| HCS Home | Syllabus | Calendar | Greenhouse Project | Links |

Forage Crops - SOS

Red Clover (Ch 8 pg 174)

Background

The most commonly planted forage legume after alfalfa Grown widely across the U.S. to lower Canada Mediterranean origin	Red Clover
Soil Fertility
Prefers near neutral pH (for nodulation) Requires large quantities of K and medium quantities of P (especially when cut for hay/silage) widely distributed - usually nodulates naturally from free-living Rhizobia Best-adapted to deep, well-drained, highly fertility soils

Quality

• Highly palatable forage
• High quality if harvested before full bloom (typically harvest at 20% bloom)
• Stems and flower are more digestible than alfalfa
  

Advantages

• High yielding and good quality (hairs can make hay dusty)
• Good seedling vigor - easy to establish
• Deep tap root - moderate drought tolerance
• Recovers rapidly after harvest

Disadvantages

• Low productivity and stand persistence on poorly drained soils
• Requires high soil pH
• no vegetative spread - stands will thin after 2-4 years
• not very well suited for grazing (tends to disappear from stands after 2-4 years)

Identification
Trifoliate leaves, distinctive red flower Pubescent (very hairy) "water-mark" on the leaflets Grows from a crown once established

Agronomy

typically planted at 8-12 lb/ac Susceptible to a number of diseases, but none have economic control options Crowns are susceptible to damage (which shortens stand life) so avoid grazing (treading) and traffic when soil is soft old varieties are: Cinnamon, Mammoth most new varieties are tetraploid, e.g. Starfire

| Back to top | HCS Home | Syllabus | Calendar | Greenhouse Project | Links |

Copyright © The Ohio State University All rights reserved.