The Sweet Clover Thread

[SD51555]

I’ve been at this for 21 years. I’ve had white clover every year. I think I am finally ready to kill it all. I’ve not been able to overcome the smothering effects of WC, and because of that, I haven’t been able to punch in a stand of rye to hold back the grasses with the equipment and methods I use. I’m not going the tractor/drill route either. I’m building a real cabin and fish pond before that ever happens.

I started the road plot last summer. It got primarily rye, chicory, plantain, and yellow sweet clover. Balansa didn’t survive the winter. The deer wiped the sweet clover off the map last fall. It got to around 12” tall before they took it.

The sweet clover came back a decent stand this year.

I don’t need food in the summer. What I want in the summer most is to keep the weeds out, hide some fawns in tall thick cover, and grow a shit ton of biomass for throwing and mowing again In August. This looks like it’s gonna be the ticket. I need to up my SC rate to maybe 8lbs/ac to make sure it gets thick enough. Last year, this plot got 4 lbs/ac.

Last thing to see is how the first throw and mow goes after this crop wraps up in late July/early August.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SD51555]

The SC just started blooming the past few days.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Interested in the Balansa not making it through the winter, did you have a good start on it growing last fall? I see some of it still in my fields this spring but not thick by any means but I don't think i saw much of it take last fall either. To be noted - I also seeded MRC and Ladino and see little of that back this spring. I think my herbicide residual killed most of the fall planted clovers.

 

[SD51555]

Interested in the Balansa not making it through the winter, did you have a good start on it growing last fall? I see some of it still in my fields this spring but not thick by any means but I don't think i saw much of it take last fall either. To be noted - I also seeded MRC and Ladino and see little of that back this spring. I think my herbicide residual killed most of the fall planted clovers.

I've had it come back, but very sparse. I found 3 plants in my entire quarter acre road plot. It may be that it doesn't take being grazed to the dirt in the fall, or it may be the winter. I didn't think winter would be a problem because it'll get buried in snow long before the -35 temps arrive. Either way, I've planted it for 3 years, and it's just not making it on my place. The SC is an upgrade in that department because the deer wiped it clean, and it still came back just fine, and it'll stand tall until mow and throw time.

 

[omicron1792]

The YSC is a biennial. I would be careful upping the rate this year till you see how thick it comes in during the 2nd year.

 

[Turkey Creek]

The honey bees like the yellow clover as well.

 

[Fair oak]

Funny this topic is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and finally made up my mind this evening…. So what’s the best mix for completely wiping out red clover? I’m going to wipe out all of my clover because of bears. It’s getting nuked this weekend. Just went through my tactacam app and I’ve had only 3 bearless days since May 15th. So what good am I doing the deer if I’m attracting bears this heavily… It’s absolutely ridiculous. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have over 1000 bear pictures in a month. I fix a camera and it doesn’t even make it 24 hours before it gets hit again. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m in bear country and I have cameras hit every year but FFS I don’t think there’s many people out there that have seen what I’ve seen this spring. And I just found out the lovely MI DNR wants to increase the bear population in the entire UP. Doing a bang up job in my neck of the woods!

 

[TreeDaddy]

The honey bees like the yellow clover as well.

Which is why I planted it( first time) this year

It is a very tiny seed!

bill

 

[SD51555]

Funny this topic is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and finally made up my mind this evening…. So what’s the best mix for completely wiping out red clover? I’m going to wipe out all of my clover because of bears. It’s getting nuked this weekend. Just went through my tactacam app and I’ve had only 3 bearless days since May 15th. So what good am I doing the deer if I’m attracting bears this heavily… It’s absolutely ridiculous. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have over 1000 bear pictures in a month. I fix a camera and it doesn’t even make it 24 hours before it gets hit again. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m in bear country and I have cameras hit every year but FFS I don’t think there’s many people out there that have seen what I’ve seen this spring. And I just found out the lovely MI DNR wants to increase the bear population in the entire UP. Doing a bang up job in my neck of the woods!

I don't understand the bear and clover connection either. I have a 1 acre white clover plot in the back of my property that get frequented by bears a lot. They bent up one of my cages, used their bodies as steam rollers to flatten my plot, and they shit everywhere. At the same time, I don't see much evidence of them eating any of it. Only other thing I could think is maybe they're coming out to eat bugs in the clover. There are tons of bugs out there.

 

[SD51555]

The YSC is a biennial. I would be careful upping the rate this year till you see how thick it comes in during the 2nd year.

I'll get to see it's full potential within the next six weeks I'd think, no?

 

[omicron1792]

I'll get to see its full potential within the next six weeks I'd think, no?

Being a biennial I don’t think you see full potential till the 2nd year. Stories online of looking thin year one then being too thick year two.

 

[omicron1792]

 

[SD51555]

Being a biennial I don’t think you see full potential till the 2nd year. Stories online of looking thin year one then being too thick year two.

Mine is in year 2.

 

[omicron1792]

Mine is in year 2.

I didn’t realize you planted it in 2021. My bad.

 

[omicron1792]

I didn’t realize you planted it in 2021. My bad.

I’ve been reading about it for a while, but haven’t tried it. It seems to do better up north.

 

[SD51555]

I’ve been reading about it for a while, but haven’t tried it. It seems to do better up north.

There isn't much of it up by me. It seems to thrive on road shoulders and lesser driven gravel like my yard. It's doing well in the plot. I'm very anxious to see it develop over the next month. I'd love to see yellow punched up over the top of my rye this weekend.

 

[Fair oak]

This big guy is having clover for breakfast this morning. 2 cameras hit again last night by cubs. 5-7 cubs frequenting my property and 13-15 bears total I believe. Can you imagine if I was actually baiting?! Lol. I guess in a way, I am. Only until this weekend though. What do you guys recommend to wipe out clover as best as possible? Keeping in mind I’m disking and planting brassicas in mid July and broadcasting rye in late august or early September. I’m only disking to level out some slightly low spots that refuse to grow things.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I don't understand the bear and clover connection either. I have a 1 acre white clover plot in the back of my property that get frequented by bears a lot. They bent up one of my cages, used their bodies as steam rollers to flatten my plot, and they shit everywhere.

We've had bears eating our clover at camp - laying right in it eating. I think it's because of the high protein content?? But they've never destroyed our clover plots - probably because we have so many other natural food sources here. Our mountains are covered in blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples at various camps, and we have miles and miles of several varieties of oaks - so acorns become target #1. The clover gets hit by bears usually when they come out of hibernation, along with WR & WW greening up. After that - they just hit the clover sporadically - not really a big menu item then.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^^ I should also have mentioned that a couple other camps on our mountain plant corn each year & let it stand for wildlife. When the corn is "in-the-milk" stage - the bears will set up camp near those corn fields. Clover is no longer on their minds for the corn!!

 

[RGrizzzz]

What do you guys recommend to wipe out clover as best as possible?

24D and/or a heavy dose of glyphosate. 24D has a residual of up to 4 weeks. Less depending how much you disc.