Coated Clover Seed

[SWAMPFOX]

Just got off the phone with a feed/seed store here in Jacksonville, FL. I was asking about clover seed and the guy tells me they have coated ladino, crimson and yuchi. I asked if they sold the accompanying inoculant and he says no, because the coating is the inoculant.

I gotta figure the "coating" is gonna reduce my actual seed per pound, which is gonna cost me at $2-3 a pound. I'm not happy about buying coated seed since me buying the inoculant and doing it myself is easy and I get more seed. The feed store guy also told me they can't get non-coated seed.

Am I missing something?

Thanks.

 

[2dye4]

Yes 50 lbs is actually 25 lbs or somewhere there about.

 

[Canuck5]

Sadly, you're not missing anything. Some clovers are better than others but I've always found Crimson to be bad. There might be 18 pounds of PLS pure live seed in a 50 pound bag. I've done the calculations in the past and arrowleaf might be the cheapest (sometimes) because it has more PLS (pure live seed) in the bag with better germination. Crimson looks to be cheap, but isn't always.

https://forum.gon.com/threads/seed-question-dumb-question.1022912/

 

[2dye4]

I’m in the grass business and back years ago they started coating centipede seed with the same sales pitch. I think it’s a Ponzi scheme, half the seed for twice the cost. About like a bag of air with a little bit of potato chips in it.

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

The coating is clay, the inoculant is like .01% of the volume. UnInoculated seed is rare because it's a pain to deal with. Plus unless there's a deer on the bag it's rare for there to be any margin in it so the coating makes up the margin.

 

[Long Cut]

It’s a dirty business. I’ve found some “raw” seed but it’s few and far between. Most Buck on a Bag seed companies do the same.

They’ll state that 1 bag plants “X” acres but reading the fine print, you realize there’s only ~25 to 50% live seed in these bags.

 

[deers2ward]

If you used inoculant in the past, then it is still in the soil, and not needed for future planting of that same kind of seed (crimson clover).

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

If you used inoculant in the past, then it is still in the soil, and not needed for future planting of that same kind of seed (crimson clover).

Not true if it's been more than 3 years.

 

[SWAMPFOX]

I have never planted clover on this area. So I'm gonna see if I can find a source of pure live seed and then find inoculant. I've inoculated clover at former locations and it isn't a big deal. I put the seed in a shallow pan, mix the inoculant with distilled waster to form a slurry then pour that over the seed and swirl it around and let it dry. Then pour the seed in a hand spreader and put it out, then pack it down.