I used Imperial Whitetail's No-Plow last spring and fall with decent results, nothing really to brag about but I'm a sucker for always trying something new and I've decided that I want to try their clover this year. A few quick questions: -How does this do in shade? -Should I kill off the vegetation from last falls food plot (if so, how?) or sow over top? -Is loosening the dirt with a garden rake enough? Thank you in advance,
I have a plot of Whitetail institutes Extreme, which included Imperial Clover. It also has chickory and persist forb. I've had the plot for two full seasons now and it has been very productive. As far as answering your questions, it seems to do just fine in the shaded areas of my plot. For planting, my suggestion would be to kill the area with roundup early, then hit it again. Kill everything in the plot. To get the best results, you really need a quality seed bed. Wait a week or so after you have killed off the vegetation with roundup and prepare the seed bed. My recommendations would be to disk and or till it to a very fine and even consistency. Broadcast the seeds ahead of a good rain or pack the ground with a cultipacker or some type of drag. This is pretty important with these small seeds. Another option would be to frost seed here at the end of winter, but you really want to kill the competition, so my recommendations would be to do the above method this year, and frost seed it again next year if the plot needs a boost. Keep in mind, clover will take some time to fully establish and it will easily get chocked out by competition. Getting rid of broadleaf competition is easy, just mow the plot every few weeks. Eventually the broadleaf plants will get chocked out. Grass competition is another story, no amount of mowing will get rid of the grass, so you will need to spray the plot with a chemical that will kill grass, but not hurt the clover. Clethodim is one chemical that will work, Whitetail Institutes sells it under the name Arrest, but it's very expensive. You can find more reasonable choices. Either way it's pretty pricey, but you really need to try and keep the grass out of the plot because it will eventually take over and choke all the clover out. If you don't kill off the vegetation that is there, the clover most likely won't ever really take hold. Preparing a plot property is usually the biggest indicator as to how successful the plot will turn out.
Thank you skywalker. I also emailed Whitetail Institute and they told me basically the same thing. This plot is far back in the woods so there isn't any hope of getting a tractor back there and I don't have a disc for a 4 wheeler. Looks like I'll be busting my back again with a pick axe haha. I don't have a cultivator either, what's an alternative?
This is a fairly inexpensive tool to help cultivate the ground. https://www.groundhogmax.com/groundhog-max Also watch craigslist, you might be able to find a drag harrow that could be used to break up the soil a bit. You don't have to get as deep as a disk or tiller, but the deeper you can get the better. Clover puts down a deep root system, so if the ground is very compacted, it might struggle to really take hold. Worst case scenario your out a couple hundred bucks in chemical, seed and fuel. Something like this drag harrow would probably work well enough if you put something heavy on it to help it bite into the ground. Northern Industrial Mini Harrow Rake — 4ft.W x 7 1/2ft.L | Category 0 Disc Harrows Rakes| Northern Tool + Equipment
I've planted their clover 2 ways. If you can till up or break the ground in spring, broadcast, then drag the plot very lightly (a big tree branch actually works pretty well). Or frost seeding. If the ground is mostly clear of vegetation then I prefer this...it's easier and no need for equipment. When (not if) weeds develop keeping them sprayed will do more for the clover than anything else. Regardless of planting method you will have weeds until the clovers get big enough to shade out competition.
Well, I went out this afternoon and blew out all of the leaves and sprayed it really good with round up. I've never frost seeded before and to be honest, it kind of scares me. I've never even heard of it until recent weeks. I Googled it and read a little but I'm still not sure I really get it. From what I understand, if/when the area is clear of all vegetation, sow the seed and when the ground frosts, it will pull some of the dirt up and when it thaws, some of that dirt will cover some of the seeds and this process repeats until the weather is warm enough for the seeds to germinate? This sounds kind of risky to me but it may be what I have to go with since I don't have a plow or any other way of breaking up the ground and loosening the soil
I was tentative when I first frost seeded my only regret was not buying more clover seed to do a bigger area.
