Using clover as mulch

[Ole Dummy]

I just mowed the back 3 acres and have a lot of clover to use as mulch, can I use it to mulch my tomatoes or do I need to find something else.

Thanks

[The Helpful Gardener]

Just tops should be fine; it's the roots in clover that can be an issue

HG

[Ole Dummy]

thanks

[TZ -OH6]

What's the problem with clover roots? I thought that clover was a good cover crop.

[The Helpful Gardener]

It mostly is, but as a crop grown with another plant, not so much...

Cut clover isn't an issue, unless seed has set, but growing clover right with other plants locks up nitrogen. The bacteria that fix nitrogen in the root nodules are stingy with nitrogen, as they are a low C:N themselves, they use quite a bit. They give up a little when they are done reproducing, but the clover plant gets that. They do not really begin the release until they croak; basically when the plant does. Good green manure, bad mulching crop...

HG

[applestar]

So underplanting with clover is a myth? I've seen recommendations to do that for corn, even cole crops in some gardening books and older OG mags. If that's the case, I'll pull all the clover springing up IN the Veg Beds -- they're SUPPOSED to grow in the paths. I've been letting them live when they're not too close to transplants and emerging seedlings and because the baby slugs seem to like them (hoping they'll eat the clover instead of my veg's)

[The Helpful Gardener]

AS, using it as a trap crop will actually work better in the rows than next to the plants anyway...

Yeah I got this tidbit from the horses mouth; Dr. Elaine Ingham was the one who told me about the bacterial nitrogen sink in clover. Now it is a shallow rooter, so perhaps a deep, gross feeder like corn might work, but I think better off using compost than plants, as any plant is going to compete some...

Yeah, the old school thought was "Hey, free nitrogen!" and as N was always the hardest part of organics, I think there was a bit of grabbing whatever came along... we keep learning things and evolving...

HG

[Ole Dummy]

My thoughts on clover were the same as applestars and TZ-OH6. I do know it is hard to kill unless you want it to grow somewhere, then it is hard to get a good stand. When I was cattle farming on a small scale, I always had trouble growing clover but in my yard I can't get rid of it. I have concluded that when you keep it mowed it really grows and when you don't as in a pasture it doesn't grow as well, or at least for me it didn't. Thanks for the info.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Tall cut grass outcompetes clover. Short cut grass won't... if you cut too short (less than three inches), clover will be an issue, especially the dutch clover (white).

HG