How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Red Clover

Red clover has a ton of uses that will benefit any gardener. Home gardeners often use this as a cover crop to restore the soil or as a trap crop to attract pests away from the food crops. Beneficial pollinators love red clover, including butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Farmers often use red clover to feed their livestock since it’s a fast-growing ground cover, which is why one of the nicknames is cow grass.

Red clover is commonly used to repair compacted or nutrient-deficient soils. It is in the legume family, so it’s nitrogen-fixing thanks to the nodules on the roots. The roots can grow up to eight feet long, so it loosens up the soil as it grows. It’s the perfect perennial to get established in areas you’d like to grow food crops in the future.

Red clover is a rapid grower. That’s a good thing in many cases, but this also means it can easily spread out of control and become invasive. It’s on the brink of officially being considered invasive in some areas, so be sure to keep it in check and consider sticking to raised beds if you live in an area that already has plenty of it.

Want to add this handy clover to your garden? Keep reading, and we’ll discuss all the details you need to bring this “bee bread” to your backyard.

What is Red Clover?

Red clover has many nicknames, including bee bread, cow grass, purple clover, peavine clover, and red feather clover. Scientifically it’s known as Trifolium pratense and is in the Fabaceae family, which are legumes. They have little nodules on their roots, just as peas and beans do, so they improve the nitrogen content in the soil.

Native Area

Red clover is native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It thrives in temperate regions with well-drained soils and moderate rainfall. Over time, it has been widely naturalized in North America and other parts of the world due to its value as a forage crop, soil improver, and cover crop.

Red clover is commonly found in meadows, grasslands, and along roadsides. There, it supports pollinators like bees and butterflies while enriching the soil with nitrogen through its symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Characteristics

The red clover name is misleading since it isn’t red. The leaves are green and somewhat hairy with hairy stems, and the flowers are pink, although they may be somewhat purple. This perennial grows quickly, and flowers bloom during the spring and summer. It can grow up to three feet tall and two feet wide, spreading as it grows to cover a significant area.

Red clovers are grown for many practical reasons. They make an excellent ground cover that adds nitrogen to the soil while loosening it. At the end of its growing season, it can be turned over into the soil and used as green manure to improve the soil’s nutrients. 

Feel free to grow red clover with the rest of your edibles since the leaves and flower heads are edible, too! You can eat them raw or cooked and use them just as you would use spinach or other green, leafy edibles. It’s also used for tea or as an herbal remedy for many symptoms. Grazing animals such as cattle also enjoy eating it as it grows.

Planting

Red clover can easily adapt to most climates, making it easy grow in your garden. The seeds are frost-resistant, so you can sow early in the year, between January and April, or plant later in the year, between August and November.

While the seeds may be tough in the cold, the seedlings aren’t strong enough to compete for resources. Avoid planting in areas with a lot of weeds since they may choke out the seedlings, but they usually do well in grassy areas. Also, make sure the area is well-drained. They are somewhat tolerant to standing water, but they won’t last long if puddles linger or happen frequently.

Sow the seeds no more than a quarter inch deep and lightly cover them. You can scatter them rather than poke each seed into the ground. If you want to start indoors, sow the seed in containers. Keep the seeds moist and they will germinate in two to three weeks. You can transplant the seedlings outside once the soil is warm and the seedlings have six true leaves on them.

How to Grow

Once you have seedlings popping up, you can move on to long-term care. This section has everything you need to know to keep them thriving!

Light

Red clover grows best in at least six hours of full sun, but it can tolerate partial shade. In regions with intense heat, some afternoon shade can help prevent stress. In temperate conditions, they like plenty of sunlight to flower and grow optimally. Less sunlight can produce weaker perennials with less flowering.

Water

Red clover is drought-resistant, so it can go a few days without water, but it grows the best when it has consistently moist soil. Avoid keeping the soil too wet because too much water can lead to root rot and kill it.

The best way to water red clover is to water with a drip irrigation system so you can avoid getting the leaves and flower heads wet to prevent diseases from spreading. However, if you have to water overhead, do it in the early morning so the water will evaporate off the leaves before nighttime. Avoid watering later in the day since this can attract pests and encourage diseases to spread.

Soil

A soil that contains clay and loam is ideal for red clover, but this flower isn’t too picky and can tolerate many soil types, including those with low soil fertility. Soil lacking nutrients will need some fertilization, which we’ll talk about in the next section.

Ideally, you should have neutral soil with a pH of 6.0-8.0, although it can tolerate slightly acidic soils. The soil acidity should never be lower than 5.5.

The most important thing to make sure you have when it comes to soil is that it’s well-draining. Excess water should never be allowed to puddle up. They can only tolerate minimal puddling. Too much of it will cause them to die.

Temperature

It’s suited for USDA zones 3a-9a and needs at least 90 frost-free days. Ideally, seeds will need at least 59°F (15°C) to germinate, but seedlings can survive temperatures as low as 17°F (-8°C). Providing shade or ensuring adequate moisture can help maintain healthy growth in very hot climates.

Fertilizing

Since red clover is nitrogen-fixing, you won’t have to fertilize it often unless you have soil that lacks nutrients. When planting seeds, use a diluted balanced fertilizer of your choice. A yearly application will benefit it once it’s established. Established clovers won’t need extra nitrogen because it adds to the soil itself.

Maintenance

Pruning isn’t required for red clover, but you can use the cut-and-drop method to use it as green manure that will add nutrients back to the soil. At the end of the growing season, cut the clover back and dig them back into the soil. As they die and rot, they’ll add much-needed nutrients to your beds that the next crop you grow can put to use.

Propagation

Red clover is a short-lived perennial that grows quickly and drops its seed, allowing it to come back every year. If you don’t want to wait for reseeding, you can collect the seeds yourself from the flower head and sow them.

Common Problems

Growing red clover is pretty easy, but you may come across some issues such as pests and diseases. Let’s take a look at some of those problems and how you can fix them.

Growing Problems

If your red clover isn’t sprouting, you may have set them too deep. You’ll have to try again and make sure you don’t plant any deeper than a quarter of an inch.

You can tell if your clover has too little or too much water based on its color. Red clover leaves are usually light green with a pale green chevron and several green bracts. Overwatering or underwatering will lead to yellow or brown leaves. Adjust how often you water if you suspect they’re getting too much or not enough water.

Pests

Red clover attracts many beneficial insects and very few pests, making it a delight to grow! Unfortunately, you may occasionally find your clover suffering from pests that target the roots. Clover root curculio and clover root borers deposit their eggs in the ground. Their larvae eat up the roots and cause them to die. 

These pests are greyish-brown and don’t have any known cure to get rid of them. However, since the eggs are typically laid before or in winter and hatch in the spring, crop rotation will prevent these pests from devouring your next crop.

Another pest to look out for is the clover seed midge. It’s small and looks like a mosquito. The light pink maggots eat seeds in the flower head and prevent them from forming, and they can even prevent the flowers from forming, too. There aren’t any known insecticides that will kill them, so you can try using water to spray the maggots off or remove infested flower heads altogether.

Finally, keep an eye out for the meadow spittlebug. It lays eggs between the stem and dried leaves around August and September. The yellow-green larvae will suck out the sap in the stems, stunting the clover. They grow into brown insects no bigger than a grain of wheat and won’t cause any damage. However, they’ll lay more eggs, so it’s important to get rid of the adults if you see them.

You can wash away spittlebugs with water or crush the adults and larvae in your hand.

Diseases 

There are a handful of diseases that red clover may be susceptible to. Some of them don’t have a cure, so the best way to manage them is to dispose of infected clover as soon as you can. Deter pests and try to avoid watering the leaves to limit the spread of diseases. Some of these incurable diseases include viruses, sclerotinia crown, and fungal diseases such as stem rot or white mold.

Powdery mildew causes a whitish, dusty surface to leaves. This is caused by a fungal pathogen, and while it’s not necessarily fatal, it can really slow growth. It can also easily spread around the garden. Neem oil is an effective preventative. Severely-infected leaves can be pruned off and destroyed. Do not compost material with powdery mildew.

Root rot is caused by soilborne fungi that thrive when you overwater. This can be prevented by using well-draining soil in an area that doesn’t puddle up. If it rains, avoid watering by hand for a few days, and always check how wet the ground is before you water.

Northern anthracnose is a fungal disease that will cause the clover to lose leaves during its first growth of the season. It won’t grow as big and won’t produce as many leaves and flowers. There are resistant varieties available, so if you see your crop suffer from this, consider trying a different variety next time.

Frequently Asked Questions