This year I did not plant a food plot for summer. I thought I would try the throw and mow idea in fall. So as expected it has grown up in tall dead dried stems of the wheat, oats and Rye Etc. Also a lot of weeds. The thing I noticed is there is a significant " understory" of clover. I'm amazed that it is almost August and the whole thing is filled with clover. It is getting old looking and there is several varieties. The leaves are getting gray and splotchy looking but there is still flowering mostly of some variety of white clover going on throughout the whole plot. My question is if I mowed the weeds and dead wheat stems and clover now, would the Clover revive and rejuvenate or would it just die out. Maybe I should just wait till September and try the throw and mow idea then?
Food Plots Clover Question
- Thread starter rifle02
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MickThompson
Well-Known Member
wait. Those weeds are shading the ground and keeping your clover from burning up
hoyt30
Well-Known Member
I have the same thing going on. It's went this long I'm waiting til it cools off to mow.
BSK
Well-Known Member
This is normal. I wait until my Crimson Clover and Wheat have seeded out and died in late spring or early summer to throw-and-mow my summer plots. Although the summer plants grow tall. Some of the Crimson Clover seed germinates during the summer and forms a thick ground-cover carpet. When I do my fall plots, I just throw-and-mow and do nothing to the clover. In fall, it will take off and grow up to a full-sized plant, even though it was just ground cover over the summer.
However, once I do my fall throw-and-mow, I DO spray with a grass killer to kill any living grasses in the plots (in my instance, it will be Johnson Grass, Foxtail, and Fescue). I will then broadcast cereal grains into the plot AFTER I have sprayed grass-killer.
However, once I do my fall throw-and-mow, I DO spray with a grass killer to kill any living grasses in the plots (in my instance, it will be Johnson Grass, Foxtail, and Fescue). I will then broadcast cereal grains into the plot AFTER I have sprayed grass-killer.
BSK
Well-Known Member
ABSOLUTELY! That's why I only use grass-killer in fall. I don't want to wipe out my clover. As for broadleafs in the plot, you can either spot spray them with gly or better yet 2,4-Db. Or just wait for the first frost to kill them.
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megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
I bushhogged about half of my clover plots this past weekend... my q red clover was just about spent, and plots are getting so thick I really need to knock them back before spraying to ensure I get a good kill before my fall plantings.
Believe when @BSK referenced "grass killer", he was talking about Clethodim which will not kill the clover. As you have found out, clover is very resilient. I bet you could broadcast seed, mow weeds covering the clover, then spray without too much clover damage. Of course, that depends on how much thatch your able to lay down over the clover. If it's anything like mine this year, adequate thatch is not going to be a problem.
