Land Preparation

Use conventional tillage, maintain a firm seedbed.

Seeding Rate

Drill 5-9 lb/ac. Broadcast 7-14 lb/ac. After seeding, roll the ground to improve seed-to-soil contact but do not break up soil aggregates.

Seed Cost

2024 price: $6/lb.

Seeding Dates

Fall: August 15-September 10, alone or with annual grass cover. Spring: As early as possible, may be frost seeded like medium red clover.

Time Until Control

Perennial. One to five years.

Seed Suppliers

American Seed Co., Seedway. Specify Dutch white clover, which is a low-growing type used for cover crops. Avoid other white clovers.

Management Tricks

Frost seed into winter cover as early in spring as possible. With conventional tillage, maintain firm seed bed with fine surface at seeding. Mow the year of seeding to suppress weeds. Plant companion perennial ryegrass.

Unavoidable Problems

Slow to establish, use nurse crop.

Avoidable Problems

Sow in firm, fine seed bed.

Classic Uses

Ground cover for lanes and walkways, mixed with turfgrass.

Maintenance

Used in high traffic areas, including permanent walkways; sometimes mixed with turf grass. Mow close to the ground to prevent the plants from making seed and for appearance.

Control

White clover propagates by seed or creeping stolons which root at the nodes. Uproot and incorporate to control. This cover crop is difficult to control with herbicides; glyphosate at 1 lb/ac will suppress but not kill white clover. To eliminate white clover when it is used as a turf (and adjacent vegetables are out of the field), consult turf herbicide recommendations.

Tips

Tolerates shade and can be used as a companion crop with alfalfa or perennial ryegrass. Frost seed into winter cover crop in the spring. White clover crop is very tolerant of wet growing conditions. Wait two years before planting a vegetable legume because white clover is a host for root rot diseases such as Pythium and Rhizoctonia.