CLOVER! Spring vs. fall planting!

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hey folks, Malcolm McGee here. In today's video, I want to talk about crimson clover. Primarily, I want to talk about spring planting versus fall planting. And this is the first time I've ever done it side by side in the same field. The reason for that is because we cut this early in the fall for silage and we picked this corn late.

[00:00:21]I can't even remember what month it was, but it seems like it was just before all that snow came in December or something like that.

[00:00:29]As you see, the crimson clover is blooming in the fall planting. That means it's getting close to being ready to plow it up plow under.

[00:00:38]This clover over here, the only ones you see with heads are the stuff that that slung out here when I was seeding it.

[00:00:45]This right here is the clover that I planted in the spring.

[00:00:51]So, as you see, it's still very young and very small.

[00:00:55]It still lacks a good month and a half at least before maturity till it's ready to be plowed under. That's perfectly fine because I don't plant my corn till late May early June anyway for various reasons and I'll get into that later or even more when I do plant it. I'll talk about that. But, let's talk about this clover. Number one, why do we plant the clover? We plant it specifically to create nitrogen for our corn crop. I have not used chemical fertilizer in the nitrogen form here in many years.

[00:01:31]And I keep producing crops year after year after year, same field. I don't have to lay over a year and throw soybeans in there. Although, I did put soybeans between my corn this past year and that really is going to help. But, this right here completely knocks out that needing to skip a year with your corn. You can absolutely do it.

[00:01:54]I had the first year ever a issue where it got cold enough to really knock some of my clover were back. I would say 20% of it may have been killed. I'm not sure.

[00:02:06]What that did was it created more space for the wheat.

[00:02:12]And you might ask why wheat cuz wheat don't produce nitrogen.

[00:02:16]Here's the deal.

[00:02:17]The wheat works as a nurse crop for the clover, but it also is a trigger crop that sends a message to that clover saying we need you to produce more nitrogen. And that's what it does. It's really nice. It's going to seed right here. It's going and it's making heads.

[00:02:37]You can see the size of it here.

[00:02:41]So, that's a pretty decent crop. I had it a little taller last year, I believe.

[00:02:45]We just have different years. Every year is different. But, it's still good.

[00:02:50]Really fine. What I learned is that if I plowed it right now, I would not get nearly as much nitrogen if I wait a week or two and let this start going to seed.

[00:03:01]Just a little bit. You don't want it to go too far cuz then it starts going the other way. You want to plow this under at peak nitrogen production.

[00:03:12]The roots, they've got nitrogen, but the tops have the most nitrogen because did you know the air you breathe is primarily nitrogen? So, it's pulling nitrogen out of the air and it's growing it on these plants. And I'll tell you it's absolutely amazing how man cannot make a nitrogen product that you plow in the ground. It will not wash away into water sources. It will slowly break down and become available to the plant as the season progresses. It It all don't turn into nitrogen right away and then dissipate. It's a steady slow production of nitrogen all the way through your growing season as it breaks down. Obviously, the leaves are going to break down first. They're the thinnest.

[00:04:03]But, then these thicker stems break down a little later. And the way I like to do it, I like to get out here and mow it, let it dry a little bit and then plow it under because when it dries a little bit, it will last longer before it breaks down.

[00:04:18]And that helps not only longevity of the nitrogen, but it helps also in humus.

[00:04:26]It's a really good deal and a lot of the nitrogen that's in here will last over not only for this coming crop.

[00:04:35]And that's amazing to me how that it does that.

[00:04:39]Nitrogen you buy at the store, whether it's urea or whatever, cannot do that.

[00:04:45]By its nature, it cannot do that.

[00:04:48]If you have a gully washer, it washes away. If you don't get it under the ground, the sun kills it. It's just not anywhere near what this right here is.

[00:04:57]This costs a little bit of money. I mean, it'll cost you some money to plant this stuff. Urea costs you a fortune to put it on as well and maybe more as time goes on. It looks like we may have a very high nitrogen costly season ahead just because of the way things are going in the world.

[00:05:17]This right here, it's already in the ground. It's set. It doesn't matter what goes on in the world. I've got my nitrogen here ready to go.

[00:05:27]Let's all move on down to look at some other fields that I've got planted and see what they look like and talk a little more about this clover.

[00:05:35]Okay, here's another edge where I planted fall clover, spring clover and you can see clearly grass is really thick in this field.

[00:05:45]I disked this with my bog just the same as I always do.

[00:05:49]But, in the spring time, you deal with this more. This grass would have never came up like this in the fall and the winter and that's where you get a little bit of an advantage with your weeds and grasses. Now, maybe this grass will trigger that clover to produce more nitrogen. I do not know.

[00:06:10]Drop down in the comments and let me know if the grass will work the same as the wheat.

[00:06:16]I honestly don't know. But, we've got a pretty good stand of clover in here amongst this grass if it's able to get enough sunshine to keep going. We will see. I could go in there. I think in the past I've gone in there and mowed the grass above the clover to give it a little more sunshine. I may do that. We shall see as it goes on. Seeing a lot of clover through here.

[00:06:47]I've got a dandy stand of clover in here, but I'm not seeing that much wheat.

[00:06:52]Maybe the grass will take up in the place of the wheat help the clover fixate that nitrogen.

[00:06:58]Let's go see some more fields. This is the field where I put the ashes. This is the edge I put the ashes on back in the fall.

[00:07:05]What you see right here is a product of my wheat didn't start coming out till I got up there. So, I didn't get any wheat much planted here. That shows you how much clover is here cuz I didn't plant the clover and the wheat at the same time in the hopper. I did my clover and then I planted my wheat. So, you can see right here. I'm kind of glad it did that. You can see how much clover is in this field throughout.

[00:07:30]The wheat just kind of covers it up and makes it where you can't see it clearly, but it's there.

[00:07:36]So, I'm excited about this field. The strip where I threw the ashes needs less lime. I got it soil tested. It still called for a teeny pinch of lime, but this called for a ton per acre or thereabouts. So, it made a significant difference.

[00:07:54]And obviously, I planted it in the fall.

[00:07:58]That's why it's got this look. It's It's ready to go.

[00:08:02]Oh, I see some white heads.

[00:08:05]So, I just reached down and picked these all together. They were growing together.

[00:08:10]I like that.

[00:08:12]White crimson clover. Is it crimson if it's white? I don't think so. I see that in all a lot of my fields. I'll see one or two white ones just an anomaly.

[00:08:23]And I think last year somebody told me that they do sell white crimson clover.

[00:08:28]You can get that seed. In the past, I had just absentmindedly thought, "Oh, I should save those when they go to I should mark them, save them and try to get a white crimson clover started." But, talk about a waste of time.

[00:08:43]I don't have that kind of time.

[00:08:45]Let's go down here to the potato field.

[00:08:48]I planted my latest crop of clover there. That's the latest I planted and I think it was in March, perhaps end of February, March, something like that.

[00:09:00]That was a late one. Let's go look at that. All right. So, the first thing you notice is the potatoes are up really nicely and we've hardly got any rain since we planted them, but there was a lot of moisture in the ground already.

[00:09:12]And they're looking superb. Sometimes a dry year will scare a farmer, whereas a wet year actually hurts the farmer.

[00:09:20]That's a saying that I've heard quoted many times.

[00:09:23]So, to be on the drier side is okay. We can get along with that. We just need some rain. To be honest with you, we do need rain. There's cracks in the ground.

[00:09:34]And uh the grass has kind of stopped growing somewhat. But, my clover I planted late is up.

[00:09:43]It's the smallest clover I've got. It's going to be highly interesting to see when it comes to maturity when I can plow it and get my corn in the ground.

[00:09:51]I'm going to plant corn in between these potato rows all the way down this hill.

[00:09:55]I've got it basically terraced down through there. So, I've got flat about 8 ft wide flat flat flat and it just stair steps down through here and I was able to accomplish that by plowing my landings down the hill. So, that's just the way it worked. That was a product of live and learn just kind of learn on the job as you go.

[00:10:19]But this clover, you can see I've actually got quite a bit that's produced This clover here is volunteer from seeds from clover I planted last year. So, I didn't even buy the seed that grew this. It's volunteer from plants that I did buy the seed from.

[00:10:43]Obviously, it's a good thing not a bad thing, but it's not enough. I've got to wait till the clover I planted matures and gets like this and a little beyond this stage right here. This is starting to try to go to seed. See how the red is on top and the bottoms are starting to shrivel up. So, it's a probably a week away from being all green looking and then go in the other way turning brown looking.

[00:11:09]But it's exciting. I'm excited about it.

[00:11:11]Let me tell you. I've got just absolutely good looking field right here.

[00:11:17]I'm very proud of it.

[00:11:19]Looking forward to not only getting potatoes out of it, but corn.

[00:11:24]Some people thought I'd stop growing potatoes when I went on the carnivore diet.

[00:11:28]Not true.

[00:11:30]My the rest of my family still eats potatoes and stuff and I'm a high big believer in having food on hand.

[00:11:38]You need to have food on hand in bulk.

[00:11:42]So, you have something to eat.

[00:11:44]Because the grocery store may not always have it. So, anyway, there you go. That is my clover video 2026 fall planting versus spring planting.

[00:11:54]If I could do it the way I really would like, I would plant all of it in the fall, but it just does not work out to do that when I do the way I do.

[00:12:05]Some of it goes to silage. Some of it gets picked in the middle of the winter right in the harshest part of the winter and I can't really I don't want to waste my seed. So, I hold on to it until we get some decent weather.

[00:12:17]And it's going to go it's going to make.

[00:12:18]I'm excited about it. It will not be long till you see this in full bloom getting plowed under.

[00:12:25]The beekeepers are hating me. Corn growers be wondering about me.

[00:12:31]I kind of like it myself. It works good.

[00:12:33]I've been doing it for years.

[00:12:35]Very consistent.

[00:12:37]On a completely unrelated note, I was sitting on the other side of the orchard over there early this morning turkey hunting. Never saw a turkey. Went home and ate breakfast.

[00:12:47]Came over here to make this video and I even shot all the video you saw up to this point until I got right there and I was cleaning the lens off on my phone because my old smudgy hands touch that lens make it blurry. So, it's just a habit. Wipe it off every time before I start shooting.

[00:13:04]There goes a turkey right there.

[00:13:06]In range. I'm not sure if it was a gobbler or a hen.

[00:13:11]It had a little bit of red on its head, but some hens have red on their heads and it was gone in a flash, but that just goes to show you what kind of luck I'm having turkey hunting. I haven't killed a thing yet.

[00:13:23]Haven't had a chance to kill a thing yet and then I come over here to make a clover video and one pops out right nearly between my legs there. So, anyway, that's just the way it goes.

[00:13:32]Hope you enjoyed the video. If you have a garden or a field that you're going to plant stuff in that needs nitrogen such as corn. I highly recommend that you plant if you can in the fall crimson clover. If you can't in the fall, do it in the spring early as you can. I've planted in every month that has the letter R in it and I've planted in July and August with great results as well.

[00:13:56]The worst time to plant it would be end of April, 1st of May and June. That that's really rough. Late in July, we start having some rain and it starts cooling off and stuff.

[00:14:07]August, I like to have it in the ground by August or September for sure. If I can have it in the ground by September, I'm really happy. But anyway, do that if you can. Plow that under when it starts going to seed. You'll have yourself a nitrogen crop that won't quit. But that's all I've got for you today. Hope you have a great day. We'll see you on the next video.