Commercial growers try to limit broad-leaved species because of nematode concerns. The nematodes spread disease to the trees.
24d is specific to broadleaves but doesn’t work particularly well on clover. Stinger works well and is safe for trees. Crossbow is a heavy herbicide and can severely injury your tree if it gets on it. Glyphosate is mediocre on clover. Lime is used to modify (raise) pH and will not kill anything.
Bees love clover and the bloom period provides them something good at a complimentary time to apple bloom.
We can’t get rid of the stuff here. It’s so prominent, it’s almost invasive. I’ve been a little negligent in controlling it in the last few years, and now it’s everywhere.
Here’s some pics I took tonight while mowing a few weeds under the trees. All different rows.
In my experience mowing clover is not the answer. The clover just blooms lower to the ground than the mower will mow! I don’t understand how clover spreads so easily. It certainly is invasive. I’m thinking about getting some Zoysia grass around my fruit trees. How would Zoysia grass compete with clover and do as an orchard grass?
I ended up placing cardboard sheets around my little apple tree. I guess I just have to live with it elsewhere though.
The sickle bar is on hydraulics and moves up/down, as well as angle adjustment. It works pretty good, except that the sickle bar is a bit short to get really close to the trees, on some of the trees with the largest canopies.
I also use the sickle bar to spray. I made a quick attach spray boom which attaches to the sickle bar, so I can adjust the height of the spray boom with hydraulics. Here it is attached to a little Rears sprayer I use for spraying herbicides under the trees.
That looks like quite an investment for mowing your orchard and spraying herbicides. I’m sure that you get other benefits with the tractor though.
That sickle bar reminds me of when I was growing up having to help my dad with baling hay. We had a sickle bar that we cut Lespedeza hay with that was attached to the rear of a John Deere Model B (if I remember correctly) rather than to the side like what you have.
Sickle mowers are good mowers. They take very little horsepower to operate. It’ was probably in the 1980’s when most folks started to switch over to disk mowers. They take a lot less maintenance and mow a lot faster, but they do take more horsepower.
The think I don’t like about my sickle mower is that it’s a bit shorter than I’d like. It’s only 6’ long. Some of the old sickle mowers were up to 9’ long.
Having the mower mounted in the middle is nice. They design them that way so you don’t have to keep your neck turned backwards while mowing.
@danzeb I’ve seen those . . . but they don’t look like they would remove the root. Do you have good results, even so? And around trees/plants with shallow roots - don’t know if I’d want to use this. However . . . my back is yelling at me all the time for all of the bending I do. I have started using a kneeling pad when I have to get under the trees to weed. I’ve been looking for a tool that I can use while standing.
Correct, it does not remove the root but it does cut the weed at or below the soil surface depending on how hard your soil is. That is sufficient for clover and many other weeds. It only takes a minute or two to do the area under a peach tree with most soils so it can easily be repeated in a week or two if weeds reemerge.
I am going to sow a lot of turf or micro clover.
It is said to flower significantly less. Which i thought to be a disadvantage. Might not be, after reading this topic.
Deer will eat clover, especially ladino clover. I guess if you want to see the cute deer in your yard clover would be nice. But what if the deer would prefer the buds and bark off of your fruit trees rather than the clover under them?
I hardly ever agree with you :). I do here though. Organic growers and conventional growers have to get used to the fact that neither is going away anytime soon. I myself use a hybrid technique. I grow organically when possible, but will use conventional pesticides and fertilizers when it makes sense to do so. I just don’t see these chemicals as very dangerous at all. Everybody has to come to their own conclusions. Like I see cell phones as extremely dangerous and you will never find one in my pocket.
i just noticed this reply from you. Sorry for the late response.
Im going to sow the clover 2 weeks before my “last frost date” or mybe a bit later if i don’t find the time. So for me around may im gonna sow it.
The micro clover germinated best i thought at higher temps (10-20 celcius).
It was also advised to pad down the soil. Or roll it. The soil does not need to be freshly raked/airy after sowing.
And ofcourse water well.
The micro clover should establish slower than the annual clovers. The first year you’ll need to take care of it. The 2e year it should have a deep root system and be really strong.
I also agree that cell phones are dangerous, probably for different reasons that you believe. The first thing I am going to do when I retire is through my phone in the river.
Thanks for this, you brightened my day
