seeding in clover

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karen
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seeding in clover

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I usually throw clover seed, Trifolium, around our 1 acre field in the middle of March. I just did it today because the snow is finally melted enough to do it. I like the snow to be around 2 to 4 inches deep and I throw the seed out on the snow. It is tiny seed, almost like ground pepper. Clover can be oversown so as long as in the fall the last cut of grass is very short. The clover grows before the grass gets too tall to shade it out, the seed sprouts at 42 to 50 F before the grass gets going. I like to throw it on snow because it softens the seed, it needs moisture, and the snow melts the tiny seed into the ground. I use inoculated seed, either Dutch White or New Zealand White both will bloom in the summer when seeded in the spring. The first year I seeded this field I seeded heavily, 8 pounds, each year after, @ 6 years, I have put on 1 to 2 pounds. Here the clover blooms in the first week of June and goes until frost.

As I have said in past posts the biggest honey crop in Maine comes from trees. We do not have a lot of open land like there is on the prairie. The hay fields will have white clover blooming after the first cut but by then it is usually to dry so the plants do not produce a lot of nectar. Trifolium nectar averages a sugar content of 39.7.
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