Corn and clover grown together

[hillrunner]

I stumbled onto this short youtube video today. It's easy to envision this working out well for plots. It looks basically like they are using the clover as living mulch which is producing nitrogen for the corn throughout the growing season. Anyone ever tried anything like this?

 

[Sligh1]

I like it! I’ve heard guys burn down clover cover crop for N needs and that works. The other thing about clover is it usually comes back no matter what u hit it with - almost.
The tricky part on above.... 2 things... 1) all that Clover residue & stolons will be tough to plant through. Even if band spraying. But- it likely is accomplished there with some row cleaners or maybe they did get it killed off enough in the rows for no till coulters to get through.... & didn’t have too much residue for corn seed to grow through. 2) that band spraying for a small strip for each row- I’m sure they have a special Tip for sprayer & General gps/auto steer to plant in that band. So- not incredibly complex but not stuff a food plotter would have. May be able to eyeball it though.
very cool & I believe it would work. Or a version of it. So great for soil on a dozen fronts, drought, cost savings, etc.

 

[Hardwood11]

My food plot guy does a lot of reading and watching podcasts. He did something similar in MN, with drill, crimper etc.. We will see how it turns out?

 

[arm]

So not really a frost seed clover and plant into it that spring situation?

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[hillrunner]

So not really a frost seed clover and plant into it that spring situation?

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That's what I've been trying to decipher too. It seems unlikely to me that row cleaners would give enough space on there own for the corn to get a foothold if planted into live clover. I'm thinking frost seeded cover and maybe band spraying like sligh talked about?

 

[Sligh1]

That's what I've been trying to decipher too. It seems unlikely to me that row cleaners would give enough space on there own for the corn to get a foothold if planted into live clover. I'm thinking frost seeded cover and maybe band spraying like sligh talked about?

It’s established clover. It could even be corn on corn that never had clover killed. It very well could be established the late summer/early fall before as well. But- once that clover is established - if u do band spray it- there’s no killing it - it will go on for years.

One other inventive way I thought of doing this since watching vid.... if u could rig up a nozzle in front or behind each row u plant to spray at same time- possible. Not that complex. What might be easiest is to get a sprayer that booms go very low and get a nozzle that does not fan much. Also very common/easy & that could be done before planting so running planter through is easier. Or, thinking out loud, even STRIP TILL. Lots of options to be honest.
I was also thinking....Where this whole process hits a Hurdle for “food plotters”... if this is a giant clover field, say it’s a plot and under 10 acres.... what is the clover doing ?? It’s attracting deer all spring & summer to graze it. My concern with that- they will nip the corn right down. So- this would have to be fenced for a food plotter.

Last - Reality of a food plotter .... get a super good stand of clover.... burn it up & plant corn into it.... it will actually bounce back if it’s not tore up. It might not be a dynamite stand but it’s almost impossible to kill clover off with herbicides alone. Almost. Bottom line: this has some for sure benefits and likely be a guy tweaking & playing around to get a situation that works for them. Likely a hybrid of this method for sure if u a food plotter.

 

[Hunter Brunk]

Pretty sure I tried this by accident this year in a field that was left fallow last year and turned into almost pure clover. Planted a perfect DBltree rye mix plot in part of the field and was sitting in the blind watching countless deer feeding in the fallow field out of range wherever they pleased lol. Fast forward to this year and I found out just how hard it is to kill clover. Didn’t work as good for me without the perfect lines to plant into haha, but I think the plot will still turn out well. It’s been looking really good now, these pics are old. You can kind of see the areas where the clover got too thick and I don’t think the corn will amount to much in those places, but we have already started to see deer bed in those pockets of the corn, and we expect to continue to see that this fall, pretty cool really.