Cleth on young clover/brassicas?

Catscratch

5 year old buck +
Never sprayed cleth before. Have some ordered. Want to spray a frost seeded plot of clover and collards, plus an established clover plot. I know it will say on the label but I'm getting antsy. Will cleth hurt my newly emerging clover and brassicas?
 
No it won't hurt either brassicas or clovers. Cleth is a grass-specific herbicide.

I use 16 oz (1 Pint) Cleth with 1 Quart Crop oil per acre.
 
Last edited:
No it won't hurt either brassicas or clovers. Cleth is a grass-specific herbicide.

I use 16 oz (1 Pint) Cletch with 1 Quart Crop oil per acre.
Thanks for the reply! I guess I worry what the cleth or crop oil is going to hurt something that just freshly sprouted a week or two ago.
 
Thanks for the reply! I guess I worry what the cleth or crop oil is going to hurt something that just freshly sprouted a week or two ago.
Can't say I have ever tried spraying Cleth on newly emerged brassicas before but I have sprayed it on fairly newly emerged alfalfa and clover in order to terminate the nurse crop of oats - probably 4-5 weeks after drilling the seed. Killed the oats just fine and had no effect on the alfalfa or clovers.
 
I sprayed cleth and crop oil on about 3 week old clover last June and it had zero effect on the clover. This is what it looked like about 3 weeks later.
 

Attachments

  • A5661BE8-5E6F-4F19-8B41-7E0D815932C8.jpeg
    A5661BE8-5E6F-4F19-8B41-7E0D815932C8.jpeg
    741.6 KB · Views: 19
Never sprayed cleth before. Have some ordered. Want to spray a frost seeded plot of clover and collards, plus an established clover plot. I know it will say on the label but I'm getting antsy. Will cleth hurt my newly emerging clover and brassicas?

It has been quite a few years since I've used cleth. As I recall, it wants to see a surfactant, either Crop Oil or Non-Ionic. While the cleth is grass selective and should not hurt your clover or brassica, Crop Oil may. I would suggest using a non-ionic surfactant rather than crop oil.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Last edited:
I used the non-ionic sufacant at tractor supply. I sprayed cleth for the 1st time last summer. Couldnt get back to camp for a few weeks. But, I have a great stand of clover. Had oats, turnips, and red and white clovers spring planted in a new spot with no prior weed control. Mowed it with a brush hog, spring harrowed it, planted, fertilizer, and limed, rolled ATV tires on it and crossed my fingers. Thinking it was late july early august.

Some say the surfacant harms clovers. Some say cleth stunts everything. Killed the oats. Was hoping for a better kill on sedge grass. And the golden rod in one plot never got harmed. Turnips survived fine too.

What kind of grass are you looking to kill. Broadleafs and clover butyrac 200 is a better choice I believe.

Its important to ID what your trying to kill. While the clethodim wont kill what you planted, what you may have left is another competeing weed thats tougher to kill. Learned that with the spot sprayer the past year.
 
I used the non-ionic sufacant at tractor supply. I sprayed cleth for the 1st time last summer. Couldnt get back to camp for a few weeks. But, I have a great stand of clover. Had oats, turnips, and red and white clovers spring planted in a new spot with no prior weed control. Mowed it with a brush hog, spring harrowed it, planted, fertilizer, and limed, rolled ATV tires on it and crossed my fingers. Thinking it was late july early august.

Some say the surfacant harms clovers. Some say cleth stunts everything. Killed the oats. Was hoping for a better kill on sedge grass. And the golden rod in one plot never got harmed. Turnips survived fine too.

What kind of grass are you looking to kill. Broadleafs and clover butyrac 200 is a better choice I believe.

Its important to ID what your trying to kill. While the clethodim wont kill what you planted, what you may have left is another competeing weed thats tougher to kill. Learned that with the spot sprayer the past year.

I don't believe Cleth controls sedges. Check the label to be sure. I don't use cleth or bucrayac on clover anymore. When grasses begin to dominate a clover field, it is time to rotate into an N-seeking crop. Otherwise, I just tolerate it. Deer don't mind. The love many broadleaf "weeds". There are a few noxious broadleaf weeds that can dominate, but they are often the result of herbicide use. They may need to be dealt with, but in general I just tolerate weeds until fall when I mow. The cool evenings and more plentiful fall rains we get here favor the clover, and it takes over the field.
 
I used the non-ionic sufacant at tractor supply. I sprayed cleth for the 1st time last summer. Couldnt get back to camp for a few weeks. But, I have a great stand of clover. Had oats, turnips, and red and white clovers spring planted in a new spot with no prior weed control. Mowed it with a brush hog, spring harrowed it, planted, fertilizer, and limed, rolled ATV tires on it and crossed my fingers. Thinking it was late july early august.

Some say the surfacant harms clovers. Some say cleth stunts everything. Killed the oats. Was hoping for a better kill on sedge grass. And the golden rod in one plot never got harmed. Turnips survived fine too.

What kind of grass are you looking to kill. Broadleafs and clover butyrac 200 is a better choice I believe.

Its important to ID what your trying to kill. While the clethodim wont kill what you planted, what you may have left is another competeing weed thats tougher to kill. Learned that with the spot sprayer the past year.

I plant heavily with wheat and rye, the other stuff that pops up is foxtail and brome. I not a fan of the cool season grasses at all! I generally go heavy with cereal grains in my clover plots to soak up nitrogen to discourage the cool season grasses but it's time to try something different (ie - chemicals).
 
I plant heavily with wheat and rye, the other stuff that pops up is foxtail and brome. I not a fan of the cool season grasses at all! I generally go heavy with cereal grains in my clover plots to soak up nitrogen to discourage the cool season grasses but it's time to try something different (ie - chemicals).

I completely understand. Foxtail can really overtake a field. It does have some value for birds, but not really for deer. Cleth will work on it if it is young. The other thing I've done with t foxtail infestation is to use a wicking bar with gly and select by height in a clover field. Probably won't work well with a new field that has a nurse crop that will be as tall as the foxtail. Just another option when needed.
 
I plant heavily with wheat and rye, the other stuff that pops up is foxtail and brome. I not a fan of the cool season grasses at all! I generally go heavy with cereal grains in my clover plots to soak up nitrogen to discourage the cool season grasses but it's time to try something different (ie - chemicals).
That stuff even punches through a rye crop huh? I used to battle foxtail back where i grew up. I could mow and mow, and that stuff seemed to head out shorter and shorter, and the very next day. I never did beat it back there. I don't have it up north though.
 
That stuff even punches through a rye crop huh? I used to battle foxtail back where i grew up. I could mow and mow, and that stuff seemed to head out shorter and shorter, and the very next day. I never did beat it back there. I don't have it up north though.
Nothing beats out brome or fescue. Foxtail is easily minimized but never leaves (I'm generally fine with minimizing a weed though). The good news is that brome and fescue are slow to establish, but since there's starting to be enough of it that it's bugging me I'm going to try this cleth stuff.
 
Mowing does great to control most broadleaf plants but it seems to advantage grasses like foxtail.
 
I could mow and mow, and that stuff seemed to head out shorter and shorter, and the very next day.
I see that reaction in more and more weeds. I have lawn weeds that despite chemicals and hand-pulling, go to seed quicker and shorter than they did before trying to control them.

Due to lack of regular help at camp, we need chemicals to control foxtail, other grasses, and various broadleaf weeds. Not looking for 100% weed-free plots, so what's a good regimen to follow??
(don't mean to hi-jack Catscratch's thread - but this seems in the same ballpark.) Help for one is help for all, I suppose.
 
I see that reaction in more and more weeds. I have lawn weeds that despite chemicals and hand-pulling, go to seed quicker and shorter than they did before trying to control them.

Due to lack of regular help at camp, we need chemicals to control foxtail, other grasses, and various broadleaf weeds. Not looking for 100% weed-free plots, so what's a good regimen to follow??
(don't mean to hi-jack Catscratch's thread - but this seems in the same ballpark.) Help for one is help for all, I suppose.

I've had great luck controlling weeds with planned plant diversity. I have some of the worst hanging around; marestail, Palmer (resistant pigweed), etc. Chemicals just encouraged them and they became epic. Turned around with plant diversity and it was a game changer. The weeds are almost non-existent. With that said I'm on to quite a few years of not using chem or fert and I have some grasses starting to get a foothold. I could nuke everything and start over but I am willing to try this cleth stuff.
 
I've had great luck controlling weeds with planned plant diversity. I have some of the worst hanging around; marestail, Palmer (resistant pigweed), etc. Chemicals just encouraged them and they became epic. Turned around with plant diversity and it was a game changer. The weeds are almost non-existent. With that said I'm on to quite a few years of not using chem or fert and I have some grasses starting to get a foothold. I could nuke everything and start over but I am willing to try this cleth stuff.

Just to leverage off that a bit, when we remove a plant, we need to consider what might follow it. Years back, I decided to go with soybeans for a summer crop. We had a healthy mix of weeds, but between the weed competition and browse pressure, beans would all get nipped off before they established. With the combination of planting more acreage and using RR forage beans, I was finally able to get them to establish and canopy. It worked great for a couple years. Looking back, my logic was Deer Nutrition=>Soybans=>Glyphosate... It should have been Soil Health=>Deer Nutrition=>Diversity.

I've told this story before, but we thinned an adjacent pine stand and used prescribed fire in it. That released marestail in the soil bank in the pines. It quickly got into the field. Marestail is naturally resistant to Gly, so my foolish instance that soybeans were the answer just made things worse. The gly killed other weeds favoring the marestail even more. I eventually resolved the problem with herbicides that were labeled specifically for marestail and planting smother crops. My weeds are now back to normal. Planting high quality but less favored foods that compete well with weeds. More diversity improves both soil health and deer nutrition at a lower cost. I still use gly sometimes for burndown, but rotate with other herbicides. I use much less than when planting RR crops. Weeds are now just another part of my deer food. They don't dominate, they just add more diversity.
 
Cleth works well on grasses but for rookies it’s very slow acting. Give it a few weeks. If you go out there a couple of weeks later you’ll be upset.

Cleth will not touch a sedge. For that, Sedgehammer. Or turn some hogs loose in there.
 
Cleth works well on grasses but for rookies it’s very slow acting. Give it a few weeks. If you go out there a couple of weeks later you’ll be upset.

Cleth will not touch a sedge. For that, Sedgehammer. Or turn some hogs loose in there.

Agree - Cleth is much slower acting than Glyphosate so don't expect instant burndown - be patient. 1 Pt/acre Cleth and 1 Qt/acre Crop Oil will nuke your grasses - you should not need a second application.

Agree that neither Clethodim or Glyphosate will nuke the sedges very well. Dr Craig Harper told me that Basagram is the preferred herbicide for sedges although I haven't tried it yet.

Butyrac 200 (2-4,DB) works very well on broadleaf weeds in clover and alfalfa plots but it does not kill grasses. Do not confuse this with 2-4,D Amine as this regular 2-4,D will toast your clovers and alfalfa whereas 2-4,DB will not.

For dandelions, clovers and other broadleaf weeds in my lawn I have been using regular 2-4,D for more than 40 years. It works great. It is the active ingredient in Ortho Weed-B-Gone but you can get by much cheaper by using plain old 2-4,D in your lawn sprayer.
 
I wasnt so bright in think sedge grass gets killed by grass killer.........

Sedge is literally everywhere on that hunting camp. Aint gonna make it disappear. Thinking of choking it to death this year. Mow in june, spray gly in july, or use imazapyr in june. Then plant rye and patriot clover in august. There is 1 plot next to the trail which is what i am doing. I have 2 other plots near each other, one is good, the other has goldenrod. Leaving them alone with the clover in them this year. Mow in june, mow in august, maybe in july.
 
I wasnt so bright in think sedge grass gets killed by grass killer.........

Sedge is literally everywhere on that hunting camp. Aint gonna make it disappear. Thinking of choking it to death this year. Mow in june, spray gly in july, or use imazapyr in june. Then plant rye and patriot clover in august. There is 1 plot next to the trail which is what i am doing. I have 2 other plots near each other, one is good, the other has goldenrod. Leaving them alone with the clover in them this year. Mow in june, mow in august, maybe in july.

You have to read the label because common names don't necessarily reflect reality. Sedges are in the Cyperaceae family and grasses in the Graminaceae family even though the common name may include grass. For short-hand, we say herbicides like Cleth and Poast are "grass selective" herbicides which in general, they are. But each herbicide is labeled for specific plants. The label will tell you what it controls and generally how effective it is.
 
Top