Frost seed red and white clover. Innoculant needed?

[Da U.P. 'eh]

I plan to do quite a bit of frost seeding a mix of red and white clover in late March. I am wondering if inoculant is still beneficial or, would the inoculant be washed away by the environment prior to germination, thereby rendering it a waste of time?

 

[Smallplot]

Just throw the seed, no need to waste time and money on inocculant for clovers, especially if you are getting coated seed already. The boost provided by inoculant will likely be minimal as you likely already have some natural clovers growing and already have the bacteria present supplied by inoculant


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tooln]

I have never used inoculants & my clovers did just fine.

 

[Tree Spud]

I plan to do quite a bit of frost seeding a mix of red and white clover in late March. I am wondering if inoculant is still beneficial or, would the inoculant be washed away by the environment prior to germination, thereby rendering it a waste of time?

I have been frost seeding for 15-20 years. Always purchased non-inoculated clover (red, ladino, white, alsake, etc) from the local coop.

I use a mix of the above of ~10 lbs per acre and always have good results. Cost is about $10-13. Broadcast 60-80 lbs of urea in mid to late June and watch it explode.

 

[yoderjac]

I plan to do quite a bit of frost seeding a mix of red and white clover in late March. I am wondering if inoculant is still beneficial or, would the inoculant be washed away by the environment prior to germination, thereby rendering it a waste of time?

An inoculant is a ribosome that forms a symbiotic relationship with the roots of legumes to improve nitrogen fixation. It has no impact on germination. If you've grown clover in the field previously there is probably plenty of ribosomes in the soil already. For frost seeding, you may get slightly better germination rates with clover that has not been coated because the seeds are smaller and more easily sucked in to the germination layer. Don't worry about the inoculant washing off the seeds after they are broadcast. I'd suggest uncoated seed if you have that option and simply buy the powdered inoculant and mix it with the seed with a sticker (coke will do). Let it dry before you load your broadcast spreader so it does not clog. You will get enough where it needs to go.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[D Hunter]

Hey Jack, I hate to be persnickity, because you are a wealth of good information and I always enjoy your posts, but the organism that is symbiotic with roots of legumes is a rhizobacteria and not a ribosome. Ribosomes and bacteria are similar but do not perform the same function. I believe what you were trying to say is "Rhizobacteria". The rest of your post is spot on. Have a good one. "D"

 

[yoderjac]

Hey Jack, I hate to be persnickity, because you are a wealth of good information and I always enjoy your posts, but the organism that is symbiotic with roots of legumes is a rhizobacteria and not a ribosome. Ribosomes and bacteria are similar but do not perform the same function. I believe what you were trying to say is "Rhizobacteria". The rest of your post is spot on. Have a good one. "D"

D,

Good catch. You are absolutely correct. Autocorrect spell check caught me again! Thanks for pointing that out. Don't every worry about correcting me. It is important to get correct information out there.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tree Spud]

I plan to do quite a bit of frost seeding a mix of red and white clover in late March. I am wondering if inoculant is still beneficial or, would the inoculant be washed away by the environment prior to germination, thereby rendering it a waste of time?

You can get into the chemistry experiment as described above; however, unless you are farming land for production, there is a more proven simpler approach...

A gentlemen who is no longer with us, provided unbelievable sustainable food plotter info in the link below. he covers a lot regarding planting times, rotation, nitrogen, biomass, etc .... He was Paul knox ... known as Lickcreek ... shared a ton of his farming & land mgmt experience for many of us food plot novices.

http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/cereal-grains-for-whitetails.1381/

 

[yoderjac]

Another cheer for the great work Paul did when he was among us, food plots, stewardship, and much more.

 

[iceman10]

I plan on spreading some clover to overseesda couple of clover plots , does anyone run a rough drag over plot before or after they do this ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tree Spud]

I plan on spreading some clover to overseesda couple of clover plots , does anyone run a rough drag over plot before or after they do this ?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where are you located?

 

[Smallplot]

I plan on spreading some clover to overseesda couple of clover plots , does anyone run a rough drag over plot before or after they do this ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you are frost seeding into mostly bare ground, no. If there is a decent amount of dead/growing vegetation then it would not hurt to run over it after broadcasting the seed just to aid the seeds in falling to the soil besides being hung up in thicker vegetation.

This is for frost seeding knowing the ground will be still going through freeze thaw rotations several times which will pull small seeds down into the soil. If after your last frost date it would not hurt to scuff the ground before or after seeding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[iceman10]

Where are you located?

Indiana. One plot is 3yrs old which has some stubborn broadleaf unit , the other was planted last spring & has a small fescue spot unit .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tree Spud]

Indiana. One plot is 3yrs old which has some stubborn broadleaf unit , the other was planted last spring & has a small fescue spot unit .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^ I agree with small plots approach. If there is thatch on the ground, it will need to be dry so that the seed does not stick to it.