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What to do

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sundog78

Member
My big plot is about 2 acres. Last fall I squared off maybe 1/4 acre and broadcast cc and ladino clovers with ww as a nurse crop. This spring I frost seeded a little extra ladino into it. My plan was to terminate the ww this spring to provide a cover of sorts to aid in water retention and weed suppression. But, then it started raining. And then we were out of the country for 10 days. Then more rain. Long story, the clover is now growing well under wheat that is just about to mature and is towering over the clover.

I don’t know what to do about this. Mow it? Leave it? Burn the wheat after it dies back? Doing nothing isn’t really an option as the 3-4ft tall wheat blocks off a good section of field I won’t be able to see come season. Not an issue now but it will become one. If it reseeded itself into the clover it wouldn’t be the worst thing. What have you guys done in situations like this?

As an aside, I started this to get an area of clover growing that would grow every spring and I wouldn’t have to do anything with it for a few years. I’m only one year in so if i had to start over it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
 
If I am understanding your situation correctly...you could either leave it and let the WW die off and fade away OR mow it high now, knocking down the WW and releasing the clover below. That WW will not be 3 or 4 foot tall this fall, you may be able to see some stalks/stems, but it will die back.
 
I had the same thing happen a year ago. What I did was mow it with brush hog and came to peace with a very weedy plot year 1. Winter came and I frost seeded it.
This spring first cut was with the brush hog but my last two cuts I used a finish mower (only to get ahead of the weeds) and currently the clover looks incredible.
 
theDoorman said:
I had the same thing happen a year ago. What I did was mow it with brush hog and came to peace with a very weedy plot year 1. Winter came and I frost seeded it.
This spring first cut was with the brush hog but my last two cuts I used a finish mower (only to get ahead of the weeds) and currently the clover looks incredible.
Click to expand...

Did you do any spraying before or after mowing? The wheat maturing doesn’t upset me. This plot has a bad marestail problem and the fast growing wheat seems to have slowed it down a good bit. I like that greatly. Still a few growing in it along with some thistle but the weed count in this little section isn’t near what it would be if that wheat wasn’t growing
 
sundog78 said:
My big plot is about 2 acres. Last fall I squared off maybe 1/4 acre and broadcast cc and ladino clovers with ww as a nurse crop. This spring I frost seeded a little extra ladino into it. My plan was to terminate the ww this spring to provide a cover of sorts to aid in water retention and weed suppression. But, then it started raining. And then we were out of the country for 10 days. Then more rain. Long story, the clover is now growing well under wheat that is just about to mature and is towering over the clover.

I don’t know what to do about this. Mow it? Leave it? Burn the wheat after it dies back? Doing nothing isn’t really an option as the 3-4ft tall wheat blocks off a good section of field I won’t be able to see come season. Not an issue now but it will become one. If it reseeded itself into the clover it wouldn’t be the worst thing. What have you guys done in situations like this?

As an aside, I started this to get an area of clover growing that would grow every spring and I wouldn’t have to do anything with it for a few years. I’m only one year in so if i had to start over it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Click to expand...

Done this many times.

What works for ne in this situation is mow it with a bush hog as high as possible so it doesn't leave giant piles on the ground.

Then mow it again at the desired level.

Depending on how well the ww grew you may still have some clumps to deal with.

Many times I have used a finish mower to wind row the clumps off....

(Did that today as matter of fact)
 
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