Perennial clover question

BassHunter25

Senior Member
Is it better to keep the clover separate or is it in to mix with annuals?
I don’t have the ability to over seed and cultipack later. So should I leave sections that I can re till in spring to add variety. ?
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Not 100% sure that I will answer the question you've asked, but ....... In the picture below, in the fall of 2017, I planted wheat, Daikon radishes, turnips, Crimson Clover, Advantage Ladino Clover and Medium Red Clover.

The radishes were eaten in the fall, some turnips lingered, I killed off the oats (grasses & weeds too) this spring, the Crimson Clover lasted till late April and the Advantage Ladino and Medium Red clovers, is what is left today.

Advantage Ladino is a perennial and Medium Clover is a biennial (2 years), so I will definitely be leaving some strips of this and I will overseed them with more of the same this fall. I will get those strips turned into perennial strips, while I still work up the ground to give me some different fall attractant.

If you're asking about starting a perennial plot, you'll always want to use a nurse crop, like wheat and oats, to help it along, till it gets established.

Having a perennial clover plot in some of your shadier spots, is a good idea too. Pure stands of clover in year 2, is what you want.L-Plot2.JPG

Does that answer your question?
 

BassHunter25

Senior Member
Does that answer your question?
Thanks
Yes somewhat. So the clover won't just take over on its own to start with. So We will want a mixture for a couple years, but eventually it will take over and it can be all established clover?

Most of my plots are only about 18 feet wide strips. about three passes wide on the tractor some only two passes. And a few are 1/4 acre circles. So I worry about how to be able to leave these strips of clover especially if they aren't that established? We have a roto tiller and normal plow for tractor. We normally use the rotary tiller and once I plow re plow the plots I fear I will kill all the established clover?
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
If you get your soil ph up to 6.5 and plant a perennial clover like Durana, Imperial Whitetail Institute, Regal Graze, etc., It will take over. It will spread by stolons and with a little TLc will last a long time.

I would focus on leaving the clover and letting it go and in the fall, if you like, you can broadcast over top, some wheat. Clover will feed the deer for many months out of the year. Or, you can just make one pass, thru the center of your 18 foot wide strips and plant that. You can probably get a lot of variety, in that one pass thru the center, like wheat, oats, brassicas, etc.
 
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Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
I do understand the "want" for variety, and that's why I still have some annual plots/strips that I plant every year, along with some perennial plots. But under your circumstances, you can choose to have 50% of your strips, go to perennial clover and just do weed control on them. Then do the other plots in an annual mix, but still adding an annual clover to it

Your narrow strips and small 1/4 acre plots are good candidates (likely) for clover, since I assume that they see a lot of shade.
Durana Graph.JPG

For your annual mix, you can do something like this, with a 3 clover blend.

Crude protein.JPG

Proudction of cool season crops.JPG

Having some strips of perennial clover is a big benefit, in drought years!
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
There's lots of different types of clover to choose from these days and it never hurts to have a "mix" of them, where one might do better at a different time of year, than another.

2018 Manchester Farm & Garden Clover prices.JPG
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
And some seeding rates

Cool season seed.JPG
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
I have some old Durana plots, that I do very little too, other than weed and grass control. If I was to work this plot up tomorrow, I would have another good stand of Durana by November first, from seeds that it has dropped over the years. It will be hard to get rid of this clover .... ever.

You can see how thick it can get, just spreading by it's stolons along the ground. Now, a clover like Imperial Whitetail Institute is a blend of 3 different types of clover. One annual clover, to get things started and 2 perennial clovers to give your plot longevity. It's good stuff, too, but soil ph is more critical with it, than Durana.

Durana1.jpg
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Let me give you my opinion on that ...... if you can use the proper chemicals like clethodim + crop oil, for grass and 2,4db for broad leaf weed control, that's the ideal way of doing it. Crakajax is spraying with IMOX right now http://forum.gon.com/threads/herbicides-insecticides-fungicides-and-safety.864492/page-2 and it should handle grass and broadleaf weeds. Might be the best option?

I use a weed wiper, with a 50/50 solution of glyphosate and water, that skims across the top of the clover (mostly) that will hit and kill the tall grass and broad leaf weeds. I don't have the most perfect looking plots, but it serves my purpose. I also don't have to haul water to fill my sprayer and my deer don't seem to mind what my plots look like.

In the spring (early April), in the second year of your perennial clover plot, when there has been an abundant amount of rainfall and everything is growing great, you can spray your clover plot with 1 quart per acre of glyphosate. (You don't want to do it when the clover is stressed.) It will set the clover back some, but it will kill off all the grass and most of the broad leaf weeds. It's not for the faint of heart. Some of the clover will be regenerated by seeds it dropped the previous year.

Please don't assume that glyphosate won't hurt the clover, because it will set it back. If it's set back too much, it will just open the canopy up and allow more weeds and grasses to come thru.
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Proper ph, lots of potassium & phosphorus will make a thick stand of perennial white clover, that can out compete most broadleaf weeds. Grasses, on the other hand are very sneaky!
 

elfiii

Admin
Staff member
Proper ph, lots of potassium & phosphorus will make a thick stand of perennial white clover, that can out compete most broadleaf weeds. Grasses, on the other hand are very sneaky!

Grasses are always a fist fight in a clover plot. You think you have got them killed off and then a month later, whoa!, where'd you come from?
 
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