Anyone starting to seed clover?

[Billdogge]

Start now or wait?

 

Thanks

[wolc123]

The best time to plant clover in NY state is starting around August 15 thru around September 15.   If you plant earlier, weeds are tough to control.   I usually get the ground tilled at the end of the summer.  Broadcast wheat (or cerial rye) onto the tilled soil, then cultipack.  Those larger seeds do a little better deeper, which is why they should be pressed into the "fluffy soil" with the cultipacker.   Next, broadcast white clover, then cultipack again, perpendicular to the first direction.  The smaller clover seeds do better if planted shallow, which is why the soil should be cultipacked before and after planting.   If you don't have a cultipacker, multiple passes with ATV tires will work ok on smaller plots.  Some folks drag a log around or use a lawn roller.  If I have some extra soybean seeds, I throw that in at the same time as the wheat or rye.  Austrian Winter Peas (AWP) are a good alternative.  

The sprouting soybeans or AWP will draw deer to the spot early in the fall.   The deer will usually wipe out all the soybeans before the frost gets them, while AWP will persist thru a frost in areas of low deer population (or if fenced).   The wheat or rye will come on next, a little later in the fall and hold the deer on the plots until it gets covered by snow.  The following spring, the wheat or rye will keep down the weeds, providing a "nurse crop" for the clover.  It should be mowed before it goes to seed.  After that, your white clover plot should give you 3-5 years of good attraction with just a couple mowings a year for maintenance.  

When the grass begins to overtake the clover, after several years, that is telling you that the nitrogen level in the soil is getting high.  Now you can utilize that by tilling the plot again and putting in a nitrogen loving plot like brassicas or corn.  After one year of that, you can start the cycle all over again with the August 15 planting of soybean/wheat,eye,white clover mix.  You might want to spend some time and money between now and August getting the soil ph in shape, by adding lime as recommended by a soil test.   Clover does not do well in acidic soils.                 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2017 by wolc123

[sailinghudson25]

My go to plot is the one above.

 

I frost seeded a month ago during the warm spell.  I seeded a few spots I removed brush on.  I cleared brush, spread lime, fertilizer,  and winter rye.  Then I set my tiller to 1.5 inch depth and tilled it lightly.  Then spread Dutch white clover.  Then ran it over with the ATV.

Frost seeding is done.  

Spring weeds can be a real handful when you add fertilizer.  However,  I am pro weeds in my plot.  Deer eat them.  Weeds animals do not eat get out of hand if you don't control them via mowing.

I mow not based on height, I mow based on when the more troublesome weeds are into ssed production phase.    Many annuals can be killed just by mowing them in this phase.  Hit the right time before the seeds are mature enough to be viable. 

[sailinghudson25]

If you have an easy way to till up your plot, just put in oats and red clover.  Till it up august 1st, then till it again in a week or two later to kill young weeds that germinated.    Then do a perennial clover and wheat plot.

If you got clover already, go ahead and overseed.

If you spray your food plots with herbicide, then wait until early may.  Let those weeds grow up a bit, spread the clover seed, then spray the herbicide right after.  A few days later mow it for mulch for the clover seed.