Most people aren't applying enough potassium to their perennial clovers and legumes. You can mine the soil for a year or two but by year 3 or 4 the fields fizzle out as there is no more groceries in the soil. You need 200-300 lbs of potassium per year on these high yielding clover and alfalfa plots. Another overlooked issue is sulfur. 81% of the people in many areas of the US are deficient in sulfur. This is because we cleaned up the power plants and so there is no more "free sulfur" . i recommend 50 lbs of ammonium sulfate over the top once a year to give your clovers that added kick. Make sure your keeping up with the soil ph levels as the sulfur will slightly lower your pH. If you want to know for sure whats going on, people can send me a plant tissue analysis and it would be even more helpful to send a soil sample along with it. They usually mimic theirselves. Foliar plant foods or custom blended to meet your deficiencies is an option. Just drop me a message if you want more detailed help with this.
So I have been keeping an eye on my clover plots since I had some issues. They seem to be coming around and are greening up well. I will just need to throw some more clover down in fall and let it get a root system. Then spray it next fall to take care of the unwanted weeds. I will probably mow it towards the end of august.
Dittoing Nutritionist's above advice: Keep an eye on the pH, the different clovers vary in their tolerance of acidic soils. -fsh
It is to late in regards to the heat, but it really depends on your weather. I wouldn't dare mow or spray my clover this time of year. We are having 95+ day temps every day and it would really stress it out. I would wait until the mid to late part if September.
I would wait till next spring, having a plan of action for grass control and getting on it early has made a huge difference in the quality of my clover alfalfa plots.
