What Is Micro Clover? Reasons to Grow It in Your Lawn

Micro clover (sometimes spelled as microclover) is a small variety of white clover well worth consideration for spring lawn renovation. Bred for low height and small leaves, it can be used as a standalone groundcover or as 2 percent to 5 percent of a lawn mix. When used in a lawn mix, it supplies continuous nitrogen and helps suppress weeds. 

Standard-size white clover (Trifolium repens) has been used with lawn seed for a very long time, but it sometimes begs the patience of lawn keepers. Standard white clover can overcome grass species and crowd them out. It goes to flower quickly and attracts bees. 

What Is Micro Clover?

Micro clover is a dwarf variety of Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens) growing 4 to 6 inches tall with trifoliate leaves or three leaves resembling shamrocks. It is the smallest variety of clover, designed to grow shorter, less patchy, and with fewer flowers than the standard clover associated with grass mixes. It doesn't crowd out grass; you can mow it down to 3 inches. The most popular varieties of micro clover are 'Pirouette' and 'Pipolina'.

It compares to regular clover because of the shape of its leaves, but it is 1/3 to 1/2 the size of common clover with much smaller leaves. It will also grow more densely, growing back smaller when mowed. It will flower for one month in summer with white flowers, but you can cut away the flowers to keep your lawn looking green.

Benefits of Micro Clover

Micro clover has many advantages, including its ability to resist disease and pests, control weeds, supply nitrogen, attract beneficial insects, and reduce the need for fertilization.

• Grows well with grass: Micro clover mixes well with tall and fine fescues, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass and provides a uniform appearance. It also adds variety to grass and gives a lawn more resistance to disease and pests.
• Produces nitrogen: As micro clover decays, it is a good nitrogen source in grass clippings.
• May reduce the need for one fertilizer application: Turf lawns with micro clover in their mix need one less application of fertilizer than grass-only lawns.
• Flowers are a food source for bees: Micro clover attracts and aids pollinators.
• Crowds out weeds: Micro clover is a rapid spreader that naturally crowds out and outcompetes broadleaf weeds.
• Attracts beneficial insects that prey on pests: Micro clover reduces the need to use pesticides because it attracts ladybugs, minute pirate bugs, lacewings, and parasitoid wasps (specialized non-stinging predators), which feed on garden pests such as aphids, whiteflies, scale, and cabbage worms.
• Detracts certain lawn pests: All clovers are not a food source for grubs and other lawn-damaging insects, preventing them from laying eggs in a clover-filled lawn.
• Drought tolerance: Micro clover is more drought tolerant than turf grass but not as tolerant as common white clover (though there are other better drought-tolerant lawn substitutes).
• Cold hardy: Micro clover grows in snow cover, may stay green in winter (depending on the temperatures), and is cold hardy down to USDA hardiness zone 3.
• Grows in compacted soils: Micro clover's deep roots can penetrate dense soils to loosen them up.
• Reduces the need to aerate or dethatch the lawn: The deep roots also prevent thatch (which includes dead grass, roots, and leaves).
• Reduces erosion: The deep roots help mitigate erosion on steep hillsides.
• Resistant to dog urine: Clover stands up to dog urine and rowdy pet play. It repairs itself when pets dig into the plant.
• Resistant to de-icing salts: Micro clover is salt-tolerant and grows along the tidal banks of salty streams.
• Attracts rabbits away from vegetable gardens: Clover is a food source for rabbits and can lure them away from the vegetable gardens that they otherwise plunder.
  

Disadvantages of Micro Clover

The disadvantages of micro clover are that it's not as heat tolerant or shade tolerant as regular clover, it's more expensive, and it may not hold up well to heavy foot traffic. It also doesn't grow well in sandy soils and dies if exposed to broadleaf herbicides.

• Not heat or shade-resistant: In the high summer heat, it may die back, causing bare spots in your lawn. At a minimum, micro clover needs at least four hours of sun per day, so it doesn't fare well in the shade of a tree or building. Exposure to constant dry heat might require reseeding once peak heat passes.
• Expensive: Micro clover is a pricier specialty seed and costlier than common white clover, and it may not be readily available at all gardening centers.
• Problems as a monoculture lawn cover: An entire lawn grown with micro clover can become a muddy mess in the winter. Micro clover doesn't hold up well to excessive foot traffic by itself; it must be mixed with turfgrass to bounce back from play or foot traffic.
• Southern blight susceptibility: An all-clover monoculture lawn can attract diseases. Though micro clover is highly disease resistant, it is susceptible to southern blight disease, which is problematic in areas with high humidity and warm night temperatures. 

How to Establish Micro Clover

Plant micro clover in the spring around your last frost date. Clover likes cool temperatures while germinating. In the fall, plant seeds about eight weeks before your first frost date so the plants can establish roots before winter. Take these quick steps if you plan to mix micro clover seed in with your existing lawn:

1. Mow the grass so it's 2 to 3 inches long, and remove clippings and dead grass before sowing.
2. Sow seeds using the recommended coverage rate and gently rake or compress them into the soil for good contact.
3. Keep the soil damp, not soggy, for germination. Don't let the soil dry out.

Micro Clover Tolerates Regular Mowing

Diminutive micro clover is shorter than most turfgrass species. It tolerates regular mowing. In addition, micro clover will produce few or no flowers when it is consistently mowed to 3 inches.

Micro Clover and Organic Lawns

Micro clover is popular among those who prefer organic lawn care for a few reasons:

• Micro clover is a perpetual nitrogen source for lawn grasses and may reduce one nitrogen application per year. Grass clippings and micro clover may supply all the needed nitrogen soil needs. Get annual soil tests to determine how well nitrogen needs are being met. 
• Micro clovers are conventionally bred broadleaf plants and not genetically engineered (non-GMO) grass. GMO grasses may resist herbicides that control weeds. Low-growing but broad-leafed micro clover shades out some pernicious lawn weeds.
• Micro clover overcomes most drawbacks associated with the standard-size white clover, except that it is susceptible to broad-leaf weed killers.

Coated or Uncoated Seeds

Micro clover seed can be purchased coated or uncoated though most seeds today are coated. The clay coating includes an inoculant of essential bacteria (Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar. Trifoli) to help the plants establish better and to fix nitrogen, especially when clover or any other nitrogen-fixing plants have not been planted in the area before. If your soil has this bacteria, uncoated micro clover seeds will work fine.

Where to Buy Micro Clover

Micro clover (Trifolium repens var. pirouette) was initially developed in Denmark by DLF Trifolium and introduced in the United States around 2005. It is sold under several names, including Microclover, Miniclover, Microgreen Microclover, and Micro Clover. You can find common white clover seed in home improvement stores but you may need to search further for a micro clover seed source.

Cost of Micro Clover Seeds

Micro clover seed is more expensive per pound than common white clover because it's specially cultivated and in demand for its uniform aesthetic. Micro clover typically costs between about $30 to $65 a pound depending on the supplier.

You'll likely need about 1 to 2 pounds of seed for every 1,000 square feet of lawn you want to cover. So, a 10,000-square-foot lawn can cost from $300 to $1,300 for seed.