wvdeerhunter22

I am planning to frost seed red and white clover into a feild on the farm i hunt. What is the normal seeding amt. per acre. Im new at this if i need to give more info let me know.
Also, can i frost seed over the existing grass, its low, or do i need to till, disk or both.
thanks

Russ otten

If the existing grass is quite thick, the clovers will have a battle trying to grow thru all of it. If you do, you may have to mow the grass low and spray with a grass specific herbicide to get rid of the competition. I would till, hit it with roundup and then seed. You'll get a better plot, and you still have plenty of time for the clover to grow before fall. That is if the deer don't keep it clipped.

Russ

doughboysigep

you definitely want to reduce competition as much as possible, as well as have as much exposed soil as possible. To do this you should have mowed it hard and low several times in the fall and try to expose some soil with some lite discing maybe. Frost seeding is meantr to be a quick, inexpensive way to establish legumes. I know several farmers who preform it regularly for maintaining their pastures and have excellent success (and others that have had limited success) The normal recommended rate is usually no more than 1-2# per acre. Another way to "frost" seed is to do a variation I call mud seeding - spred the seed on the muddiest day (hopefully still some freezing/thawing taking place), where your 4wheeler/tractor does some minor digging and exposes soil to help the seed take. Additional mowings through the spring should help reduce competition while the clover is establishing.

farm hunter

For white clover - 4-6 lbs/acre for frost seeding. (or dormant spring overseeding if you are further south). I too would disk before & after planting to try to expose some earth furrows. You will need to mow more often the first year to help the clover become more dominant. With frost seeding, you rarley eliminate the competition - so if a pure stand of clover is your goal, then its probably not the best option for you. For the farmer, Frost seeding is a good choice for introducing legumes into the pasture. For the deer manager, frost seeding is best when done on an older or stressed clover plot that is already established. Quite often, its a good idea to overseed a different variety of clover than the original plot.. -
Keep in mind thatat best - 9 times out of 10 - frost seeding on sod, is only a short term alternative to planting.

Here is a plot of RED CLOVER I mowed and over seeded last fall with Alsike/Ladino clover - We'll see how it does this summer.

lunchbucket

For any of the higher quality clovers you will want to get rid of the grasses. Grasses are you worse enemy. I can guarentee you the grasses will win out.

Darton02

You can frost seed it as mentioned above, and then when the grass starts actively growing in a month or so, hit it with a grass-specific herbicide like Poast or Select. Thats not the "best" way to establish a stand, but it can work if you are limited on the equipment you have available to you.

greg-dude

LunchBucket

One time and only one time, I top seeded red clover on an existing fesque hay field to improve my hay quality. It came up so thick that it actually killed some of the fescue. I would have never believed this to be true, if I hadn't seen it myself. Of course two years later and no additional seedings, the fescue was the dominant species again. That case must have been one of the few instances where all the conditions favored the clover.

lunchbucket

GD, right, there are exceptions to all rules. If the fescue were dealt with prior to the planting your field should have lasted longer, the grasses will always win out.
When we sold the Imperial brand we had a client that did a light disking on sandy soil, limed 2 acres with less than 100 lbs of lime and put down about 100 lbs of a going out of season fertilizer, not even the right stuff and no soil sample, and his field looked immaculate for 3 years without any further input... Go figure...