Best Clover Seed Brand for Frost Seeding

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Prelude8626

Member
All. Looking to frost seed a couple of my 1/4 food plots once the snow goes down. So far I have decided on one bag of WI Imperial Whitetail Clover. Looking for possibly two more different options. trying to keep it simple and go with commercial blends/brand. Love to hear what you all have used and what did/didnt work.
 
Prelude8626 said:
All. Looking to frost seed a couple of my 1/4 food plots once the snow goes down. So far I have decided on one bag of WI Imperial Whitetail Clover. Looking for possibly two more different options. trying to keep it simple and go with commercial blends/brand. Love to hear what you all have used and what did/didnt work.
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I think most kinds of clover will work just fine for frost seeding, the question is what kind of clover do you want growing later on. There is another thread going about the pros and cons of mixing red and white clover in the same seeding. A lot of people would just plant the Imperial alone, I'm more of a mixture guy, that way if one thing isn't growing the other might be. If you want a picture perfect plot to put on the cover of a magazine you want to plant a monoculture, mixes tend to look more scraggly, but my deer never complained about the looks.
 
I’d look at what varieties are in the Impereial blend. If a substantial portion i# berseem, I’d pass. I’ve found even the “Frost tolerant” variety not conducive to frostseeding. I personally like mixing ladino and medium red.
 
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I have used WI and while it has some waste in it, the white clover was some of the hardiest and best growing I've planted. But I do anymore just buy and mix a RC and WC from the local feed store. Also I find overseeding for me works better late March rather than when it is truly freezing and thawing. The ground is such a muck from winter, the seed gets sucked right in to the soil and daytime temps give better germination. I think in part the success is better for me then is that birds and turkeys have access to better foods with the greenup and don't eat my seed I just thru out. Check your ph as clover do love 6+ even tho it will grow at lower levels. Good luck.
 
Don’t worry about brand name. Just find a variety that fits your need and save some cash. Now with 1/4 acre plots that doesn’t matter as much but several can add up.


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WI clover is really good. I have a 1/2 plot and it really pulls the deer in. Like someone else said, WI has a high % of berseem clover which doesn’t lend itself for true frost seeding. I also overseed an established WI clover plot once a year to make sure it remains full and healthy. Personally if I were you, I’d plant a summer annual like buckwheat and then plant WI late summer via throw and mow. Plus, that’d give you some time to get your ph adjusted if needed
 
The PH has already been adjusted in two of the plots. Maybe I’ll try one in WI and the other in a ladino/red mix. I know my local seed store doesn’t get seeds in till the end of March but we normally still have some snow at that point.
 
Down here, Deep in the HEAT of Texas, we have no choice but to plant clover in the fall, but I've had nothing but good results from WINA clover. I don't care about the BOB stigma, if it works, it works. I had some videos from a game cam,(until my pc crashed), that were eye opening for sure. Multiple deer in it every day and you could hardly tell from the growth. It's an excellent product IMO.
 
I've always liked Biologic Clover Plus. If it's a small plot, I'll just buy a bag of that. If I'm doing upwards of an acre, I'll actually source my own seed. The big payoff in clover isn't the seed though. It's in the fertility.

Gypsum.
 
Whitetail Institute is good clover but is not a good option for frost seeding. A large portion of the bag is indeed Berseem clover which won't frost seed so you are wasting a lot of money. Medium red clover is what I use a lot for frost seeding and it does well. You can check labels or just buy however much medium red from Deercreek seed or other online place if you don't have local source.
 
If your looking into opinions on what works and doesn’t work I will say what doesn’t work here in the North for me is frost seeding clover. The ground doesn’t warm up enough for germination until at least mid May. If you throw the seed out in March or April it just sits there for 4-6 weeks before it germinates. If you throw it out the second week of May it germinates in a week. I’ve seen no advantage time wise or germination wise to frost seed clover. Unless you just want to get it done but, in my experience has no head start advantage. A good variety of clover that I’ve had success with is white ladino. Once established , works for years. For annual fall plots I really like crimson.
 
If you frost seed clover and after it starts to germinate later on and we get a late frost or two will it kill it?
 
Buckeye said:
If you frost seed clover and after it starts to germinate later on and we get a late frost or two will it kill it?
Click to expand...
If it's red clover or ladino a late frost won't hurt it after it's germinated. Of course, you want to frost seed in early spring after the hard freezes are over, not in late fall, which would not work well. Clover is a cool season plant that can stand a lot of cold weather, a few clover leaves stay green all winter long under the snow in zone 6.
 
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