# Planting White Clover



## roostershooter7 (May 26, 2011)

I'm going to plant white clover in between my corn and vegetable rows to double as a ground cover and bee attractant. My garden area is roughly one acre total. 

Do bees gather nectar or pollen from white clover blooms, and do they do it all summer as long as the clover is blooming?


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## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

My bees are working white clover (Dutch Clover).
They collect nectar but no pollen, anyways that is my observastion.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Yes they gather nectar from white clover.


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## Steve_G (Apr 24, 2011)

You may want to check, but I believe that clover is a bi-anual, it only blooms in the 2nd year.
I am not sure how it would work other than a ground cover in a garden, but I have overseeded my field w/ it to an added bee source next year.


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## Almondralf (Jun 20, 2011)

I have about 60 acres of white clover as a cover crop between my almond trees - an yes they do collect also pollen - lots of pollen (see picture).















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## roostershooter7 (May 26, 2011)

I thought they might utilize both nectar and pollen from it. Is it a good honey source in the spring if other plants aren't available?

I also wondered where the term 'White Clover Honey' was coined. A lot of local beekeepers sell this type of honey at the Farmer's Market, but they aren't too free on handing out the information on how to obtain it naturally. Especially if they know you keep bees yourself.


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## ginn68 (Apr 14, 2010)

Clover is awesome. I had a pleasant surprise to one of my new yards. The farmer approached me asking if planting clover would be ok around my hives. I said I couldn't ask for anything better. Some ag contract requires him to plant 40 acres of clover. Great news to me.


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## softmentor (Jul 1, 2011)

there are different kinds of clover, some are annual, some are perennial. It also depends on your climate. farther north I believe lots of clover is perennial and they don't see bloom until the second year due to the short growing season. Down here in the way down low, we plant any type of clover and start seeing bloom the same year. Alfalfa growers will get 8 cuttings a year OR MORE with a bloom before each cut. I plant annual white clover in September and it blooms November through February and goes to seed and dries up by March. I plant it in Feb. and it blooms in April and goes to seed about June. 
I'm trying Yellow Clover for the first time this year since it's suggested that it's the best for bee forage. I'm going to try successive plantings starting next week and again once a month to see what season it does best. It will be for soil building and dust control between rows of newly planted date palms. And of course... sweet bee feed.
Here is where I buy my seed. They have some info about growing habits. Note the Yellow Blossom Sweet Clover mentions "Sweet clover is a fine source of nectar and pollen for honey bees. Usually both yellow and white are used by beekeepers because yellow may bloom as much as two weeks before white, and a combination of the two extends the flowering season."
http://www.dirtworks.net/Organic-Clover.html


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