Outsidepride Crimson Clover Seeds – 2 lbs. Annual, Nitrocoated, & Inoculated Ground Cover Seeds, Ideal Clover Seed for Lawn, Cover Crop, Pasture, Hay, Green Manure & Wildlife Forage

Easy to distinguish, beautiful Crimson clover is a winter annual with dark green, oval leaflets containing no V-shaped water mark making it easy to distinguish from other annual clovers. It has hairy stems and leaves and brilliant crimson flowers producing yellow rounded seed that are about 2.5 times larger than arrowleaf seed.

Growth comes easily. Crimson’s large seed is responsible for its ability to easily establish in most seedbed conditions including simple broadcasting in un-tilled areas. Crimson prefers well-drained soils and pH between 5.0-6.5. Current varieties do not have good winter hardiness. It is the fastest growing of the annual clovers, easy to establish, and handles shade well – even the shade of other crops, like standing corn.

Widely used as a cover crop and as forage. Crimson clover is widely used in the South as a dependable, high-yielding, early maturing, annual forage and roadside crop. It is also fast becoming a reliable cover crop for the North, as it has better growth at lower temperatures than most annual clovers. Crimson is also a good weeds suppressant, organic matter producer, and erosion controller. Forage production is high in protein and tonnage – up to 6,000 lbs. DM/acre. Bloat can be an issue, but usually not as likely as with white clover or alfalfa.

Nitrogen producer. Crimson can provide nitrogen credit for succeeding crops of 70-150 lbs.

Crimson can be mixed with rye, wheat or oats if rates of these small grains are held at about 50 lbs/acre. Ryegrass (15 lbs/acre) is a good companion for a mix which will reseed the following September. However, the aggressive nature and heavy reseeding of the ryegrass will eventually choke out the crimson. Adding arrowleaf clover (10 lbs/acre) to any of the above mixes adds variety and longevity to the mix in the South where winter low temperatures remain above 10F.

Management The only drawback to crimson clover for deer is that it is a relatively short season annual which produces well from November through April (excluding mid-winter) in the South and April through June in the North. However, you can take advantage of this short season in several ways, especially in the South. Crimson can be plowed under before planting a summer crop of grain sorghum, corn, pearl millet or any grass, which can then use the nitrogen fixed by the clover. Using minimum tillage, these same crops can be planted into crimson clover sod killed or partially killed by herbicides. The crimson left as mulch for a summer crop provides up to 70 lbs/acre nitrogen for use by grain sorghum or corn.

In the South, crimson can successfully reseed in September for several successive years by mowing in late August followed by light disking or even no disking, depending on soil conditions (usually heavy clay soil requires no disking, sandy requires disking). This works well (at least temporarily) when mixed with ryegrass, which will do the same thing. Check with your local wildlife biologist or county Extension Agent to determine if crimson is adapted to your area and will reseed without disking.

Crimson clover for deer is a cheap, easy, high quality, productive, palatable cool season forage for deer. It starts fast, withstands heavy continuous grazing and produces a consistent, heavy seed crop with good reseeding potential. Dixie reseeding crimson clover is an important component of many of Pennington's Rackmaster Wildlife Seed mixtures.