# White Dutch / White Clover



## alblancher

Anybody have any experience with this. I was looking for White Dutch clover but it gets pretty expensive to ship in 50 lbs. The local feed store has white clover Louisiana S1 type. They are both Trifolium Repens. I was thinking of over seeding with Crimson clover in the fall.

Does anyone work white clover?

Thanks


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## Rusty Hills Farm

Clover

Perhaps this will help. 

I'm in the process of overseeding my pastures with ladino clover for my horses and with an eye to maybe encouraging the bees I don't have yet. Hopefully it will be established by the time I do get my bees and then we'll see what kind of bee forage it makes. I'm also overseeding the lawn and the garden area with dutch clover (that's the version that is low-growing). I'm hoping the weekly yard mowing this summer won't disturb it.

Just a bit of a bee forage experiment.  

Rusty


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## Saltybee

I have a patch of white and a patch of red naturally. Neither is a big patch. Bees in different years have ignored the red favored white, favored red ignored white, ignored both.


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## jmgi

Bees love white dutch clover and I never fail to see bees on my lawn when its blooming good, I have spent the money and bought bulk seed and overseeded all the athletic fields and public lawn areas near me with white dutch and I think that it has been worth it. John


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## 779Hybrid410

I planted 2 acres of white and 1 acre of crimson last summer. Never saw my bees in the white all summer / fall, but did see the bees in the crimson in the fall. After I had mowed it down and a second bloom of tiny flowers started late fall. Was told the honey bee tongues could not reach full sized crimson. Also was told, the reason I did not see my bees in the white clover, was the surrounding fauna was easier to harvest. Made sense, as you could find multiple bees in my 5 acre peony patch and the surrounding fireweed fields.


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## jdmidwest

jmgi said:


> Bees love white dutch clover and I never fail to see bees on my lawn when its blooming good, I have spent the money and bought bulk seed and overseeded all the athletic fields and public lawn areas near me with white dutch and I think that it has been worth it. John


Wow, the laws in your state allow you to seed public property with a seed of your choice?

Most athletic fields are managed for a certain kind of turf and many tax dollars are spent on that. Clover may be considered a feral weed. I doubt it is what the grounds keepers use.


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## jmgi

jdmidwest, the athletic fields that I seeded were not what you would call real nice lawns, they were originally just weedy fields and now the township just keeps it cut, although I think they have overseeded the soccer fields with grass seed. They don't use any weed killer from what I can tell. John


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## mike haney

"...Wow, the laws in your state allow you to seed public property with a seed of your choice?..."
Use the Bill Clinton motto :
DON'T ASK,DON'T TELL


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## The Honey Householder

Are you kidding. We have spent a lot of $$$ over the years seeding road sides and ditch banks. With all kinds of bee food seed. Some people throw there trash out there truck windows and we throw seed.


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## Therese McCarthy

What types of seed do you throw around?


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## jmgi

When I do the athletic fields, I seed them with white dutch and do it when nobody is around obviously, I have one of those small Scott's hand crank seed throwers. I also have thrown around white and yellow sweet clover, and alsike in fields, ditches, and roadsides just like the Honey Householder says. The sweet clovers seem to be harder to get them to germinate compared to the white dutch. I used to get my seed in bulk from Stock Seed in Nebraska. John


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## Ross

Bees work crimson clover like crazy around here. I sowed 10 acres of mixed crimson and ball clover this fall. The crimson blooms earlier, the ball last later into the spring. I also did a few acres of mixed Hubam white and yellow sweet clover. Hubam will bloom this year, yellow next year.


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## red

I have a 60 acre grass field with white and red clover next to one of my bee yards. I'm not sure of the clover names as we planted it over 20 years ago. The bees work the white clover really well and usually produce two or three western suppers off of it. Last year we were short on pasture and had to put cows on this field and even though it bloomed the bees didn't work it very well. 
fortunately the neighbor's let both first and second cutting of alphalfa bloom. 
Around here we have allot of sweet clover growing wild but it only produces a good honey crop every second or third year.


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## UTvolshype

red said:


> I have a 60 acre grass field with white and red clover next to one of my bee yards. I'm not sure of the clover names as we planted it over 20 years ago. The bees work the white clover really well and usually produce two or three western suppers off of it. Last year we were short on pasture and had to put cows on this field and even though it bloomed the bees didn't work it very well.
> fortunately the neighbor's let both first and second cutting of alphalfa bloom.
> Around here we have allot of sweet clover growing wild but it only produces a good honey crop every second or third year.


With clovers, lime really gets it going if you have clay/low pH type soils. So if you see a lot of white clover along roadsides and gravel driveways it's the gravel dust that got the clover to take over. So liming the clover will increase it area covered and amount of nectar produced.:thumbsup:


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## Myron Denny

I had a County Agent that had a pasture just north of mine, he broadcast arrowleaf clover in his pasture. My bees that are the closest to arrowleaf clover have produced the most honey for me. Arrowleaf reportedly does not cause cattle to bloat. Arrowleaf is recomended for use in the southern states. Horses seem to not like arrowleaf clover, deer love it.


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## bobbarker

I'm planting some White this spring, as well as some buckwheat (for the deer as well as the bees), and it does cost a lot to ship. Head down to your local grain elevator or co-op, and ask them about ordering. I got buckwheat (haven't gotten the clover yet) for 1.00 a pound.


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## jdmidwest

bobbarker said:


> I'm planting some White this spring, as well as some buckwheat (for the deer as well as the bees), and it does cost a lot to ship. Head down to your local grain elevator or co-op, and ask them about ordering. I got buckwheat (haven't gotten the clover yet) for 1.00 a pound.


Local farm seed suppliers are carrying both buckwheat and clovers here in SE MO for deer food plots. They keep it in stock and sell it by the pound or the bag.


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## Michael Bush

White clover has become a bit ambiguous. White sweet clover is a different plant from white dutch clover. Both produce honey. I plant both in my pastures often.


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## Goran

Here, the honey of white clover ( Trifolium repens) is considered excellent for overwintering. My modest experience vary, one year- 2011 all conditions match and bees exploited it greatly . ( whole area had nice soft smell of white clover flowers). But in 2012. first too much rain, and temp. dropping and not well blooming, later drought and again no significant use of it ( maybe if I had possibility of watering it would be better..)...


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## alblancher

Wish I could get white dutch for a buck a pound. I can get the white clovers for that price but not white dutch. From what I see white dutch blooms all summer and the bees really like it so I may make the investment in the 50 lbs. It is also more of a perenial so it will not have to be re-seeded for a couple of years, reducing it's long term costs. Right now waiting on a soil test so I can lime the fields and for it to quit raining so I can disc up the field grass. I have 8 acres I want to plant so I believe it will be better to plant several types of the white clover. Persian clover is supposed to be a real good honey plant in this area but I havn't been able to find seed


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## sammyjay

Another thing you should consider is Alsike Clover. It does well in poorly drained soils, the bees love it and I have read it doesn't need as much calcium to grow. I always see them on it, and if you mow it down it usually grows back and flowers again. I think we have white clover here as well, the bees seem to like it, but it doesn't grow around here nearly as much as Alsike, and it often doesn't seem quite as vigorous. However, that is just my experience, and we have a different climate and likely a different soil type than you.


Nathan


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