How to Use Ortho WeedClear Lawn Weed Killer: Mix Ratio, Timing + What It Kills
James ThorntonLawn Equipment & Maintenance Expert | 20 YearsYou sprayed the dandelions two weekends ago and half of them shrugged it off. The wild violets look glossier than ever, there's a patch of creeping charlie annexing the shady side of the yard, and the bottle of Ortho WeedClear in your garage has a label that reads like a chemistry final. You just want to know three things: how to mix it, when to spray it, and whether it will actually kill the weeds you have.
Half of failed weed treatments start with a misidentified weed. Before you mix anything, snap a photo for a free AI diagnosis and find out whether you're fighting a broadleaf weed WeedClear can kill or a grassy weed it can't touch.
Ortho WeedClear is a selective broadleaf weed killer, the successor to Ortho Weed B Gon. It kills dandelions, clover, wild violet, creeping charlie, and hundreds of other broadleaf weeds without killing your lawn grass, as long as you match the formulation to your grass type (there's a northern version and a southern version for sensitive grasses like St. Augustine and centipede). For the concentrate, mix at the rate printed on your specific bottle, spray weeds to wet on a calm day when they're actively growing, and don't mow for a day or two on either side of the application.
Expect visible curling and wilting within days and a full kill in two to three weeks. Tough perennials like wild violet and creeping charlie usually need a repeat application. It will not reliably kill grassy weeds like dallisgrass, because it's designed to spare grasses. Keep pets off the lawn until the spray is fully dry.
What Ortho WeedClear Is (and What Happened to Weed B Gon)
WeedClear is Ortho's selective broadleaf herbicide line for lawns. "Selective" is the important word: it targets broadleaf plants like dandelion and clover while leaving established lawn grasses alone. The active ingredients are a multi-way broadleaf mix, typically built around 2,4-D and dicamba with other actives that vary by formulation. Check your exact bottle for the specific combination, because the lineup includes several versions with different labels.
Is Weed B Gon being discontinued?
Effectively, yes. Ortho has been transitioning its lawn weed control lineup from the Weed B Gon name to WeedClear, and Weed B Gon has been vanishing from store shelves as old stock sells through. If you've used Weed B Gon for years, WeedClear is the direct successor: very similar selective broadleaf chemistry, same general use pattern, new name and packaging. Everything in this guide about timing, mixing, and expectations applies the same way it did to Weed B Gon, including the classic question of how long it takes to work (answer below: days to wilt, weeks to die).
Which Weeds WeedClear Kills
WeedClear labels list a long roster of broadleaf weeds. The ones people actually ask about:
- Dandelion: the easy win. Usually curls within days and dies within two to three weeks from a single application.
- Clover: well controlled, especially when sprayed while it's actively growing in spring or fall.
- Wild violet: on the label, but this is one of the hardest lawn weeds in America. Waxy leaves shed spray, and the rhizomes below ground regrow after the tops die. Plan on two to three applications, and favor fall, when violets pull energy (and herbicide) down into their roots.
- Creeping charlie (ground ivy): same story as violets. It's a labeled weed, but its creeping stems root at every node, so partial kills regrow. Fall applications after the first light frosts have a strong track record, and repeat treatment is normal.
- Chickweed, plantain, oxalis, spurge: all standard broadleaf targets, generally well controlled.
The dallisgrass problem: why WeedClear won't fix it
Here's where honesty beats marketing. Dallisgrass is a grassy weed, not a broadleaf weed. WeedClear's whole design premise is killing broadleaf plants while sparing grasses, and dallisgrass is a grass. So the standard broadleaf WeedClear formulas do not control it well, and no amount of re-spraying changes that. Some WeedClear versions add a crabgrass-control component, which helps with young annual grassy weeds, but mature dallisgrass clumps are perennial, deep-rooted, and famously stubborn.
If dallisgrass is your real problem, your realistic options are spot-treating clumps with a non-selective herbicide (accepting a temporary dead spot you reseed or let Bermuda fill), digging clumps out, and using a pre-emergent program to stop new seedlings next season. If you're not sure whether that ugly clump is dallisgrass, crabgrass, or tall fescue, upload a photo for a free diagnosis before you spend a season spraying the wrong product at it.
Is WeedClear Safe for Your Grass? North vs. South Formulas
Used correctly, WeedClear is safe on most established lawns, including Bermuda. But "used correctly" hinges on a detail a lot of buyers miss: Ortho sells regionally different formulations, usually labeled something like "North" and "South."
- Northern formulation: for cool-season lawns (Kentucky bluegrass, fescues, ryegrass) plus tolerant warm-season grasses like Bermuda and zoysia.
- Southern formulation: a gentler mix designed for herbicide-sensitive warm-season grasses, specifically St. Augustine (including Floratam) and centipede.
Spray a northern-strength product on St. Augustine or centipede and you can brown or kill your own lawn while the weeds recover. This is probably the single most common self-inflicted injury with this product line. Check the front of the bottle for your grass type before you buy, and check the label's temperature warnings too: broadleaf herbicides applied in high heat stress even tolerant grasses. Your exact rate and any temperature cutoffs come from the label, not from a blog, including this one.
Mixing and Applying WeedClear
Ready-to-spray vs. concentrate
The ready-to-spray hose-end bottle meters itself: connect the hose, spray evenly over the weedy area, done. It's the right choice for whole-lawn coverage if you don't own a tank sprayer. The concentrate is more economical and better for spot-spraying, but you mix it yourself in a pump sprayer.
Concentrate mix ratio
The exact ratio depends on which WeedClear concentrate you bought and which grass you're treating, so the number on your bottle wins. As a general orientation, Ortho lawn weed killer concentrates typically mix in the low single digits of fluid ounces per gallon of water, with a gallon of mix covering somewhere around 250 to 500 square feet. Sensitive southern grasses get the lower rate. Don't freelance a "stronger" mix: overdosing a selective herbicide is how you turn a weed treatment into lawn damage, and it doesn't kill tough weeds any deader.
To figure out how much mix you actually need, measure the area you're treating first. The Lawn Size Calculator will get you square footage from a satellite trace in about a minute, and from there the label's coverage chart tells you exactly how many gallons to mix.
When to spray
- Weeds actively growing: spring and fall are prime. Dormant or drought-stressed weeds absorb very little herbicide.
- Calm, dry day: wind drifts spray onto flowers, vegetables, and shrubs, all of which WeedClear will happily injure. Broadleaf means broadleaf.
- Moderate temperatures: follow the label's range. Hot-weather applications stress turf and can volatilize actives onto plants you like.
- Mind the mowing: don't mow for a day or two before spraying (you want leaf surface to hit) or for a day or two after (you want time for absorption). Check your label's specific interval.
If you're juggling this against pre-emergent windows, fertilization, and seeding plans, the Herbicide Timing Tool maps out when each product actually belongs on your lawn so the applications don't fight each other. Seeding matters more than people think: broadleaf herbicides and new grass seed need separation in both directions, usually measured in weeks, per the label.
How Long Does WeedClear Take to Work?
Set your expectations in two stages:
- Days 2 to 7: visible symptoms. Treated broadleaf weeds twist, curl, cup, and start to yellow. This epinastic twisting is the classic signature of growth-regulator herbicides like 2,4-D and dicamba, and it's your confirmation the spray landed.
- Weeks 2 to 3: actual death. The weed browns out and dies back to the root. Easy annuals go faster; deep-rooted perennials take the full window.
Wild violet and creeping charlie routinely look half-dead at week three and then push new leaves from surviving roots. That's not product failure, it's perennial biology. Wait the label's minimum re-treatment interval, then hit the regrowth. Most labels cap you at two applications per year on a given area, so make them count.
Rainfast window
WeedClear needs time on the leaf before rain or irrigation. Labels for these products typically call for the spray to dry and stay dry for at least an hour or a few hours, with "rainproof in one hour" claims on some versions. Check your bottle, watch the radar, and turn off the irrigation controller for the day. Rain inside the window means you likely watered a diluted application into the soil where it does nothing useful.
Is WeedClear Safe for Pets?
The consistent rule across these labels: keep pets (and kids) off the treated area until the spray has completely dried. In sunny, breezy weather that's usually a few hours. Once dry, the treated lawn is generally considered fine for normal use per the label. Practical tips that make this easy: spray in the morning so the lawn is dry by afternoon, treat the backyard and frontyard on different days so the dog always has somewhere to go, and store the concentrate where curious noses can't reach it. For specific re-entry language, toxicity details, or if you keep rabbits or other grazing pets that actually eat the lawn, read your bottle's precautionary statements, because they vary by formulation.
WeedClear vs. Roundup: Not the Same Tool
This one trips up a surprising number of people. Roundup (glyphosate) is non-selective: it kills essentially everything green it touches, including your lawn. WeedClear is selective: it kills broadleaf weeds growing in grass and spares the grass. Use WeedClear on weeds in the lawn. Use a non-selective product for driveway cracks, gravel, fence lines, and total-kill renovations where dead grass is the point, not the accident. If your actual question is about clearing an area completely, our companion guide on Ortho GroundClear vs. Roundup covers the non-selective side of the aisle.
- Exact mix rates, per-grass maximums, and seasonal application counts come from your product label, which is a legal document. When the label and any blog disagree, the label wins.
- Your county extension office can tell you the safe application temperature window for your grass and region, which matters a lot for warm-season lawns in summer.
- Extension turf programs publish weed-specific control guides for hard targets like wild violet, creeping charlie, and dallisgrass, including which active ingredients actually work locally.
- If you're planning to overseed, ask extension (or check the label) for the required interval between broadleaf herbicide application and seeding in both directions.
What Other Guides Miss
The North/South formulation confusion is the real hazard, not the chemistry. Most WeedClear write-ups list weeds killed and stop there. But the product line's regional split means two nearly identical bottles on the same shelf have different tolerances, and the failure mode is asymmetric: use the southern formula on a northern lawn and you get weaker weed control; use the northern formula on St. Augustine or centipede and you can kill your lawn. Big-box stores routinely stock both. Read the grass list on the front panel like it's the only thing on the bottle, because functionally it is.
The second miss is weed identity. "WeedClear didn't work" reviews are heavily populated by people spraying a broadleaf herbicide at grassy weeds like dallisgrass, quackgrass, or coarse tall fescue clumps. The product did exactly what it was designed to do: it spared the grass. It just turns out the weed was a grass. Thirty seconds of identification saves a whole season of futile spraying, which is why we keep pointing you at the free photo diagnosis before the sprayer comes out.
Third: killing weeds without a follow-up plan just books the rematch. Every dead dandelion leaves a bare patch, and bare patches are where next year's weeds germinate. The homeowners who actually win this fight pair post-emergent spraying with a pre-emergent and feeding schedule. That's the paid payoff of our platform, plainly stated: a personalized 12-month care plan tells you the exact week to put down pre-emergent for your zip code and grass type, so you stop needing products like WeedClear as often in the first place.
Comparing Notes with Other Herbicides
WeedClear sits in a crowded field. If you're deciding between products, Spectracide Weed Stop is the budget-shelf rival with similar selective chemistry; our Spectracide Weed Stop instructions guide covers it the same way this one covers WeedClear. And if you're fighting weeds during a seeding project, or you want something with crabgrass and pre-emergent-adjacent flexibility, Tenacity (mesotrione) plays a very different and sometimes better role.
Your WeedClear Action Plan
- Identify the weed first. Photo, free AI diagnosis, confirm it's a broadleaf weed on the WeedClear label. If it's dallisgrass or another grassy weed, stop here and pick a different tool.
- Buy the right formulation. Northern for cool-season lawns, Bermuda, and zoysia; Southern for St. Augustine and centipede. Confirm your grass is on the front label.
- Measure your lawn. Use the Lawn Size Calculator, then mix exactly what the label's coverage chart says for that square footage.
- Pick your window. Actively growing weeds, calm dry day, label-approved temperatures, no rain or irrigation for the rainfast period, no mowing a day or two on either side.
- Spray weeds to wet, then wait. Expect curling within a week and death in two to three weeks. Keep pets off until dry.
- Re-treat the survivors. Wild violet and creeping charlie almost always need a second pass after the label's re-treatment interval, ideally in fall.
- Close the loop with prevention. Get on a pre-emergent and fertilization schedule so the bare spots you just created fill with grass instead of next year's weeds. A personalized 12-month care plan gives you the exact week to apply pre-emergent for your zip and grass type.
Free Lawn Care Tools
Common questions about this topic
Wild violet is on the WeedClear label, but it is one of the toughest broadleaf weeds in any lawn. The waxy leaves shed spray and the rhizome root system regrows from stored energy. Expect to make two or three applications spaced per the label, ideally in fall when violets are moving energy down to their roots. One pass almost never finishes the job.
No, not reliably. Dallisgrass is a grassy weed, and WeedClear's broadleaf formulas are built to kill broadleaf plants while sparing grasses, which is exactly why they leave dallisgrass mostly untouched. Some WeedClear versions add crabgrass control, but mature dallisgrass clumps usually need spot treatment with a non-selective product or digging, plus pre-emergent the following season.
You should see twisting, curling, or wilting on treated weeds within a few days to about a week. A complete kill down to the roots usually takes two to three weeks, and tough perennials like wild violet or creeping charlie can take longer with repeat applications. Don't judge the result or re-spray before the label's re-application interval.
The standard guidance is to keep pets and people off the treated area until the spray has completely dried, which typically takes a few hours in good drying weather. Once dry, treated lawns are generally considered fine for normal pet activity per the label. Always read the pet and re-entry language on your specific bottle, since formulations differ.
Yes. Bermuda is one of the tolerant turf types listed on WeedClear labels. The key is choosing the right version: the northern formulation covers cool-season lawns plus Bermuda and zoysia, while the southern formulation is built for sensitive warm-season grasses like St. Augustine and centipede. Spraying the wrong version on a sensitive grass is the most common way people injure their own lawn.
Ortho has been transitioning its lawn weed killer lineup from the Weed B Gon name to WeedClear, so Weed B Gon products are disappearing from shelves. WeedClear is the successor line with very similar broadleaf-selective chemistry, so if you used Weed B Gon before, WeedClear is the direct replacement. Usage, timing, and expectations are essentially the same.
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