DUTCH CLOVER

[Reg Lumley]

I AM NEW ON THE BLOCK. IM EXPERIMENTING WITH THIS PROGRAM.I AM IN THE SOUTH PART OF ONTARIO . CANADA.I WOULD LIKE TO PLANT A BEE PASTURE OF DUTCH CLOVER.DOSE ANYONE HAVE INFORMATION WITH THE GROWING OF DUTCH CLOVER AND ITS RATING AS A GOOD NECTOR SOURSE? WHAT IS THE LONGEVETY OF THIS PLANT? WHATE IS THE BEST TIME TO PLANT IN THIS AREA? HAS ANYONE TRIED TO PLANT DUTCH CLOVER INTO A HEAVEY STAND OF SOD? I WELCOME YOUR INPUT.
REG

[BerkeyDavid]

Hi Reg.
I would not plant it directly in sod. I would first disk it up or plow the sod. You can plant it in the spring. THe dutch clover will give you a nice nectar source. You can mow it off a couple times during the year and you will get another crop of bloom. I would plant it as soon as you can work the ground up this spring.

You might want to hit the sod with round up first and delay your planting until the round up has taken effect, then disk it and plant. I like to disk, then broadcast the seed, then roll it with a cultipacker.

But if you have a drill you don't have to worry jsut drill it in.

[FordGuy]

there are real farmers here and I am not one, but I think you can "no till" the clover into your sod. I have heard white dutch is better than ladino, and I bought a few pounds of white dutch and sewed it last fall for this year. longevity, I cannot say. as for when to plant, here in south carolina this summer's clover should have been planted in last september. canada has got to be different though. I also plant buckwheat, thought abou tthat?

[chillardbee]

here in the fraser valley the farmers feilds have lots of clover starting from mid june and can go into september if we're lucky. if the weather is real favorful we can have the hives filling up standards in about a weeks time though stints like that may only last a week to three weeks, then again it can turn dry and ends the flow early. but lately a lot of farmers have been planting corn, peas, or what have ya', not even crops that i can pollinate.

[Michael Bush]

I just broadcast dutch, sweet, white sweet and any other kind of clover, except red (the bees can't get to it very well). [img]smile.gif[/img] But if I had a drill I'd probably drill it. If I only had a disc, I'd probably disc it and then broadcast it.

I'd plant a mixture of dutch, yellow sweet, white sweet and maybe some birdsfoot trefoil and alfalfa just to have things blooming at different times.

Some clover is bienial. It usually reseeds itself to some degree, but does better if you reseed it every couple of years or so. If you want blooms every year it's best to plant some one year, and some more the next.

I'm no farmer and you can find more info on it other places. I've planted both fall and spring and done fine.

[KSbee]

White dutch clover as well as most of the other legumes mentioned are very easy to start and grow. It is common practice to "frost seed" clovers, meaning that you can sow them now and they'll germinate fine in spring. My first preference is to sow in September, (for you probably the 1st of August), 2nd preference is to sow in winter for early spring germination, and 3rd is to sow in spring.

Since you'll be going into existing grass the easiest thing for you to do first would be to "burn it down". By that I mean kill the existing vegetation with Round-Up or something similar. Winter time is not a good time to kill off existing vegetation by chemical, as it's not growing enough for the chemical to work well so you may have to wait on that one.

I would assume your ground is frozen so disking at this point is out.

Depending on your climate, I'd probably just wait until July, burn down the area you want to sow, let it good and brown, burn it down again if any weeds show up, hit it lightly with a disk if you have one. Just enough to make a little dirt show up here and there, not enough to bury all the dead grass. Sow the clover with a broadcast spreader then hit it lightly with a harrow. Unless of course you can borrow a no-till drill with grass seeder attachment, then just burn it down, drill it and you're done.

Longevity of white dutch clover is very good as it will reseed itself and the plants tend to "stool out" and spread over time. It will not take drought or heat very well. Also it will not tolerate competition from thick weeds or other tall grasses as it will only grow 4-6" tall and could be shaded out.

Sorry for the long reply, I'll take my "farmer" hat off now.

[sagittarius]

http://www.beeculture.com/content/po...ook/white.html

I planted two one acre fields of white clover, ladino and dutch white mixed. Seed at about 8 lbs per acre, fall planted with winter wheat.

To Plant clover into existing sod ... spray field with round-up (41% glyphosate) first, 1 to 2 qts/acre. Grass will die in 2 to 3 weeks. Then broadcast your clover seed. The tiny seed will work itself into mulch residue. Tilling at this point will sprout alot of weed seeds.

Best time to start clover in northern climates is in the fall, after the existing vegitation has been killed over the summer. A labor day planting will give the clover a start, it goes dormant in the winter, and continues to grow in the spring ... gives it a jump start on the summer weeds. During the summer, add lime to the soil to raise the PH to 6.5 to 7.0. Apply fertilizers high in potassium and phosphorus and low in Nitrogen.

[KSbee]

>To Plant clover into existing sod ... spray field with round-up (41% glyphosate) first, 1 to 2 qts/acre. Grass will die in 2 to 3 weeks. Then broadcast your clover seed. The tiny seed will work itself into mulch residue. Tilling at this point will sprout alot of weed seeds.<

The decision to till should be based upon the amount of remaining residue. For instance if the field of grass is littered with sunflowers and other woody type weeds it may be best to disk it lighty and knock those down. Likewise with very thick grass. If the grass is similar to lawn turf it may be acceptable to burn-down and broadcast.

8 lbs per acre is the recommended seeding rate. This is good if you're mixing with other legumes or turf grass. Otherwise it's on the thin side if you're sowing straight clover, I'd recommend twice to three times that minimum in order to provide the cover needed to block out other weeds. Even then it may be difficult to provide the cover needed with just dutch white clover. A mix as MB suggested above would do a much better job of this. Speaking from experience here...

[TwT]

my best clover is when I disk twice a week apart and then plant, all in the "fall", broadcast seed ( like they say, 8 to 10 pounds a acre), not sure about dutch clover but Ladino, if topped (cut top with bush-hog) when its about 10-12 inches high (leave about 8 inches), it will keep blooming most of the summer month's, I plant crimson clover and ladino clover together, the crimson will bloom first and when its dies down the ladino will bloom and when I top it about once every 6-7 weeks it will bloom most of the summer and sometimes into fall. just my experiance.