Now is the Time for Clover Plot Maintenance

[BenAllgood]

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, and if what you're doing works well for you, by all means keep doing it, but in my opinion properly managed perennial clover like ladino probably takes less time and money per days of available deer food yearly than any other food plot species and definitely beats annual clovers for plots that are in clover year after year. We have several one acre clover plots that are 5 plus years old that we put in less than one hour per year for upkeep, and have a continuous high quality clover stand that is tops on the deer preference list at 25-30% protein and 70% digestibility, lasting from March through December in zone 6. The 1 hour spent is the early spring herbicide application, and it's good for another year. If you are an absentee landowner id consider perennial clover as a must have. And restarting annual clover every year means a lot of unnecessary tillage that takes time and money degrades the soil, plants weed seeds, and destroys a lot of beneficial fungi, and organic matter. Unless someone lives in the south and the summers are too hot for clover,, ladino is possibly the best deer food plot species evet.

Mine are experiments. I guess coming from Louisiana where I had to do multiple maintenance trips for my perennial clover plots, I decided to try something different in Kentucky. My only mechanical disturbance was the establishment. From there on out, I just overseed. Time will tell. I do like your method alot. I just couldn't get it to work in Louisiana, so didn't want to try it again in Kentucky. Also, my 3 plots are all adjacent to spring sites and the source of a local watershed, so I wanted to minimize chemicals as much as possible.

 

[willy]

I'm typing this as I wait my 15 min after my covid shot.

Well today was a bust as far as spraying goes. Got some blind maintainence done and then when warm enough to spray, technical difficulties blew up. Need to go back to owners manual and check the problem/solution list.

Hopefully next weekend gets its done.

 

[Native Hunter]

My clover is starting to ramp up. The pics below were taken 2 days ago. First pic was planted last fall and second has been established a few years. I also like to let grains grow to maturity if possible. I may just do some spot spaying of weeds in my clover this year with a hand sprayer.

 

[Cedar Ridge]

My clover is starting to ramp up. The pics below were taken 2 days ago. First pic was planted last fall and second has been established a few years. I also like to let grains grow to maturity if possible. I may just do some spot spaying of weeds in my clover this year with a hand sprayer.

Looks great!

 

[Mennoniteman]

My clover is starting to ramp up. The pics below were taken 2 days ago. First pic was planted last fall and second has been established a few years. I also like to let grains grow to maturity if possible. I may just do some spot spaying of weeds in my clover this year with a hand sprayer.

No need to spray this beautiful stand! What strain of white clover is this?

 

[Mennoniteman]

Mine are experiments. I guess coming from Louisiana where I had to do multiple maintenance trips for my perennial clover plots, I decided to try something different in Kentucky. My only mechanical disturbance was the establishment. From there on out, I just overseed. Time will tell. I do like your method alot. I just couldn't get it to work in Louisiana, so didn't want to try it again in Kentucky. Also, my 3 plots are all adjacent to spring sites and the source of a local watershed, so I wanted to minimize chemicals as much as possible.

I understand that Ladino clover is a difficult crop to grow in the south due to the heat. Probably a totally different ball game than we're used to. But Ladino in Kentucky should be as great as the Wildcats used to be.

 

[KSQ2]

Ladino is a favorite of mine here in Kansas. It’s always a big part of our mix.

 

[Native Hunter]

No need to spray this beautiful stand! What strain of white clover is this?

I believe that the white was Patriot and it’s mixed with medium red and crimson. I’ve become a big fan of mixing them.

 

[Petreaux1]

Couple of rookie questions please:
1)Am I reading correct it is 25 gallons water per batch per acre?
2)The clover here starts growing good in late October, peaks in April, and keeps growing decent thru June. Right now its about 10 inches tall and very thick. If I were to spray now there are almost no weeds taller than the clover so I'm not sure the chemical would even hit the weeds. Should I cut it to 3-4 inches , wait a week , and then spray? Or is wait two weeks better? Or just spray now as is?
3)If I plant chicory into the clover in the fall would that help the carbon/nitrogen issue or does it have to be rye? The deer around here don't really like rye but love chicory. Thanks in advance

 

[shawn cox]

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, and if what you're doing works well for you, by all means keep doing it, but in my opinion properly managed perennial clover like ladino probably takes less time and money per days of available deer food yearly than any other food plot species and definitely beats annual clovers for plots that are in clover year after year. We have several one acre clover plots that are 5 plus years old that we put in less than one hour per year for upkeep, and have a continuous high quality clover stand that is tops on the deer preference list at 25-30% protein and 70% digestibility, lasting from March through December in zone 6. The 1 hour spent is the early spring herbicide application, and it's good for another year. If you are an absentee landowner id consider perennial clover as a must have. And restarting annual clover every year means a lot of unnecessary tillage that takes time and money degrades the soil, plants weed seeds, and destroys a lot of beneficial fungi, and organic matter. Unless someone lives in the south and the summers are too hot for clover,, ladino is possibly the best deer food plot species evet.

ladino, whitetail institute clover and Durana have all done excellent for me in the south. Even with our scorching summer. They will turn brown in a hot drought and look awful but come that first cooler temps and some good rain and boom lush green growth. It is amazing and the lowest cost plot in terms of cost and time that there is. If i was an absentee landowner I would have the majority of my plots in a white clover.

 

[shawn cox]

Couple of rookie questions please:
1)Am I reading correct it is 25 gallons water per batch per acre?
2)The clover here starts growing good in late October, peaks in April, and keeps growing decent thru June. Right now its about 10 inches tall and very thick. If I were to spray now there are almost no weeds taller than the clover so I'm not sure the chemical would even hit the weeds. Should I cut it to 3-4 inches , wait a week , and then spray? Or is wait two weeks better? Or just spray now as is?
3)If I plant chicory into the clover in the fall would that help the carbon/nitrogen issue or does it have to be rye? The deer around here don't really like rye but love chicory. Thanks in advance

yes if you are spraying clethodim you mix your clethodim with the amount of water it takes you to spray that acre. It is my experience if it takes 15 gallons for your equipment to cover an acre you add the 6 oz of clethodim if that is the amount you are going to use and spray the entire 15 gallons on it. If it takes 25 gallons you add the same 6 oz to it and spay the entire 25 gallons on it.
My setup is a very fine mist and it works great for me even in tall clover. The fine particles drift down through the clover and get on the grass. But I have to be mindful of wind drift with my setup.

 

[shawn cox]

My clover is starting to ramp up. The pics below were taken 2 days ago. First pic was planted last fall and second has been established a few years. I also like to let grains grow to maturity if possible. I may just do some spot spaying of weeds in my clover this year with a hand sprayer.

looks great. once weeds are under control for a year or two, spot spraying is easier for me also. I have a Chapin 18v cordless backpack sprayer that is awesome. I love it. Keeps traffic off of my food plots.

 

[shawn cox]

The Imazethapyr 2sl that I mentioned above kills sedge grass. The difficult part is fitting Imazethapyr 2sl into my rotation, with the carryover it takes a large chunk of time out of a year that I can plant other stuff into clover. I use clover as a base, much like using flour as a cooking base, my clover patches are like a blank canvas, one great combo is to no-till oats into them in early spring, another is oats and rye or brassica in late summer. But I always have to program around herbicides, so my clover programs are always scheduled pretty full, transitioning from herbicides to interseeding, it seems like seasonally I'm always in a holding pattern, waiting for one component to finish out so that I can do the next. But by working in a shot of herbicide at least once every two years i don't see much of those difficult weeds like sedges.

I used my Polaris herbicide for the first time a few weeks ago. I had a bad brain fart. I used it on a plot that had some annual clovers mixed in with my white clover. I wanted to do a test with it just to see how it worked. read the label but not fully all of it. sprayed the whole plot. White clover looks great but killed all my other clover and afterwards found out it had the residual aspect also, so now i will have to do a small test on a part of it to see if i can plant summer crop into it which is going to be alyce clover and aesychnomene Best learning experience lol

 

[KSQ2]

Couple of rookie questions please:
1)Am I reading correct it is 25 gallons water per batch per acre?
2)The clover here starts growing good in late October, peaks in April, and keeps growing decent thru June. Right now its about 10 inches tall and very thick. If I were to spray now there are almost no weeds taller than the clover so I'm not sure the chemical would even hit the weeds. Should I cut it to 3-4 inches , wait a week , and then spray? Or is wait two weeks better? Or just spray now as is?
3)If I plant chicory into the clover in the fall would that help the carbon/nitrogen issue or does it have to be rye? The deer around here don't really like rye but love chicory. Thanks in advance

Chicory is another legume I believe, so it will add more nitrogen rather than use any up. You still need to plant/broadcast a cereal grain like rye.

 

[BenAllgood]

Couple of rookie questions please:
1)Am I reading correct it is 25 gallons water per batch per acre?
2)The clover here starts growing good in late October, peaks in April, and keeps growing decent thru June. Right now its about 10 inches tall and very thick. If I were to spray now there are almost no weeds taller than the clover so I'm not sure the chemical would even hit the weeds. Should I cut it to 3-4 inches , wait a week , and then spray? Or is wait two weeks better? Or just spray now as is?
3)If I plant chicory into the clover in the fall would that help the carbon/nitrogen issue or does it have to be rye? The deer around here don't really like rye but love chicory. Thanks in advance

In Louisiana, I wouldn't mow or spray until weeds start topping the clover. And, yeah, I'd add wheat or oats to it this fall.

 

[davidhelmly]

Chicory is another legume I believe, so it will add more nitrogen rather than use any up. You still need to plant/broadcast a cereal grain like rye.

Chicory isn’t a legume so it will not add nitrogen to your soil, it actually does a decent job of scavenging nitrogen from the soil and also needs some nitrogen at planting.

 

[KSQ2]

Chicory isn’t a legume so it will not add nitrogen to your soil, it actually does a decent job of scavenging nitrogen from the soil and also needs some nitrogen at planting.

Wow, learn something new everyday! I reread what I saw last year and it said to plant WITH a legume for optimum performance, my at times selective eyes, saw plant AS a legume... It's a good thing I planted it into and with clover anyway!

 

[Native Hunter]

Chicory isn’t a legume so it will not add nitrogen to your soil, it actually does a decent job of scavenging nitrogen from the soil and also needs some nitrogen at planting.

This is one reason I think chicory and clover make a great team when planted together.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I used my Polaris herbicide for the first time a few weeks ago. I had a bad brain fart. I used it on a plot that had some annual clovers mixed in with my white clover. I wanted to do a test with it just to see how it worked. read the label but not fully all of it. sprayed the whole plot. White clover looks great but killed all my other clover and afterwards found out it had the residual aspect also, so now i will have to do a small test on a part of it to see if i can plant summer crop into it which is going to be alyce clover and aesychnomene Best learning experience lol

The Polaris shouldn't have killed the annual clover, since it is also a legume. My question is, is it possible that you made a mistake on the application rate? According to my tests, at double the maximum rate imazethapyr will also kill perennial clover, and with annual clover not being quite as hardy as perennial clover it stands to reason that the rate was about 1.5 to 1.75 the maximum recommended rate.
The directions for Thunder and Pursuit that call for a 4 oz per application rate are for 22.87% active ingredient, so right there could be some of the discrepancy, Polaris having 27.7%.

 

[Mennoniteman]

This is one reason I think chicory and clover make a great team when planted together.

Adding other ingredients to a clover plot is a wonderful thing, that is, until weeds get going, which is inevitable. Once weeds happen the herbicide options are very limited in mixtures, if it's only clover and chicory Imazamox will work, but only cleans up well if used early in the season when weeds are small.
The best rule of thumb is, if a plot is designated to be very longterm, like four years or longer, it's best to work with only ladino clover. If a plot is planned for 2-3 years chicory and clover work well. If a plot is for one season or one year a multiple mix planting like annual clover, brassica, wheat, oats etc. works well.