If you could only plant one type of clover....

[Peplin Creek]

so I know this is sorta a loaded question. I am wondering what everyone's answer would be though. So here it goes... if you could only plant one type of clover what would it be?

My answer is ladino because I can get decent tonnage and it seems to stay Green even under the snow and deer like it.

 

[yoderjac]

It is gonna depend on where folks are located. For me in zone 7A, it is Durana. Costs a bit more and is a bit slower to establish but is more drought tolerant and I get more years out of a field due to the persistence.

Thakns,

Jack

 

[Boll Weevil]

Durana for the same reasons listed above. It's also extremely weed competitive.

 

[scott44]

Mine is Ladino also but it is going towards the med reds the more I use them.

 

[wiscwhip]

A high quality, long term, improved medium red clover variety such as Marathon or Arlington would be my first pick, then some flavor of ladino, likely Alice white.

 

[Mortenson]

Pretty sure when Dbltree was asked to narrow it down once, he chose Alice.

 

[westonwhitetail]

Ladino is good in my clay!

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[H20fwler]

Same here...Ladino

 

[Mahindra3016]

I frost seeded some Ladino last year and it looks great and the deer like it, How many years does it live?

 

[yoderjac]

I frost seeded some Ladino last year and it looks great and the deer like it, How many years does it live?

Individual clover plants are always dying and new ones being born. The largest release of N occurs when you terminate clover, but some level of N is being released. As N builds up in a field, the field becomes more and more attractive to N seeking plants like grasses. So typically, the percentage of clover in a field will start out high and reduce over time as the percentage of weeds increase. Most broadleaf weeds can be controlled by mowing but grasses can't. If you want to use grass selective herbicides like Clethodim, you can keep the grasses at bay for a while but it is time consuming to spray and expensive and eventually becomes a loosing battle.

Some clovers are more persistent and aggressive against weeds than others. For common ladino, I'd say 5-7 years depending on management You may get a few more years from it. I'd put Durana in the 7-10 year class. Some of this depends on your tolerance for weeds. Mine is pretty high. Many broadleaf weeds are just as good if not better deer food than clover. Deer don't really care about a lush monoculture as they are browsers not grazers. As long as you have a decent amount of clover in the field, deer will use it just as well.

There are other things you can do to manage clover. A wicking bar is a way to use non-selective herbicide like gly to selectively kill weeds that are taller than the clover. One thing I like to do to get a few more years out of a clover field is to top kill it by spraying 1 qt/ac gly. This will kill all grasses and most non-gly-resistant broadleaf weeds. It will top kill the clover. After spraying, I will then use a no-till drill and drill GHR and/or WR into the clover. The radish or rye germinates and get above the clover before it rebounds from the root system. They also use up some of the excess N that has built up attracting grasses. The clover fills in nicely. I've posted this before, but here is a picture after the clover bounces back:

I believe this field was ladino but I do the same with Durana.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Native Hunter]

I'm with Wiscwhip on the Medium Red.

 

[Islandguy]

Although I primarily plant Medium Red, Ive had good results with Yellow Blossom Sweet Clover and will continue to plant more.

 

[D Hunter]

I will have to say that I almost never plant a single kind of clover. I try to always plant a mixture of several kinds. Some annual and some perineal. I have had monocultures fail for one reason or another but planting mixtures are seldom a complete bust. So my favorite variety is called Mixture(Medium red, kopu II, Alice, jumbo ladino and durana with maybe some crimson sprinkled in just for fun. :) "D"

 

[Barndog56]

My clover plot is ladino, but i have a bunch of medium red growing on it's own. Middle of summer when the ladino goes dormant the red is still thriving, and the deer go to town on it. I'm thinking when the ladino is done in a couple years I'll be replacing with red.