Clover?

[jonnybeegood]

Can someone put my mind strsight & tell me i'm right that the pic below is clover? There is a field about 30 acres planted with this about 3 weeks ago, it was cut for sileage before this then ploughed & seeded presumably as its sll growing in rows and about 2" high now. I thought clover was finishing flowering, why would they be growing this, ive never seen it grown here before?

 

[dpearce4]

no where near ending flowering yet, will go on for a good few weeks. The farms I have bees on under sow the clover with the grass as it improves the quality of meat from the lamb and beef.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I thought clover was finishing flowering

Flowering well here, loads of it coming up after the hay fields have been recently cut, just need some heat for it to secrete some nectar.

 

[Thymallus]

Not allowed to cut lawn at the moment as full of it. Phew!

 

[kazmcc]

I know in green manures for your vegetable garden, the seeds include clover. It improves the soil when dug back into it. Perhaps that's what they are doing.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Thanks. Is it red or white? Will there be much for the bees if it grows among the grass or will it get grown over?

 

[kazmcc]

Not allowed to cut lawn at the moment as full of it. Phew!

My "lawn" is covered in it too. It is almost so long it's touching Arran's knees, so i know i have to cut it soon, but it's the only thing bees are visiting right now, so I have left it. My garden is quite new, so will take a few years to have flowering all year round.

 

[dpearce4]

last year round here the fields looked white from it.

 

[kazmcc]

Thanks. Is it red or white? Will there be much for the bees if it grows among the grass or will it get grown over?

I don't know if it's red or white, but if it get's grown over, the bees will still find it I'm sure

 

[Thymallus]

Looks green to me.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I know in green manures for your vegetable garden, the seeds include clover. It improves the soil when dug back into it. Perhaps that's what they are doing.

Clover is one of the best nitrogen fixing plants available. Clovers have the ability to obtain nitrogen from the atmosphere and “fix” it in nodules on its roots;

http://www.oregonclover.org/uses/nitrogenfixation/

 

[REDWOOD]

Victorians sowed their fields with clover to put nitrogen back in the soil.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Is it likely to be sprayed or just cut with the grass as silage?

 

[Thymallus]

Most siilage is cut in June. At least round here it is. After that they tend to make hay.

 

[Tremyfro]

Most siilage is cut in June. At least round here it is. After that they tend to make hay.

Farmers will take a September cut of silage....as the autumn flush grows with higher sugar content....not all areas though.

 

[Amari]

Flowering well here, loads of it coming up after the hay fields have been recently cut, just need some heat for it to secrete some nectar.

My experience with clover over the years has been disappointing. My apiary is on a 4-acre abandoned plant nursery. My eco-friendly landlord mows the hay early August and then rakes off the hay. Never fertilised. The herbiage is rich with white clover and much else inc. bee and pyramidal orchids (just finished). Year after year I patrol the pasture. I see a few bumbles on the clover but very rarely a honey bee. Ditto when I walk the local footpaths. I have similar views on hawthorn - said to be nectar secreting but honeybees thereon hard to find.

 

[kazmcc]

Year after year I patrol the pasture. I see a few bumbles on the clover but very rarely a honey bee. Ditto when I walk the local footpaths. I have similar views on hawthorn - said to be nectar secreting but honeybees thereon hard to find.

Those orchids are beautiful! Oddly enough, now I think of it, I never see hbs on clover either. Always bumbles, mostly red tailed and common carder bees here.

 

[Thymallus]

Not sure how rich white clover nectar is. Perhaps they have other richer sources available. I find many bees on my lawns clover but usually late afternoons on warm days.

 

[Magwat]

The field could have been reseeded with a clover crop for silaging next year. We currently have a field of clover that we have cropped for 3 years, in the right climate you can get 3 cuts a year (2 in Wales if you're lucky). The clover varieties are not any use to honeybees as the flowers are too big for their tongues but the bumbles like them. This is actually the case with most clovers used in grass mixes for silage but when the flowers grow back after cutting they are smaller though by that time the bramble is out and is a greater attraction.

 

[kazmcc]

The field could have been reseeded with a clover crop for silaging next year. We currently have a field of clover that we have cropped for 3 years, in the right climate you can get 3 cuts a year (2 in Wales if you're lucky). The clover varieties are not any use to honeybees as the flowers are too big for their tongues but the bumbles like them. This is actually the case with most clovers used in grass mixes for silage but when the flowers grow back after cutting they are smaller though by that time the bramble is out and is a greater attraction.

Ahh, thank you for that Magwat. I didn't know that