Conservation Tillage: Cover Crops

Annual Sweet Clover

Sweet clover is a summer annual legume. As a summer plant, it has poor tolerance to cold temperatures but responds to warm temperatures, producing tremendous amounts of above-ground growth during the summer (6 ft. in July) and deep taproots beneath the surface. However, because of small seed size, it is slow to establish itself, and will sometimes require a nurse crop (such as barley). It is a drought-tolerant plant, and most sweet clovers will also tolerate alkali, limestone and moderate to low soil quality. Sweet clover makes excellent bee pasture, but should not be grazed under any circumstances! It contains courmarin, which is toxic to livestock.

Seed 15-25 lbs/A. Early May.