[Richard Slater]

I'm going to dedicate part of my lawn to just clover as a cover crop...

There now we have the shock out of the way on to my explanation; so as some of you will know I started a grow in 2017 it didn't go quite as planned due to reasons outside of my control, it is starting to look much better with a bit of TLC TLF Style.

Now the second problem is I am going to be away for six weeks over the summer and not able to tend to the lower part of the lawn this summer, so rather than leave it to the assorted weed seeds that float around all spring/summer and then Glyposate it when I get back I have decided to plant a crop of Dutch Microclover:



DLF Trifolium developed Microclover about ten years ago, as Clover is a legume and thus captures free atmospheric nitrogen and through a symbiotic relationship with natural microbes in the soil will store this nitrogen in nodules making it available to the plant and other neighbouring plants. In addition, clover roots and spreads quickly don't require fertilizer and provide a good cover crop protecting against the more invasive weeds. I can mow and compost the clover to create a high-N organic compost.

Worst case scenario, I glypo the lot and start afresh in the autumn with KBG, best case scenario and if I like the micro clover I till the clover under and end up high N organic matter in the soil and some clover mixed with KBG; or even just stick with the clover lawn.

I'm hoping by the end of the year I will understand a little more about Microclover and ways it can help me to reduce my input of nitrogen into the lawn, potentially augmenting my PRG or KBG mixes with 5% clover to do so. I will keep this thread updated as I go.

Log
11/05: Seed Down, keeping moist
12/05: 3mm of rain
13/05: Irrigate x2
14/05: Irrigate x2
15/05: Green Babies + Irrigate x2
16/05: Save a few spots fairly even germination + Irrigate x5
17/05: Irrigate x2
18/05: Deep irrigation, throw down a little more seed where there hasn't been any germination.
19/05: Irrigate
20/05: Irrigate
21/05: Irrigate
22/05: 10mm of rain
23/05: 15mm of rain
24/05: 25mm of rain
25/05: Irrigate
26/05: Irrigate
27/05: Irrigate, mow at 35mm to thin out the more mature plants, overseed some bare spots.
28/05: Deep irrigation
29/05: 8mm of rain
30/05: Irrigate
31/05: Irrigate
01/06: Irrigate
08/06: Applied some liquid iron as some of the plants were showing signs of chlorosis due to high pH.

 

[GrassFarmer]

im sure it will grow good clover is a pretty hearty plant.

 

[g-man]

I was interested in this subject last year and found this website.

http://plantscience.psu.edu/reduce-runoff/questions-about-microclover

 

[Richard Slater]

@g-man it's a good read, I'm assuming that my soil already has the relevant bacterium (i.e. Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar. Trifolii); as far as I can tell it will be fairly easy to allow the crop to establish, then dig up a couple and look at the nodules, in theory if I cut them in half and they are pink inside then the microculture is doing it's N-fixing job.

 

[Sinclair]

I am interested in incorporating microclover into my backyard, but I haven't found enough in the way of real world trials to answer my questions.

If I maintain my turf all season at 3", will the clover be out of sight, or will some foliage and small flowers be evident?

I have a patch of regular clover mixed with KBG in the back yard and it stayed beautifully dark green all summer with zero additional water from me.

 

[Richard Slater]

DLFs claim is that Microclover is selectivly breed to be smaller than Dutch (White) Clover, from what i have found this means three things:

1 - the leaves are half the area of Microclover's native cousin,
2 - the growth habbit of the leaves is lower and subsequently the flower heads are lower, DLF state up to 8in - but i think that depends on the companion crop,
3 -it flowers less freqently.

From what i can tell there have been a couple of different itterations on Microclover from DLF which seems to confuse matters when searching for scientific trials. Im going to give it a try as a monostand as a cover crop, then maybe next year i will try as a companion 5% companion crop with KBG.

What i really want to do is buy a field and start my own trials, TLF Labs anyone?

 

[j4c11]

The problem with clover is with weed control. There's no selective herbicide for clover, so you're going to end up with a salad sooner rather than later.

 

[chrisben]

The problem with clover is with weed control. There's no selective herbicide for clover, so you're going to end up with a salad sooner rather than later.

Weed-be-gon is fairly in-effective on the weed clover in my backyard, stunts it a little, but recovered in a week... Might be worth experimenting a little with light doses...

 

[Miller_Low_Life]

I added micro clover to my overseed in the back year last fall. I really like seeing the clover this spring. It's not for everyone though.

 

[Miller_Low_Life]

I am interested in incorporating microclover into my backyard, but I haven't found enough in the way of real world trials to answer my questions.

If I maintain my turf all season at 3", will the clover be out of sight, or will some foliage and small flowers be evident?

I have a patch of regular clover mixed with KBG in the back yard and it stayed beautifully dark green all summer with zero additional water from me.

I added microclover to my backyard last year and keep my lawn at almost 4 inches. You can tell it's there. I haven't seen it flower yet though.

 

[Richard Slater]

The problem with clover is with weed control. There's no selective herbicide for clover, so you're going to end up with a salad sooner rather than later.

We don't have the same weed pressure in the UK, and homeowners don't have (legal) access to many weed killers. I'm basically limited to Glyphosate and 2,4D, mostly all I do is spot spray with 2,4D If there is a undesirable weed, if that doesn't get it I have a plug farm in the garden which I use to fill in the hole I create digging out the weed.

 

[GrassDaddy]

I have a cousin that has a clover lawn, he really likes it. Unfortunately I haven't seen it so I can't give any feedback. IMO it's more about a clean look than what it is.. I've seen some really nice moss yards! It's essentially a green carpet. So the clover seeded on purpose will look cool - be sure to post photos!

 

[Richard Slater]

I have a cousin that has a clover lawn, he really likes it. Unfortunately I haven't seen it so I can't give any feedback. IMO it's more about a clean look than what it is.. I've seen some really nice moss yards! It's essentially a green carpet. So the clover seeded on purpose will look cool - be sure to post photos!

Will do - new landscaping rake is delivered today to help me level the plot.

 

[Richard Slater]

Spent a good chunk of last week levelling the lawn with my new rake, spirit level, a length of 2x4 and builders cord.

Still got some work to go to get it even, but I've broken the back of it.

 

[Richard Slater]

Seed went down on Friday 11th, kept it moist with the spray head and there has been about 3mm of rain today, doesn't look to be any runoff.

 

[probasestealer]

Great, interested to see this progress. Keep us updated

 

[Green]

The problem with clover is with weed control. There's no selective herbicide for clover, so you're going to end up with a salad sooner rather than later.

Triclopyr works pretty well against clover, and so does Tenacity in some cases, so in the US at least, there are options. Hopefully they never take away our legal right to use herbicides. Imagine a country without Triclopyr, Tenacity, or even glyphosate. No thanks.

Now if you meant nothing safe to use on clover...that's a whole other issue. I'd be inclined to spot spray 2,4-D in that case. Or in the US, maybe take the risk with a single Triclopyr app if I absolutely had to.

 

[Richard Slater]

We've had a five-year reprieve from the EU on Glyphosate, there is a substantial lobbyist movement within the EU to ban it unilaterally, theoretically, this would only apply to food production but it would likely impact homeowner use as well. As a homeowner Tenacity (Mesotrione) and Triclopyr are heavily regulated, conceivably it would be possible for me to get a licence to use them on my lawn, however, I would need to obtain training and a certificate at the cost of about £1,000 (US $1,350).

Why do I say all of this... the UK is not far of being that place where you don't legally have the right to use latest generation herbicides as a homeowner.

 

[j4c11]

Maybe things will get better once Brexit is finalized Richard.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Interested in seeing how it ends up looking...

I know my local seed shop Protimelawnseed sells microclover aand also has it in some of their mixes for rugged/park/heavy dog type turf and honestly the pictures they show it looks pretty damn good. Different, but good.

https://ptlawnseed.com/products/microclover

These types of eco lawns are obviously more popular out here with all the hipsters/hippies in Western Oregon which is why i think they sell it.