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Conditions for growing clover as a green fertilizer (green manure). When to sow clover outdoors How to plant clover in spring

Some gardeners say that trouble-free and efficient cultivation clover is only for professionals. This culture has many excellent qualities, but there are also disadvantages. In inept hands, clover can be useless and even turn into a malicious weed.

Pros and cons of clover as green manure

Clover is a plant from the legume family. In green manure, its ability to fix nitrogen in the upper arable layer is valued. Growing, mowing and planting clover in the soil is an alternative to introducing organic matter: humus, compost, manure. Clover is often included in crop rotation, its crops alternate with plantings of crops that love fertile soil: potatoes, cabbage and pumpkin.

Bacteria that live in nodules help legumes accumulate nitrogen.

In addition, clover absorbs phosphorus compounds that are hard to reach for other plants from the soil and contains a lot of potassium. As a result of its plowing or use as a mulch, useful macronutrients enter the ground in an easily digestible form and serve as food for cultivated plantations.

Another positive effect is the ability to structure the soil. The fibrous roots of clover grow in breadth, penetrating the topsoil like capillaries. Through the formed channels, air and moisture easily penetrate into the ground. This, in turn, improves the living conditions of earthworms and beneficial bacteria that compete with disease-causing ones. Cultivated plants get sick less, their productivity increases.

Moreover, clover retains nutrients well at the surface, preventing them from being washed out into the deep layers of the soil. This is one of the few siderats that grows well in the shade, for example, in the aisles of the garden.

Cons of clover:

• Ineffective in annual culture. Red clover can be cut as early as 2-3 weeks after germination. However, a tangible effect regarding the structuring and improvement of the soil occurs after at least 4 months of cultivation, maximum - in the second year.
• Requires regular irrigation. In arid regions, without irrigation, it takes away moisture from trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables growing nearby.
• Needs soil fertility, will require top dressing.
• It can overgrow with weeds in the first 2 years, and in the next, growing, it itself turns into a weed.
• Clover thickets are always damp, which attracts slugs and snails.

Read also about what can be planted as green manure in the summer, in our article -

Features of meadow (red or pink) clover

Meadow clover, along with lupine and more than all other green manure legumes (vetch, peas, beans), accumulates nitrogen in the ground. However, it is preferable to lupine, since it does not form woody, but soft and juicy stems 40–50 cm high, they quickly rot into humus. If you plan to use clover as an annual green manure, then choose meadow. He builds up a lot of mass in the first summer. During the season it is mowed twice, and with good watering - 4 times.

Meadow clover forms quite tall and succulent stems

In a perennial culture, cut the clover for the first time in the budding phase, leaving stumps 12–15 cm high. Do the last mowing in August-September. Before the onset of cold weather, plants must restore the aerial part.

Red clover in one place can grow up to 6 years, prefers humus-rich, moist, but not wet, soils with low acidity. Siderat grows well on slightly acidic loams and poorly on sandy, acidic and saline soils.

Creeping (White) Clover Features

This species spreads along the ground; you don’t have to cut or mow anything. Accordingly, white clover gives 4 times less organics than red clover, and is rarely used for sideration. However, this is one of the best cover plants for protection against blowing and washing out of the top fertile soil layer, it protects it well from erosion.

The stems of white (creeping) clover spread along the ground, so the flowers and leaves are at its very surface.

White clover is used to fix slopes, turfing a garden, like lawn grass. It surpasses red in winter hardiness, endures long-term flooding with melt water. The plant grows rapidly due to the rooting of the stems in the places of branching.

In one place, white clover is grown up to 19 years. This species is less demanding on soil fertility, grows well on moist, clayey, but drained soil. In the first year, it needs weeding, as it is easily suppressed by weeds. It can be sown under the cover of cereals, which are cut high when the clover begins to actively develop.

Clover sowing technique in autumn and care

Eat general rules sowing clover and caring for it:

• Sow when daytime temperatures no longer rise above 15°C.
• Prepare the site. Apply per 1 m²: 4–5 kg of humus, 30 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potassium salt. Mix fertilizer with top layer soil and tamp the surface so that the small clover seeds do not fall deep.
• Mix the seeds 1:3 with sand and sow in rows with a row spacing of 10–15 cm or randomly. Seal depth - 1 cm.
• Irrigate regularly - in heat and drought without watering, clover may die.
• Feed:
  • nitrogen - in the spring and after each cut;
  • phosphorus-potassium - once per season (spring or autumn), starting from the second year of cultivation.

Video: sowing clover mixed with alfalfa

IN last years in specialized garden stores, clover seeds began to appear en masse. Why they are needed and how you can use them in the garden with benefit, and I will tell you in the article.

Clover has a lot of advantages, so its use is diverse, for example:

• Absolute resistance to trampling has made clover a favorite among lawn lovers. You can run on a clover lawn, play ball, leave flat heavy objects on it for a long time, and it will not lose its fresh look;
• clover found use in the garden. They are sown in rows between the beds. Clover is not aggressive, knows his place, and to the beds to cultivated plants does not climb. It perfectly absorbs moisture even after heavy rains, and in the garden such paths are always dry and tidy;
• Clover is an excellent honey plant; fields around the apiary are sown with it so that the honey is of the highest grade;
• This property of clover is also used in the garden to attract insects for pollination. Bees and other insects flock to the aroma of clover, such beds, near which clover is sown, will be the most abundant;
• Clover is also good as a green manure, its leaf mass enriches the soil, saturates it with nutrients and returns fertility;
• Clover contains a valuable set nutrients and is an excellent feed for livestock. Beekeepers who sow meadows with clover combine what is called two in one: after the end of flowering, they mow the clover and dry it to feed the cattle.

In addition, clover has a number of such useful points as:

• Frost resistance. The plant endures even snowless winters;
• Unpretentiousness to growth conditions and shade tolerance;
• Wetting resistance. Clover is not afraid of spring floods;
• Clover can withstand even strong trampling, quickly recovering;
• Clover is the only lawn that can not be mowed, its flowering is pleasantly pleasing to the eye;
• Clover has pleasant aroma that envelops the garden in the evenings;
• The plant has several varieties, with white and pink flowers.

Autumn sowing of clover

After harvesting, clover is mainly sown in the garden. The beds freed from vegetables are dug up, and supporters of ecological farming only level them with a rake and sow seeds.

To speed up the process of sowing clover on the beds as green manure, after scattering the seeds, I only level the soil again with a rake, so the seeds are embedded in the soil.

You can sow clover throughout the autumn, but no later than three weeks before the start of the daily sub-zero temperature.

If the choice fell on clover to improve the soil, you must also take into account the fact that the plant is a perennial. It will bring the greatest benefit to the soil after three months from the start of germination. However, it is not worth overdoing the clover in the garden, otherwise it will be difficult to dig up.

Clover is sown in the fall and between the rows of beds, do it immediately after harvesting. Clover sprouts will have time to get stronger and in the new season they will be able to resist trampling.

It is problematic to sow clover between the beds in the spring; in the hot garden season, it will only get in the way and will not be able to grow due to trampling.

Spring sowing of clover

In spring, clover is sown in the space prepared for the lawn. First, the soil is carefully leveled and the necessary fertilizers are applied. The soil is carefully watered and clover is sown.

In the first month, such a lawn needs regular watering.

Clover is sown in the spring and in the field next to the apiary and for livestock feed.

How to sow clover

Before sowing, clover seeds are soaked in a solution of epin, and then dipped in a dark-colored potassium permanganate solution. Dry and sow immediately.

For convenience, you can mix the seeds with fine river sand, but this is not necessary.

If it is planned to sow a lawn, after the seed is placed in the soil, it is rolled with an even, rounded log to improve the adhesion of the seeds to the ground.

The sowing depth is approximately 2 cm. After sowing on the beds, it is also desirable to slightly crush the soil.

It is interesting that clover varieties with pink flowers have a large leaf mass, it is sown for animal feed, which is very profitable. During the season it is possible to mow several times.

In white clover, the leaf mass looks more modest, it is good on the lawn and as green manure, the roots are not aggressive, so it is much easier to dig the soil.

I also recommend watching a video about sowing clover, which tells the answers to the most important questions:

Growing green manure of red or white clover (stables) has a good effect on the condition of the soil, it is not associated with high costs manual labor not expensive financially.

The benefit lies in the entry into the soil of mineral forms of nitrogen, which act for a long time, as well as potassium and phosphorus. Clover as green manure is used for several years in one area to restore the soil. The greatest amount of nutrients is obtained in the second year, although clover can grow on one bed up to 15 years.

Features of clover as green manure

Various varieties of clover - red, white, pink - are used in the garden in autumn and spring. It can also be planted in the summer - white clover like green manure is more suitable for this. At autumn plantings the red variety is more effective, as it tolerates frost better. Red clover is sown like green manure in early spring- in the cold season, the seeds germinate better, but then the plant requires heat.

Shoots appear in a week. If you plant seeds in the snow, then after thawing the bed will be green, since melt water contribute to the deepening planting material into the soil by 1 - 2 cm and provides good germination. On sandy soils, care must be taken to keep the seeds in the soil. at a depth of at least 3 cm, as they are washed out and do not bring results.

In addition to green fertilizer, stables are used:

• As a honey plant. Honey after crystallization has White color. In addition to the plant itself, bees pollinate those growing nearby. fruit trees and vegetable crops.

• For pet food. Rabbit breeders know that there is no better hay than clover and alfalfa, so they plant these two green manure for rabbits, mixing in 1: 1 proportions. Greens go to feed, and the root system fertilizes the earth.

Red and white clover as green manure quickly accumulate green mass due to the symbiosis of the root system with nodule bacteria living on the root system. Nitrogen-fixing microorganisms take nitrogen from the air and transfer it to plants.

When using green manure plants, you can not buy expensive manure for potatoes and other crops that especially need nitrogen supplements - cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant. For comparison:

• up to 500 kg of manure is needed per hundred square meters of land - it costs up to 60,000 rubles if bought in a store;

• per 100 sq.m. 200 g of stable seeds are required, 5 acres can be sown with 1 kg, the price of which is 200 rubles.

Video: Mulching row spacing with clover

The advantages of clover over manure and other green manure:

• the stable contains phosphorus in the tissues - phosphorus is added to manure in the form of superphosphate;

• nitrogen clover green manure accumulates more than other legumes;

• does not require constant renewal of crops, as it is a perennial;

• used as lawn grass in landscape design.

root system not deep - much less than that of buckwheat, rye or phacelia. The roots go only 50 cm deep, but they protect the soil from cracking in summer and from erosion in spring.

When, where and how to plant clover for sideration

According to reviews of clover as green manure, it can be said that you need to work with it carefully to prevent reproduction. Plantings are controlled by one method - they are cut off in the budding phase. If you miss the moment, the fruits will ripen and the plant will reproduce spontaneously. Breeding will be difficult, as the seeds germinate after 2 years.

Red clover is green manure that grows well in the shade, in the sun, on the slopes. The plant loves moist areas, but without stagnant water. Suitable for him loamy weakly acidic soils. Strongly acidified soils are not suitable - the green mass will grow slowly.

When to sow red clover as green manure:

• In the spring before planting the main crops. In a month and a half, the plant has time to grow and it can be mowed, leaving the root system in the ground to rot.

Green mass is used as mulch between rows, which decomposes over time, enriching the soil with nutrients. The second way is digging before planting vegetables two weeks before planting. This method is used for planting potatoes.

• In summer. If the bed needs to be restored and weeds removed, then the stable is planted several times per season.

• In autumn. When planting in August, after harvesting, the stable has time to grow, it is cut off and left to rot on the ground. To speed up the process, the greens are covered with a layer of dry straw. Moisture is retained by attracting earthworms, which quickly eat plant debris, turning it into humus. A humid environment promotes the reproduction of beneficial microflora.

Autumn late crops are left in the ground until spring. The plant is frost-resistant, so it continues to grow in the spring. The advantage of this method is that in the spring the stable can be mowed and planted in the soil 2 weeks earlier.

When to sow green manure clover depends on climatic conditions region, purpose of crops (for restoration of the site or as an intermediate crop), type of main crop.

conclusions

The unpretentiousness of the stable to temperatures allows gardeners to choose the time of planting, as well as mix seeds with other winter crops, enhancing the effect of sideration.

Clover cultivation
biological features. Clover belongs to the genus Trifolium L., which has about 300 annual and perennial species, distributed mainly in areas temperate climate Europe, Asia and North America. On the territory of the CIS there are up to 70 wild species of clover. Most of them are bush plants with a well-developed tap root system. Three types of clover are common in cultivation: red clover (Tr. pratense L.), pink clover (Tr. hybridum L.) and white clover (Tr. repens L.). Incarnate clover (Tr. incarnatum L.) and Shabdar clover (Tr. resupinatum) have some distribution.
Clover red. The most common species both in the CIS and in foreign countries. It's perennial herbaceous plant with a taproot, penetrates the soil to a depth of 1.5-2 m. The clover root tends to shrink and retract into the ground root collar, thereby increasing the resistance of the plant against drought and low temperatures. The stem is rounded, with 6-9 internodes, branched, 50-70 cm high, and in some cases up to 150 cm high. Under favorable growing conditions, clover bushes well. On one plant, the number of stems reaches 20-30, and sometimes more.
The leaves are compound, trifoliate. The flowers are red-violet in color, collected in inflorescences - the head. Each head has 30-70 flowers. Clover is cross-pollinated with the help of bees, bumblebees and other insects. The fruit is one or two bean achene. Seeds are round-ovoid, smooth, shiny. The weight of 1000 seeds is 1.5-2 g.
There are several subspecies of red clover in the CIS, among which two are the most common: single-cut northern clover and double-cut early southern clover. In addition to these extreme types, many plants of an intermediate type are found in clover crops. For example, in the Baltic republics and in Belarus, the crops include northern double-cut clover.
Single-cut clover differs from double-cut clover in higher stem, greater tillering and branching of the stem and a large number internodes (usually 7-9 vs. 5-7 double cut). In the first year of life, it forms a rosette pressed to the ground and usually does not bloom. In the second year, as a rule, gives one mowing. One-cut clover blooms 10-15 days later than two-cut clover. After mowing, it grows back slowly. Under favorable growing conditions, it is used for two years. Differs in the increased winter hardiness.
Two-winged clover has a less developed stem, but blooms earlier. In the second year of life, it gives two cuts for hay, or the first for hay, and the second for seeds. One year is used, because it is less winter hardy than single cut. However, it is less demanding on moisture and better tolerates high temperatures. In Ukraine, mainly double-cut clover is grown.
clover red- plant moderately humid climate. It gives high yields in areas with an annual rainfall of 450-500 mm or more. Grows well in areas with high level groundwater, but not closer than 50 cm to the surface. To heat, red clover is not very demanding. Its seeds germinate at a temperature of 2-3 °C. Plants that are well rooted, even with a snowless winter, can withstand frosts down to -20 ° C or more. Red clover has increased requirements to moisture. Optimal Humidity soil for its normal development is within 70-80% of the total moisture capacity. Transpiration coefficient 500-600.
TO nutrients clover is more demanding than cereals, especially in phosphorus and potassium. It, like other legumes, assimilates atmospheric nitrogen with the help of nodule bacteria. The best soils for him, podzolized and heavy chernozems, dark gray and gray forest soils with a slightly acidic or neutral reaction of the soil solution (pH b-7). On acidic podzolic soils, it gives high yields only with liming.

clover pink(hybrid, Swedish) differs from red clover in smaller growth and pink heads that sit on long legs. The plant is well leafy. The fruit is a one- and two-seeded bean, seeds of the correct heart-shaped shape, green with a marble-drop pattern.
Pink clover is less demanding on soils than red clover; it grows well on acidic soils and on heavy clay soils. Under favorable conditions, culture can grow in one place for 7-8 years. After the use of crops for seeds, the plants almost completely die off. Differs in high cold resistance.
The species has two ecological forms - with a hollow stem (grows on wet places) and with a stem filled with a core (a form adapted to drier areas). Sow pink clover on peat soils and lowlands.
white clover- perennial culture with a creeping stem. The root system is located in the upper soil horizons, mainly at a depth of up to 30-35 cm. The stem is branched, rooting at the nodes. Flowering shoots are erect, flowers are white. Beans contain 3-4 seeds. Seeds are small, variegated, regular heart-shaped. White clover is sown mainly in fodder crop rotations, in areas intended for grazing.
Clover in the year of sowing grows slowly and does not give a full harvest, so it is sown under the cover of winter or spring crops. The best cover crop for clover in Ukraine is barley. If clover is grown under the cover of winter crops, it is better to sow it under winter wheat. Since clover is sown under the cover of grain crops, tillage for grain crops is at the same time cultivation for clover.
Lime increases the resistance of clover against freezing, so acidic soils are limed.
For getting high yields hay and clover seeds are fed for the second and subsequent years of use: the first time - in the spring, the second - after the second mowing. When feeding, 30-40 kg of the active substance of phosphorus and potassium are applied per hectare. Fertilizers are embedded into the soil with harrows.
Clover is sown with well-cleaned and sorted seeds with a germination rate of at least 90%. It is especially carefully cleaned of dodder seeds (on special machines).
Clover seed material is heterogeneous. It sometimes contains up to 50 percent or more of the so-called "stone" seeds, which have a very hard shell and do not come off even under conditions of sufficient soil moisture for 2-3 years; before sowing, clover seeds are ground on graters or special machines - scarifiers. At the same time, the hard shells on it are destroyed, and it rises more quickly.
To increase the yield of clover, the seeds are treated with nitragin before sowing. 2-3 weeks before that, it is treated with granosan (150-200 g per 1 quintal of seeds).
Clover is sown with grain grasses or grain planters along with a cover crop. In this case, cover crop seeds are mixed with clover seeds. To prevent the grass seeds from settling in the planter box, the cover crop seeds, if not vernalized, are moistened slightly before sowing and mixed well with the grass seeds.
If clover is grown under the cover of winter crops, then it is sown in the spring, before winter crops are harrowed, with disc seeders across the rows. The seeding rate for clover is from 14 to 16 kg/ha. Seeds are buried 2-3 cm, and when sown with grain seeders - no deeper than 4-5 cm.
Care of clover crops begins after mowing the cover crop. After 2-3 days, heaps of straw and floors are removed from the field, so the clover under them will rot. The cleared field is harrowed in 1-2 tracks with heavy harrows to loosen the soil surface and retain moisture.
If clover, after harvesting the cover crop, manages to form a large vegetative mass by autumn, then 3-4 weeks before frost it is mowed at a height of 14-15 cm to prevent damping.
In the second and subsequent years of use, clover is harrowed in the spring and after each slope, and also weeded from weeds. Special attention need to pay for the fight against dodder.
When growing clover for seeds, bees are taken out for its crops during flowering at the rate of at least 1-2 bee colonies per hectare.
To get high quality hay, clover is cut at the beginning of flowering. Delay in mowing leads to the fact that many leaves fall off, the hay coarsens and its nutritional value decreases. Clover is cut for hay at a height of 5-8 cm.
During the drying of clover hay, make sure that it does not dry out. To do this, the cut grass is dried in mowing for 2-4 hours, then raked into rolls, and after 1-2 days they are made into small shocks. When the hay in piles dries up to a moisture content of 15-16%, it is tossed.
Clover of the second cut is left on the seeds.; It is better to collect it with converted combines when 90% of the heads turn brown. In addition to clover seeds, a lot (25-70%) of non-threshed beans with leaves and chopped stems get into the combine bunker. This mixture (the so-called pizhina) is quite wet, it is immediately dried and threshed (wiped) on clover graters. After wiping, the seeds are cleaned and sorted on conventional grain cleaning machines. Store seeds with a moisture content not higher than 13-14%.
The harvest of clover seeds is 1.5-3 or more centners per hectare.