Product Reviews
Best Grass and Weed Killer: Three Jobs, Three Products
NC State: glyphosate reaches the roots and has little or no soil residual. Contact killers do neither. Decide which of the three jobs you actually have.
Non-Selective Fatty-Acid Burndown (ready-to-use, OMRI Listed)
Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal) Review
★★★★☆ 4/5
our editor rating how we score4.3/5 from 7,884 shoppers at Amazon — their number, not ours.
$14–$20
Typical price · 1 gal ready-to-use; spot treatment, reapply as regrowth appears
Affiliate links — see our disclosure. Commissions never influence verdicts.
The genuinely OMRI-Listed option in this group — and the same OMRI listing is why it cannot tell your grass from a dandelion.
Our Verdict
The best of the lower-toxicity burndowns for the job it is actually for, which is hard surfaces. Ammonium nonanoate is a fatty-acid soap: it destroys the leaf cuticle on contact, so weeds collapse within hours, and Colorado State University Extension's guide to natural herbicides places the whole soap and oil category together as non-selective contact products that kill only the green tissue they touch. That means driveways, gravel, patio joints, bed edges and fence lines — not turf. Buy it for paving with a dog or children using the yard, obey the label's dry-before-re-entry instruction like any other product, and accept that perennials with taproots will push back and need repeating. Four stars for honest chemistry sold with an honest OMRI listing; nothing here is a lawn weeder.
✅ Pros
- Genuinely OMRI Listed, unlike much of what is merchandised as natural
- Visible collapse of treated foliage within hours
- No synthetic hormone herbicide and no soil residual
- Comfort wand reaches cracks and edges without a separate sprayer
⚠️ Cons
- Non-selective — it browns lawn grass as readily as the weed (CSU)
- Contact only, no root kill, so perennials regrow and need repeat passes
- CSU advises gloves and eye protection for this whole category, exempt or not
- Works best in warm weather; a cool cloudy day underperforms
- Costs far more per treated area than a selective concentrate
Product type
Non-Selective Fatty-Acid Burndown (ready-to-use, OMRI Listed)
Active ingredient
Ammonium nonanoate (ammonium salt of pelargonic acid)
Price range
$14–$20
Coverage
1 gal ready-to-use; spot treatment, reapply as regrowth appears
Best for
A lower-toxicity burndown for paving, gravel and bed edges in a household with pets
our editor rating
4 out of 5
Where our facts come from
Registration confirmed, label text not read
EPA Reg. No. 91161-1-239
The registration exists and we confirmed it, but no label document was available to read. Treat the concentration and general use pattern as sound and take rates from the container itself.
What we found when we read it
EPA PPLS registry record read 2026-08-02: product name 'Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer', EPA Reg. 91161-1-239, with 'Ortho GroundClear Organics Collection Weed & Grass Killer' as an alternate brand name. This is a DISTRIBUTOR product — the three-part number means base registration 91161-1 sold under Ortho's company number 239 — so its printed label may omit uses the base registration allows. EPA hosts no label PDF for it, so no label text has been read and the ammonium nonanoate percentage in this record is not label-sourced. Do not attribute any site or rate claim here to the label until it is read.
Where this page and the container disagree, the container wins — the label is the legal authority on rates and restrictions. How to read one yourself.
Where This Product Matters
Matched against each state's actual disease, weed and pest pressure.
Alabama
Alabama hub →Crabgrass
Alaska
Alaska hub →DandelionCommon chickweedChickweed and other cool-wet-condition annuals in the Southeast
Arizona
Arizona hub →Crabgrass
Arkansas
Arkansas hub →Crabgrass
California
California hub →Crabgrass
Colorado
Colorado hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Connecticut
Connecticut hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Delaware
Delaware hub →Crabgrass
Florida
Florida hub →Crabgrass
Georgia
Georgia hub →Crabgrass
Hawaii
Hawaii hub →Crabgrass
Idaho
Idaho hub →DandelionCrabgrass in the warmer southern valleys
Illinois
Illinois hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Indiana
Indiana hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Iowa
Iowa hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Kansas
Kansas hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Kentucky
Kentucky hub →Crabgrass
Maine
Maine hub →DandelionCommon chickweedCrabgrass (southern and coastal Maine more than the interior)Moss — in Maine usually the correct reading of shade, acidity and compaction rather than a weed to spray
Maryland
Maryland hub →Crabgrass
Massachusetts
Massachusetts hub →CrabgrassDandelionMoss (shade, acidity and compaction together)
Michigan
Michigan hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Minnesota
Minnesota hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Mississippi
Mississippi hub →Crabgrass
Missouri
Missouri hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Montana
Montana hub →DandelionCrabgrass and foxtail in the warmer valleys and in thin ground
Nebraska
Nebraska hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Nevada
Nevada hub →Crabgrass
New Hampshire
New Hampshire hub →Crabgrass (heaviest in the south, thinning northward)DandelionCommon chickweedMoss — which in New Hampshire is usually the honest verdict on shade, acidity and compaction rather than a weed to kill
New Jersey
New Jersey hub →CrabgrassDandelion
New Mexico
New Mexico hub →Crabgrass in irrigated turf
New York
New York hub →CrabgrassDandelion
North Carolina
North Carolina hub →Crabgrass
North Dakota
North Dakota hub →DandelionCrabgrass, real but a smaller problem than further south
Ohio
Ohio hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Oklahoma
Oklahoma hub →CrabgrassSandbur (the western sandy-soil weed that standard crabgrass preventers do not list)
Oregon
Oregon hub →Moss (west of the Cascades this is the lawn problem, not a side note)DandelionCrabgrass (east side and hot summers only)
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Rhode Island
Rhode Island hub →CrabgrassDandelion
South Carolina
South Carolina hub →Crabgrass
South Dakota
South Dakota hub →DandelionCrabgrass and foxtail in thin or disturbed ground
Tennessee
Tennessee hub →Dallisgrass (a perennial the quinclorac that clears crabgrass will not touch)Crabgrass
Texas
Texas hub →Crabgrass
Utah
Utah hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Vermont
Vermont hub →DandelionCommon chickweedCrabgrass (a valley problem more than a hill-town one)Moss — usually the correct diagnosis for shade, acidity and compaction rather than a weed with a chemical answer
Virginia
Virginia hub →CrabgrassDandelion
Washington
Washington hub →Moss (the defining western Washington lawn problem)Dandelion
West Virginia
West Virginia hub →Crabgrass
Wisconsin
Wisconsin hub →DandelionCrabgrass
Wyoming
Wyoming hub →Dandelion
Common questions
Common Questions
How much does Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal) cost?
Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal) typically runs $14–$20, covering 1 gal ready-to-use; spot treatment, reapply as regrowth appears.
What does Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal) treat?
Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal) targets Dandelion, Chickweed, Crabgrass, Moss.
What is the active ingredient in Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal)?
Ammonium nonanoate (ammonium salt of pelargonic acid), registered under EPA Reg. No. 91161-1-239.
What is the biggest downside of Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer with Comfort Wand (1 gal)?
Non-selective — it browns lawn grass as readily as the weed (CSU)
Real feedback
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