User Tools

Site Tools


garden:cultivate:tasks:grnmanure:crimsonclover

Table of Contents

Crimson clover

In the fall of 2014, I sowed crimson clover, another try at a cover crop that can smother weeds as well as serve as green manure.

Triming the clover from around the garlic was easy with a hand trimmerIt was easy to terminate the clover with the scytheCrimson clover was slow to germinate and slow to grow, allowing weeds to get a head start. However, by the end of March, the clover was coming on strong. Nevertheless, weeds were making seeds before the clover towered over them.


First blooms on April 21, 2015By the end of April blossoms were forming, giving a hint of the spectacular display this clover can provide. By April 23, flowers were beginning to form. By May 1, blossoms were evident throughout the untilled areas. Ground covered by the clover retained much more moisture than the tilled area.

Peak crimson and bees are loving it!

Timing

Results of sowing crimson clover are quite uneven - an area of, say, 150 square feet will be filled with weeds and only a few clover plants. And overall germination is somewhat spotty. I read of other trials at agricultural extension universities that had similar results - spotty germination.

Perhaps, timing is crucial. I planted in the garden as soon as I had harvested a section, thinking that I would get the best germination from the early seeding. This meant there were a half dozen different seedings over a period of about six weeks.

It appears that germination was most uneven in the earliest seeded sections. The section seeded latest had the most even germination and the fewest weeds. So my early strategy of seeding soon allowed the weeds a head start.

A similar scenario occurred at the farm seeding tillage radish and oats.

garden/cultivate/tasks/grnmanure/crimsonclover.txt · Last modified: 2016/04/25 14:21 by davidbac