Annual red clover

[wisconsinteacher]

Last year, I planted winter rye in my plot. I sprayed my plot and a few days later I worked my ground to remove rocks and roots. The plot is going into its 3rd deer season. My hope was to plant annual red clover as a cover crop until Aug when I can plant brassicas and winter rye. My question, is when is it too late to plant annual red clover? It has been super dry and I have a plot ready for seed, I just don't know when I should broadcast. There is a 50% chance of .25" of rain this week. Does a guy plant and hope for rain or wait until there is a better chance in the forecast? Thanks

 

[Tree Spud]

I would add your red clover with brassicas and plant in early July. Cultipack them to get good soil contact. Waiting till Aug will not provide much forage, and minimal bulb production. Broadcast your WR in 1st week of Sept.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

I would add your red clover with brassicas and plant in early July. Cultipack them to get good soil contact. Waiting till Aug will not provide much forage, and minimal bulb production. Broadcast your WR in 1st week of Sept.

When you say early July, are we talking the July 8-14? I'm in Sawyer Co, WI.

 

[35-acre]

Kind of "off topic". I'm in the process of restoring my clover field. About 3 years ago I had a beautiful field that was almost looking like the pic on a seed advertisement. Then I decided that I wanted to plant a brassica mix so I sprayed the plot with some Gly. WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE! I have minimal equipment (ATV/Harrow rake/riding mower/Backpack spreader/sprayer). My brassicas did not take (weell- they got eaten as soon as things started popping out of the ground. Needless to say, I should never have decided to kill the clover. I should have just planted things into it.

So, last weekend I sprayed my weed-filled field with gly. Then I picked up buckwheat as a cover crop for my clover (white and red) and am going to plant it this coming weekend. My goal is just to re-establish that field. It was easy to maintain, attracted a ton of animals (turkey, bear and deer) and once it's established again I just plan to maintain that with occasional supplements.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

When you say early July, are we talking the July 8-14? I'm in Sawyer Co, WI.

Saw you didn’t get a response on this, that timeline sounds good to me.

I’ll be drilling brassica, clovers, peas, and oats as soon as there seems like a good chance for rain in the forecast (if I can get away) in central MN.

 

[Foggy47]

I have nuked my clover(s) a week ago.....and plan to plant more clover and 4 varieties of brassica next week. The clover and rye is dead now (I used 2 its gly and 1 pint 24-d to terminate) then I plan to drill into the standing vegetaion and finally roll the rye and dead clover down after my drill is done. I'm waiting two weeks as there may be some plant back effects from the 24-d. If I did not have a roller / crimper......I would mow it to provide some low mulch.

Hopefully rain follows.

Wind Gypsy.....have you planted peas with brassica before? Good results? Rate? I have a bag of peas I could add a few pounds / acre to my plan. I'm going to broadcast cereals in late August.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Wind Gypsy.....have you planted peas with brassica before? Good results? Rate? I have a bag of peas I could add a few pounds / acre to my plan. I'm going to broadcast cereals in late August.

More so I've added a little brassica with my peas/oats/clover blends before, they did well. Basically lick creek ish blends, he used to say 4# of radish into the cereal blend IIRC. Doing it again this year since i'm really just planting all plots on my 40 minus some perimeter clover strips into the same blend for simplicity sake this year.

 

[Foggy47]

More so I've added a little brassica with my peas/oats/clover blends before, they did well. Basically lick creek ish blends, he used to say 4# of clover into the cereal blend IIRC. Doing it again this year since i'm really just planting all plots on my 40 minus some perimeter clover strips into the same blend for simplicity sake this year.

I am doing a 50/50 rotation on my plots. I already drilled some peas and soybeans into my live clovers along with some sorghum Sudan grass and some Egyptian Wheat to get some more vertical cover in the plots which will be adjacent to my planned brassica efforts. I think I will stay the course this year. Those brassicas have got to grow.

 

[bigboreblr]

Clover regrets........ Kind of hard to have. Just replant..... The intent on a late summer spray is to stunt the clover, not kill. Pint to a quart of 41% gly per acre, not quarts..... Watch your spacing and speed, and know how many gallons per acre. I got a cheezy 1.5gpm pump on a 15 gal tank. I made my own sprayer setup. (2) 130 deg Gray nozzles from tractor supply. ABout 3.5ft apart level with rear rack on typical ATV. MY ATV is 3.5ft wide, I make a new tire track about the same space apart as the tire are. Probably about 5-6ft, but all tracks look the same apart. I put down about 13 gallons an acre.

We got tons of rain the past 2-3 weeks here in NY. 50% chance of a 1/4" isn't a ton in my book. Whats alive in there right now, or you got dead brown...... You got stuff thats alive, leave it it be. IF it's looking rough, I'd put a mix of clover and oats. Clethodim is an optino to terminate cereal grains, but keep clover alive. Cleth lightly stuns the clover, but kills the grains.

 

[35-acre]

I'm hoping that under this buckwheat my clover is quietly growing.


A month ago:

 

[Tree Spud]

I am doing a 50/50 rotation on my plots. I already drilled some peas and soybeans into my live clovers along with some sorghum Sudan grass and some Egyptian Wheat to get some more vertical cover in the plots which will be adjacent to my planned brassica efforts. I think I will stay the course this year. Those brassicas have got to grow.

What type of peas did you put in? I am doing cowpeas this weekend.

 

[Foggy47]

What type of peas did you put in? I am doing cowpeas this weekend.

I had some Austrian Winter Peas.....and that's what I used. Also had some sunflowers. It's somewhat of an odd combination.....but it will be interesting to see how / if I can get it to grow in my clover.

Will be at my land tommorow......need to check the germination after a few mini rains we had. Then use the flail mower to go over the top of my clover before these new seeds get too high.

Also going to get my brassica mix in the nuked clover plots.....then roller crimp those same plots. Busy day coming. (actually I'm going to drill seeds first.....because the drill is still on the tractor.....and that is more fun.......errrr important.)