Atrazine for clovers

Atrazine is a systemic herbicide (works slow), as opposed to a contact herbicide (works quick). Systemics are absorbed and translocated through the vascular system and to the roots - takes time. Bottom line, with the somewhat cool weather, could take 2 to 3 weeks to show good results. Growth of clover should cease in a week or so, but death takes longer. Don’t be in rush to re-spray.

BTW, many of the good post-emergent herbicides recommended on this board are systemic.

If you have a bunch start thinking of increasing your nitrogen. Clover absolutely thrives in low N. Will be easier to kill it off once you raise it.

Fertilizer.

A university recommended lawn fertilization program for your lawn grass type (there are differences in recommended nitrogen application rates and application frequency) should provide you adequate lawn nitrogen input.

I would caution you not to use excessive nitrogen application on the lawn to “control” clover or other weeds that thrive under nitrogen deficient conditions otherwise you’ll be back on this board asking how to control lawn diseases and other lawn health issues.

My basic routine:

Regular sprays of MSM throughout the year.
2-3 applications of a granular dimension.
Atrazine and Weed Free Zone spray in the winter.
Fertilize once or twice in the summer.

Repeat next year.

Repeat the following year... etc.

Yep. MSM comes in a small bottle. It’s expensive but you only mix a tiny bit in a gallon of water, so a small bottle can last years. You can spray it in your grass and is generally considered a good overall spray. It kills most weeds, but not everything.

I believe you can use it every 4 weeks. I probably do it maybe every 8 weeks or as needed.

I’ll spray the entire yard once or twice a year and then just spot spray on weeds I see a few other times a year.

Same thing for atrazine and weed free zone. I sprayed my entire yard once a year in February for 2 years. This year, I just spot sprayed areas where it was needed.


Add spreader sticker (small bottle of liquid that helps the chemicals stick to the weeds) when you mix MSM or atrazine/weed free zone zone.

To my knowledge, these are the common post-emergent weed killers: MSM, Celsius, atrazine, weed free zone, certainty, and sulfentazone. MSM and Celsius are probably the two general weed killers that kill most of the weeds. The others are for more specific weeds.

I use MSM, atrazine, and weed free zone. I want to get Celsius for a few weeds but it’s expensive like MSM.


There are many types of Pre-emergent too. I’ve only used dimension (granular) twice a year, I think they recommend 3 times a year.