Yellow Sweet Clover Screen

SD51555

5 year old buck +
I've got a couple rows of spruces along the road that are taking their sweet time getting up to screen worthiness. I've been toying with the idea of doing a yellow clover screen for a few years, but never seem to get around to it. My spruce rows are 20' apart, and I'd like to keep a mower width along each side of the spruces to keep grasses in check. That still leaves me about 8-12' to do something with. I'm contemplating putting in that center strip a band of yellow sweet with a light mix of some other beneficial bug species like hairy vetch and other stuff to round it out.

I've seen these stands in the Dakotas and Montana, and they are impressive. What's most got me interested in these is that they should stand longer into the fall and early winter than most other covers. Check out the field this dude grew. It's so tall, the guy running the roller has to stand on the tractor or he wouldn't be able to see.

 
Didn't know there was a clover that could get anywhere near that tall. Impressive. Annual?
 
I read a little bit on it and ordered 10 lbs to try this year.
 
Hubam white sweet clover is an annual you can mix with it. I've got a couple pounds of white I think i'm going to throw into one of my plots where I need some root channels made.
 
There was a field of yellow sweet clover adjacent to our house when I was growing up. It was like an absolute jungle. I think that is a great idea. I wouldn't doubt it could even act as a re seeding annual but not sure on that. I would go for it.
 
I had a quarter acre field in the corner of a hay field for horses that had a ten foot wide strip of sweet clover in it. Sweet clover is bad for horses. I raked that small piece then went to rake the main field. I thought, I should have checked the small piece to see if it was dry enough to bale later that day. I parked the tractor, walked the 100 ft. As i walked around the sweet clover screen, there were deer running everywhere. I had just raked it 30 minutes ago.
 
MT and ND have naturally alkaline soils, that's why sweet clover grows so well there.
 
MT and ND have naturally alkaline soils, that's why sweet clover grows so well there.
I've seen it around my place. It's definitely got more competition in a higher moisture environment. If I could get it up to 4' I'd be thrilled. When those gumbo lands got rain out west, the sweet clover flushes were something to see.
 
I planted white and yellow this spring for deer forage and honey production, one small plot and a powerline right of way. White blooms the first year, yellow blooms the second year from seed. White blooms about two weeks later than yellow and is supposed to be the taller of the two. It does set seed and dry down mid summer, hoping to be able to overseed with a fall brassica blend early august, don't know yet if it will work.
 
From the U of Minn ....

White and yellow sweetclovers are invasive species. Yellow and white sweetclover grow abundantly on disturbed lands, roadsides and abandoned fields. The plants degrade native grasslands by shading out sun-loving plants, reducing diversity.

https://extension.umn.edu/identify-invasive-species/white-and-yellow-sweetclover
 
From the U of Minn ....

White and yellow sweetclovers are invasive species. Yellow and white sweetclover grow abundantly on disturbed lands, roadsides and abandoned fields. The plants degrade native grasslands by shading out sun-loving plants, reducing diversity.

https://extension.umn.edu/identify-invasive-species/white-and-yellow-sweetclover
I don't put a lot of faith in the good people of science and government anymore. The U of M will also tell you there is no threat to bees when the DNR helicopter applies glyphosate to the forests to cleanse the earth of diversity and make way for pine and spruce monocultures on state timber farms.

There's plenty of invasives out there that are critical to the health of the land and wildlife, and praise science that science hasn't found a way to kill those too.
 
From the U of Minn ....

White and yellow sweetclovers are invasive species. Yellow and white sweetclover grow abundantly on disturbed lands, roadsides and abandoned fields. The plants degrade native grasslands by shading out sun-loving plants, reducing diversity.

https://extension.umn.edu/identify-invasive-species/white-and-yellow-sweetclover
For what its worth, im trying to reclaim fescue pasture, clay and rock.
 
I grew some yellow sweet in 2019. Here it is in June with my winter rye from the fall before.
20190618_093552.jpg
It was so thick I could barely get through it with the lawn mower when it was time to cut the rye.
 
I grew some yellow sweet in 2019. Here it is in June with my winter rye from the fall before.
View attachment 42644
It was so thick I could barely get through it with the lawn mower when it was time to cut the rye.

That’s what I’m talking about! Sign me up. I bet that rye never lodged either.

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There was a field of yellow sweet clover adjacent to our house when I was growing up. It was like an absolute jungle. I think that is a great idea. I wouldn't doubt it could even act as a re seeding annual but not sure on that. I would go for it.
I think if you could get this to maturity and let it stand through the winter after it's second year, it'd reseed itself with a simple mowing in the 3rd spring with some oats and flax thrown in for a balanced soil diet. I had spread 5lbs of this into an acre of heavy native grass years back, and I never got a plant to come. That grass was just too much. That changes this year.
 
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