Buck on the bag clovers

Anyone have any experience with clover plantings? Are those clovers like Whitetail Institute imperial clover
worth the extra money?

Do you have a feed store nearby? You would save a lot of money if you mixed your own. You would get exactly what you want then.
DT

yes I do, that is the way I am leaning. I just wondering if someone had a great experience with those high buck bags (excuse the pun). Can anyone recommend a well built ATV sprayer?

I haven’t ever planted the clover mixes, but I have looked at what is in there. A lot of it is filler or not the type of clover I wanted to plant. I don’t remember exactly what is in the Whitetail institute stuff though.

I primarily plant jumbo ladino white clover, so that is what I buy. Occasionally I frost seed medium red clover into an existing clover plot or plant it as a summer crop that I disc in for a fall planting. So I buy what I want instead of a mix.

Like DT said, if you can find a seed store or coop you can get the kind of clover seed you want at a much cheaper cost and you are not paying for filler. If you are buying big amounts you can order on line form Welters seed co.

dogs wrote:

yes I do, that is the way I am leaning. I just wondering if someone had a great experience with those high buck bags (excuse the pun). Can anyone recommend a well built ATV sprayer?

We have 2 fimco sprayers. One at the farm 25 gallon with a boom and one at home 20 gallon without boom. They have been very reliable sprayers.

dogs wrote:

Anyone have any experience with clover plantings? Are those clovers like Whitetail Institute imperial clover
worth the extra money?

The buck on the bag companies are trying to sell people on the idea that they have some special, magical seed in the bag. And ONLY they have it.

The guy who owns the property next to be has drunk the Whitetail Institute cool aid. He’s got nice clover, but he easily paid 7-10x what he had to in order to get nice clover.

If you look on the side of the package, the legally-required “contents” label tells no lies. It breaks down what seeds are in the bag and the % of each seed in the bag. As Sticker says, often there’s a lot of grass and other filler in a bag that screams “Mega Clover Mix.” I’ve seen “brassicas” mixes that were less than 20% actual brassicas and the rest was all grass and filler.

As others have said, go to the feed store or order online. Personally, I think the best results will be achieved when you get local info on what clovers grow best in your area.

Personally, I’ve created a mix of white, red, and other varieties. I’m also including a light dose of oats, not as filler but as a nurse crop to give the clover some cover to establish in. I’m testing it this year and will file some reports.

As always, a soil sample is essential. Find out what your soil chem is like and what you need to do as far as PH adjustments. This has a far greater impact than the seed variety.

Sprayers. Make sure you get a unit sized for the area you need to spray. My first go-round with sprayers, I bought a “lawn and garden” unit and the pump was undersized and couldn’t spray for more than 30 minutes without overheating and going into thermal shutdown.

I’ve now built my own 25 gallon boom sprayer for my ATV. I can cover 10 feet and the pump is a 100% duty cycle, so it can run for hours at a time without overheating. I used Northern Tool’s sprayer pump, and they offer complete spray rigs similar to what I built. Worth a look.

Grouse