J Pike

Just spent the weekend on our property, and found huge wild clover with leaves bigger than quarter' s growing all over every logging road and clearing, these are the same areas we were going to plant food plots this spring but were unable too because of the rain and decided to now wait for fall. 1st how much protein does wild clover provide and second I would like to kill the other weeds, grasses and poison ivy growing in the same area' s and then fertilize it, is there anything we can spray that will only kill the weeds, grasses and posion but not the clover? We did brush hog the area' s but dont really want to create super poison by fertilizing it. Also should we still spray and disk these area' s and plant our clover this fall or should we just fertilize the exsiting wild clover? Even though the rain kept us from planting foods plot' s the clover and other vegitation grew like wild fire because of it, last year there was still alot of wild clover but it was very small, this year is huge and some of it is a foot high. Thanks, Pike

J Pike

Also the results of our soil test' s earlier this year showed that most of the area' s we wanted to plant didnt require any fertilizer at all, and the area' s that did need fertilizer only needed 100 to 200 lb' s of fert. per acre. What type fertilizer and how many lb' s per acre should we spread for wild clover? Thanks, Pike

Dan O.

Try to determine what type of clover it is. Are the blooms red or white? If they' re red look for fertilizer recommendations for red clover, if they' re white fertilize for ladino clover (probably). The soil test fertilizer recommendations should have given the amounts of P and K that the soil needs for a legume forage crop.

Dan O.

farm hunter

Jpike -

" Wild clover" is usually a form of White, like Burr or Dutch - its not really wild, but the seed tends to show up on logging roads, and farm lanes because the seed clings to vehicles, and is inadvertantly dropped. Also the traffic helps to compact the soil, and since clover has shallow roots, it establishes better than other forbs.

Red clover is likely to be taller, and have large leaves - it cannot handle traffic as well as the white clovers can. Take Dan' s advice, and determine what type it is. If its a white, I' d lightly fertilize, and lime, and keep Mowed. A 0-20-20 fertilizer might give it a little kick.

good luck

J Pike

thanks for the reply guys, the clover is green with green stems and most of it has a white stripe across the leaves, sound familiar to either of You?. Our logging roads dont get used other than by an ATV. once in a while and the property hasnt been farmed for about 10 years. The great thing about our property is that the PH is between 6.5 and 7.3 in the area' s we are talking about. Pike

whitetail1

sounds like it could be arrowleaf. one problem with the " wild" clovers are they tend to have more of a stem and are not as preferred by the deer. you can spray with poast plus or vantage to get rid of the grasses and a mowing or two will help to get a more tender plant.

farm hunter

http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/4119.html

maybe red clover?