cleeby - good luck with your plots - your timing sounds great.

The fertilizer on the existing plots will act withing 2 or days after a good rain. Remember the P&K are relatively imobile in soil, on really only available to shallow rooted crops like clover when applied as a top dressing for the first week or two, this will give your existing clover a jumpstart over other competing weeds. Nitrogen however will move down in the soil rather quickly with rain, and is much better utilized by weeds than clover. Nitrogen can help a clover plot in some cases. These cases would include acidic situations, where the correct bacteria are hindered in making N at the root zone for legumes. Also, if the field was not properly innoculated, nitrogen could be lacking. Lastly, clover does not make its own N at germination, it takes time for the nodes to develop on the roots and for the bacteria to multiply to sufficient levels for N production. For this reason, its still advisible to add some N at planting, especially if the soil test indicated low levels of N in the soil.

Thanks for the kind words about my plots, its taken a few years of learning, and trial and error to get the results we are getting now. Beleive me, not every plot I've done has turned out well, I do not usually talk about the bad experiences. Yet, I've learned from every one, sometimes more than the plots that were successful!! If you do not get a good plot, or section of a plot, take the time to understand why. Thats how I've learned, plus the excellent advice given by others her on this board like lunchbucket, early riser, LATurkeyhunter?, and several others that do not seem to post much anymore. Not to long ago, I was asking all these same questions, not offering advice. I think thats why I continue to post, I like to be able to help as others, as I was helped early on.