winter killed clover

[Nova]

In the fall of 2015 I planted a plot in cereal rye/clover. The rye came up great in the fall and the next spring the clover and rye were going nuts. About the middle of July I mowed the rye off and had a beautiful stand of clover. All last fall the deer were hammering the clover and it looks great.

This winter we had very little snow, maybe a foot at most. We also didn't have any real long periods of cold weather. As soon as the snow was gone this spring the clover looked bad, some small spots were coming up but not much. This last weekend I looked at the plot and about half of it was green and growing pretty good. The other half is all brown with little or no clover coming up. We have had warm days and rain. Is this plot in trouble or will it continue to come back and I just need to be patient?

Here is the plot last fall.

 

[Scott]

Interested in this as well. I have the same issue and my timeline is the same. I planted in 2015... it was flush last year and then two weekends ago was very spotty in one plot and looking perfectly fine in another. (I also lightly frost seeded this year)

 

[JohnL48]

My clover usually starts looking good mid June. I first seeded this yr and will spray cleth when the grasses start growing. Be patient

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[Tap]

What variety of clover is it? Some varieties are less winter tolerant and some are short-lived. A lot of reds won't live as long as whites.

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[Nova]

It's ladino and I have had great luck with it in the past. This plot was unreal for 4 years with ladino, it started to get a little weedy so I rotated brassica in there and now I was going to get back to 4 years of clover. I have 2 other plots planted at the same time, the same way that are looking much better. This is in a lower area of the farm. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

 

[Tap]

Wet feet in a few spots?
Maybe grubs or some other pest?
Just throwing out some thoughts.

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[Nova]

No, not wet feet, but it is lower than the rest of the farm so could stay cooler. Thanks for the input, I will have to check for bug/disease next time up.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I have this problem almost every year with my ladino plots. For this reason I always either frost seed or overseed the bare spots in the spring. I don't really understand what causes it. My plot is smaller and on sandy soil so I am sure that could have something to do with it. Also I notice how much the clover takes off with an application of fert. So maybe it just needs a good wake up from winter with a feeding and I just don't wait long enough.

 

[Bill]

With the weather you guys get I'm saying the permafrost hasn't thawed enough yet!

 

[MRBB]

have you done a soil test to see where soil is at NOW?

its still pretty early into spring for green up in my area, so, this isn't all that odd for me this time of yr, NOW if this was say late May, earl;y June, I'd be worried

I would check soil and see what it says, maybe it needs a boost for something to get it going!

never seen winter KILL clover, over browsing and competition from other things, and being choked out, yes, but snow and cold, NOPE< and I get some COLD weather , -40 wind chills

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I wouldnt be overly concerned until June. My clover plot is always late to green up in the spring. I am pretty much straight east of you a few hundred miles, Zone 3. My plot will start coming in on the sunny side of the plot, but near the trees, it takes a few weeks longer.

 

[H80Hunter]

This seems like a good place to ask a question on my mind --

I've got a couple small kill plots (1/4 acre each, max, western WI) that were planted in LC Rye mix last fall. They are both pretty wooded. This spring, it seems like there are a lot of leaves on the plot and it's hard to find clover. I'm wondering if the leaves (plus dead oats from the mix) could choke out the clover seedlings? If you move some of the dead leaves aside, you see little green clover seedlings.

I'm going to leave them go and see what I have later in the summer before deciding what to do with the plot anyway, but just curious if anyone has any input.

 

[Nova]

I wouldnt be overly concerned until June. My clover plot is always late to green up in the spring. I am pretty much straight east of you a few hundred miles, Zone 3. My plot will start coming in on the sunny side of the plot, but near the trees, it takes a few weeks longer.

That is exactly what is happening. The north side of the plot looks great, where the early spring sun hits it, the shaded south side is still brown. Thanks for the info!!

 

[Nova]

Just went up last weekend and sprayed beans and corn. The plot doesn't look much better. It does however have a bunch of thistle where the clover did not come back I hit the thistle with gly(spot spraying) but some areas were pretty thick. We will see how it looks in July when I go to spray the plots for the second time. I might very well be turning the plot and replanting in rye/clover.

The thistle tipped me off to what might have happened. Last winter we had the pines surrounding this plot thinned by a logger. Every where the equipment was now has thistle in it. The heavy equipment must have turned up dirt and released a bunch of dormant thistle seed. I am thinking they drove the equipment on the plot also and that might be what killed the clover.

 

[MRBB]

when they drove the timber equipment over the plot(if they did), when it was dormant, it shouldn;t have really hurt anything, unless they dug it up and pulled things like
I had my one place timbered over a winter a few yrs back now, and they actually used a plot as a staging/landing area.
as they didn't think I cared???

well I expected the worse come spring time green up, but it was all rather good, only a few spots where it was dug down to dirt and from them cleaning all the crap off the spot like

yes it can I guess kill things packing them tightly, but, overall, I didn;t have very much dead spots from them just running equipment across my clover plots, and some they drove over 250+ yrds like roads hauling timber every day, back and forth to landing area??
ground was frozen like a rock here at the time, but it grew and filled in fast come green up
I did spray to keep weeds out!

as for them digging up, or transplanting thistle on you, thats possible, could also just have been on there gear and as mud and dirt came off machines, brought it in, also, been known to get UN wanted seeds in bags of seeds that showed up after plantings too!
still kinda early in the season to give up hope yet, might bounce back on you yet!