Microclover in the garden

DonDuck · February 19, 2019

Microclover is a clover plant produced by natural selection which grows very close to the ground and is very resistant to drought. It is a legume and in association with a bacterium, fixes nitrogen in it's roots. It's seed can be purchased and applied as a coated seed. The bacterium is contained in the coating and infects the roots of the clover after the seed germinates.

The primary purpose of the clover is to grow in association with lawn grasses. The clover provides the nitrogen to the lawn grasses causing additional fertilizers to not be required. It also has the ability to shade the soil preventing many weed seeds which require direct sunlight, from germinating.

I saw a film of a garden planted with Microclover with the actual vegetable garden planted directly into the clover. The garden was producing and growing very well with only the nitrogen provided by the clover. The clover also seemed to retard the germination and growth of weeds in the garden.

I'm curious if anyone can describe their experience with Microclover either in lawn grass sod or in the garden.

MI Farmer · February 19, 2019

Never heard of it, but sounds pretty cool. I plant dutch white clover on purpose because I keep bees and it's a food source for them. Do you know if the microclover flowers, too?

DonDuck · February 19, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by MI Farmer

Never heard of it, but sounds pretty cool. I plant dutch white clover on purpose because I keep bees and it's a food source for them. Do you know if the microclover flowers, too?

It does flower, but it isn't any good for bees. I would suspect the blossoms are so small, the bees can't use them. It is my understanding the white clover in different cultivars is more susceptible to disease's and other problems than the microclover. What I keep thinking about is the method used to produce the microclover. It was by natural selection and simply planting seed from the smallest plant, crop after crop and year after year. At the same time, they had to continue testing for it's ability to fix nitrogen and it's drought tolerance.

February 19, 2019	#1
DonDuck Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Corinth, texas Posts: 1,784	Microclover in the garden Microclover is a clover plant produced by natural selection which grows very close to the ground and is very resistant to drought. It is a legume and in association with a bacterium, fixes nitrogen in it's roots. It's seed can be purchased and applied as a coated seed. The bacterium is contained in the coating and infects the roots of the clover after the seed germinates. The primary purpose of the clover is to grow in association with lawn grasses. The clover provides the nitrogen to the lawn grasses causing additional fertilizers to not be required. It also has the ability to shade the soil preventing many weed seeds which require direct sunlight, from germinating. I saw a film of a garden planted with Microclover with the actual vegetable garden planted directly into the clover. The garden was producing and growing very well with only the nitrogen provided by the clover. The clover also seemed to retard the germination and growth of weeds in the garden. I'm curious if anyone can describe their experience with Microclover either in lawn grass sod or in the garden.

February 19, 2019	#2
MI Farmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Zone 4b/5a Posts: 54	Never heard of it, but sounds pretty cool. I plant dutch white clover on purpose because I keep bees and it's a food source for them. Do you know if the microclover flowers, too?