few months.
I would personally forget the kikuyu idea for now since it’s completely the wrong time of year. Give it a feed with the mentioned fertiliser and hit it with NZLA Gold. That will knock/kill the kikuyu but leave the other grasses, it’ll also clear out a lot of the crap and leave you with a decent-looking lawn until it’s the correct time to do a proper renovation.
Alternatively, BWC is safe on all the mentioned grasses and can be used alongside the All Seasons 👍
@Garry B thanks for your input - much appreciated. As per you and another comment - think I will abandon the kikuyu idea and go with ETF. So to confirm - NZ Good is the right product to kill clover, weeds and kikuyu - and leave the other grasses? And can I fertilise at the same time? Thanks again
@Nigel Varcoe NZLA Gold will control clover and while it knocks the crap out of Kikuyu it’s not a solid option for killing it completely. Theres already posts on here about how to remove Kikuyu using glyphosate have a look through those posts.
It would be worth having a look at a couple guides I wrote last year:
1. https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/how-to-water-your-lawn/
2. https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/lawn-care-101-getting-the-basics-right/
There’s also some more here: https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/
@Jonny Hicks thanks Jonny - looks like I am starting again so these will be extra valuable.