Advice Needed on Starting a New Clover Plot

[tlh2865]

I have cleared a section at the edge of some planted pines where they did not take very well in order to establish a clover plot of roughly 1/2 acre. This is something that I have not done before and have no experience in. A soil test ism coming, and the ground will be amended before any planing is done.
It is in a location that I cannot get any type of equipment to unless I can carry it across a creek. For that reason I am worried about weed and briar competition, as there is already some blackberry on the site that I can remove at the surface, but I know is still rooted.
How do I effectively start a clover plot in such an area? Manual labor isn't an issue, I just don't want to loose the plot to weeds or blackberry after all the clearing work I have done.

Thanks!

 

[BoneCrusher20]

Backpack Sprayer and round up will be your friend. Also refer to a throw and mow thread on here good information on there as well.

But if it is me I'm not planting anything this spring and waiting for blackberry and weeds to come up and in June hit em with spray. Come early August more vegetation will come up but it will be your friend this round as the first spray hopefully exposed some ground and now spread your seed and then may take a while but mow vegetation down and it will lay on top of your seed. Pray for germination.

Next spring frost seed some more clover seed to fill in bare spots. Assuming you are in area that gets a frost.



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[Triple C]

tlh...Clover, and particularly perennial white clover is the back bone of our food plotting on my farm. I really like clover in plots of less than an acre as it will provide some level of attraction and nutrition throughout most of the year. I've had excellent luck with durana and regal graze ladino clovers for my perennial clovers.

This past fall, I planted a new 1/3 acre plot in durana with abruzzi rye as a nurse crop and will maintain it as a pure clover plot for several years to come. Here's my recipe for perennial clover stands:
1) Lime, lime, lime. Get you lime down ASAP and don't skimp on the amount. Get ph to as close to 7 as possible.
2) Work toward preparing a relatively clean seed bed. As BC20 said above, spray the plot with gly at green up this spring, again in early summer and final spray in late summer. Following final gly application, you'll need to find a way to create a relatively clean seed bed to aid in germination. If you can get a four wheeler to the plot you could just run it in circles around the plot to break up all the dead matter from the gly application until you have all the dead thatch kind of mixed in with the top soil.
3) Early fall broadcast clover with a hand spreader. Then broadcast either winter wheat or rye grain as a nurse crop and use some type of drag to cultipak seed into the soil.
4) Apply fertilizer. At planting, I use 19-19-19 to give the grain a boost. Then 0-20-20 the following fall and afterwards.
5) Control weeds and grasses the following spring and summer. If you can't get equipment back in there to mow then use a back pack sprayer to spot spray broad leaf weeds with gly. For summer grasses, which for me is the biggest culprit, spray the entire plot with clethodim in early June as the summer grasses really take off.

This recipe has worked well for me. Here's a bit of a progression of the new plot I planted last October.
Planted on Oct 12. You can see how I had the seed bed prepped.


Following 2 pics were taken on Nov. 17. Rye is doing it's job as a nurse crop and feeding deer at the same time.


Underneath the rye is all that clover putting down roots.


I maintain one of my interior roads and the perimeter of my largest plot in perennial clover. With the exception of late September when it's usually very dry and hot, it feeds deer just about year round.

 

[tlh2865]

Appreciate the input guys!

 

[weekender21]

I'd add lime as necessary when you get your soil test back. You could broadcast 100 pounds/acre of winter rye now, that would give you some weed suppression this spring (I did the same thing in March 2019). In May or June, you could broadcast Buckwheat at 60+ pounds/acre and mow (gas trimmer if necessary) the rye onto the BW seed. Then, ~90 days after your BW planting broadcast annual clover and cereal grains into the BW and mow again for your 2021 fall plot. If you desire a white clover plot, add it then. Chemical application may or may not be "needed".

 

[TheOldOak]

Always a good time to get early start on lime. Here is spring greenup in middle of woods, about one third of an acre that I converted to staging area a few years ago. Cover crop of wheat or rye grain really makes the clover pop.

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[TheOldOak]

Process is buck approved! Downside is results so effective all the predators move in.

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[THE LLC]

When starting a new clover plot I always grow buckwheat on it the first summer and wheat the first fall while I am amending the soil with lime and fertilizers. Sometimes takes me two years with our acidic souls and heavy weed seed base.

 

[dogghr]

I agree with what you have been told especially the plans of Triple and Weekender with prep of plot and mid-late summer planting of clover and cover crop. Once clover is established, overseed each fall with a grain and brassica. While both of those can benefit deer, their main purpose is soil improvement and weed suppression.
Don't fret too much of weeds/blackberry. Many of those are just as attractive to deer as clover as you know. A multiculture of plants is much more productive for the soil and plant health than a monoculture that is constantly requiring chemical or mechanical management. A variety of plants will help promote soil ph and its amendments. Remember the soil is a micro and macro plant and animal microcosm community just as your more visible forests are. Observe and let the soil talk to you and frustrations with planting will be much less. Youtube the many regenerative cropping videos available, especially those by Gabe or Dave. Good luck.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Growing clover on a half acre food plot is the smartest choice that you could make, I'd defietely recommend ladino clover. However, growing only clover is a monoculture, which will eventually unbalance and deplete the soil of nutrients that clover needs to flourish, so it's very important to keep the soil balanced, by growing more than a monoculture. The key to longterm great clover plots is controlling grasses, the key to controlling grasses is maintaining a lower than 24:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio, and the key to maintaining a lower than 24:1 nitrogen ratio is first of all not putting any nitrogen fertilizer on, since clover and deer droppings raise nitrogen levels on their own, which promotes grass growth.
So for clover plots you should use only fertilizer mixes with the first number being a zero, like 0-20-20, or whatever your soil test calls for. Second, interseeding a small grain like oats, wheat, barley or rye once a year will drastically lower the nitrogen levels in the soil. This is why oldoak and the other experts here say "wheat or rye grain really makes the clover pop", it lowers nitrogen, which gives the clover a huge boost. For this reason always plant a nurse crop with new clover seedings, find out what grows well in your area. I personally prefer oats in the spring, and rye in the fall, these are 2 great grains for poor soil (which is usually where food plots are planted) along with buckwheat, which also does another great thing for clover, it turns inorganic phosphorus into usable phosphorus for the clover.

To summarize, to grow clover it's important to understand carbon to nitrogen ratios in the soil, and the concept is not complicated. An easy read is https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcseprd331820.pdf

 

[Native Hunter]

You've been given some great advice already in this thread, so I don't have much to add. I will say that chicory is an excellent companion plant to clover. Deer gobble it up, and the chicory thrives on the nitrogen provided by the clover.

I will also say don't shy away from experimenting with some medium red clover in your mix. It is highly preferred by deer in my area, and the improved varieties give improved longevity.

 

[bearcat]

You've been given some great advice already in this thread, so I don't have much to add. I will say that chicory is an excellent companion plant to clover. Deer gobble it up, and the chicory thrives on the nitrogen provided by the clover.

I will also say don't shy away from experimenting with some medium red clover in your mix. It is highly preferred by deer in my area, and the improved varieties give improved longevity.

Great looking plot!
I was just researching the same topic this morning for my new place. I'm going to plant BW and go with clover and oats/rye this fall.


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[Triple C]

Loving this thread. Sage advice given with more than one way to skin a cat. Just got back from the farm and took a few pics of the new 1/3ish acre clover plot I planted on October 12 last fall. Also, a couple pics of our largest plot that has clover all around the perimeter. This pic was taken yesterday of the plot planted on Oct 12. The deer are hammering the rye and just looking at this plot from a distance you wouldn't know there was any clover in it.


However, at ground level, you can see the clover doing what it does best when planted in the fall - establishing roots for later this spring.


Here's a pic I took yesterday of our largest plot - Just under 6 acres. It's planted in grains and brassicas in the interior of the plot. The perimeter is covered in durana and ladino clovers that were planted in 2015 and overseeded each fall.


Underneath my feet is nice lush clover that covers the perimeter of this plot and will feed critters just about year round.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I have cleared a section at the edge of some planted pines where they did not take very well in order to establish a clover plot of roughly 1/2 acre. This is something that I have not done before and have no experience in. A soil test ism coming, and the ground will be amended before any planing is done.
It is in a location that I cannot get any type of equipment to unless I can carry it across a creek. For that reason I am worried about weed and briar competition, as there is already some blackberry on the site that I can remove at the surface, but I know is still rooted.
How do I effectively start a clover plot in such an area? Manual labor isn't an issue, I just don't want to loose the plot to weeds or blackberry after all the clearing work I have done.

Thanks!

How much creek do you have to span to stay outta the water? Any chance of building an affordable bridge over it? A couple telephone poles, or some homemade beams and 2x6's might get you a walking/atv bridge.

The other way you might look at it... Give it lime/gypsum, seed it to what you want, and let the regen happen. Consider it a regen spot full of clover, chicory, and barley.

 

[dogghr]

Loving this thread. Sage advice given with more than one way to skin a cat. Just got back from the farm and took a few pics of the new 1/3ish acre clover plot I planted on October 12 last fall. Also, a couple pics of our largest plot that has clover all around the perimeter. This pic was taken yesterday of the plot planted on Oct 12. The deer are hammering the rye and just looking at this plot from a distance you wouldn't know there was any clover in it.
View attachment 18083

However, at ground level, you can see the clover doing what it does best when planted in the fall - establishing roots for later this spring.
View attachment 18084

Here's a pic I took yesterday of our largest plot - Just under 6 acres. It's planted in grains and brassicas in the interior of the plot. The perimeter is covered in durana and ladino clovers that were planted in 2015 and overseeded each fall.
View attachment 18085

Underneath my feet is nice lush clover that covers the perimeter of this plot and will feed critters just about year round.
View attachment 18086

Seriosly Triple? You gonna show pics like that to us when good many are sitting here w subzero windchills and snow? I’m unfriending you! . Nice plots.

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[Triple C]

Seriosly Triple? You gonna show pics like that to us when good many are sitting here w subzero windchills and snow? I’m unfriending you! . Nice plots.

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Ha! Trade places with you in August any day! Nice fire...

 

[tlh2865]

How much creek do you have to span to stay outta the water? Any chance of building an affordable bridge over it? A couple telephone poles, or some homemade beams and 2x6's might get you a walking/atv bridge.

The other way you might look at it... Give it lime/gypsum, seed it to what you want, and let the regen happen. Consider it a regen spot full of clover, chicory, and barley.

Bridge is actually an option my father and I have tossed around, will do some looking at that tomorrow.

 

[Drycreek]

When starting a new clover plot I always grow buckwheat on it the first summer and wheat the first fall while I am amending the soil with lime and fertilizers. Sometimes takes me two years with our acidic souls and heavy weed seed base.

Just this year I decided to do that on all new plots, no matter what I intend to plant eventually. I think I can already see the benefits of buckwheat as a soil builder. I have this forum to thank for that !

 

[Cedar Ridge]

Loving this thread. Sage advice given with more than one way to skin a cat. Just got back from the farm and took a few pics of the new 1/3ish acre clover plot I planted on October 12 last fall. Also, a couple pics of our largest plot that has clover all around the perimeter. This pic was taken yesterday of the plot planted on Oct 12. The deer are hammering the rye and just looking at this plot from a distance you wouldn't know there was any clover in it.
View attachment 18083

However, at ground level, you can see the clover doing what it does best when planted in the fall - establishing roots for later this spring.
View attachment 18084

Here's a pic I took yesterday of our largest plot - Just under 6 acres. It's planted in grains and brassicas in the interior of the plot. The perimeter is covered in durana and ladino clovers that were planted in 2015 and overseeded each fall.
View attachment 18085

Underneath my feet is nice lush clover that covers the perimeter of this plot and will feed critters just about year round.
View attachment 18086

Was thinking of saying the same thing Triple C by the time I got to your post. This thread exhibits everything I love about this forum. I’m so thankful to have all you guys as resources!

This is one of the few recent pics I have during the daytime. This is a .5 acre field that I had my dozer guy tweak early last Fall. It’s a saddle between two ridges and it gets a TON of activity. Currently planted in ladino and medium red clover along with some chicory. Cover crop is wheat. It’s just getting hammered. Can’t wait for the clover and chicory to explode this spring.

I had such good luck with clover here last year that I added it and chicory as a component in 4 of my 7 fields this past Fall. I’ll be following a lot of the suggestions in this thread as I go forward with my future plantings as well. Thanks again for all the knowledge sharing!