A few pictures, weeds and "How to Encourage White Clover"

 

Image of tomato plants taken on June 8, 2025

Same tomatoes. The feedlot panels are 50" tall to give you a size reference.

Pulling weeds

It is good practice to shake as much dirt off of the weed's roots as possible

Then, if you are going to be lazy and sheet-compost (i.e. drop them on the ground) at least have the foresight to shingle them so the roots are separated from the dirt by the previous bunch of weed's tops.

The more experienced gardeners will notice that these weeds are very large and should have been dealt with when they were younger. We do what we can, when we can.

 

Encouraging White Clover

I want to elaborate on what I think it takes to manage an orchard floor to encourage White Clover.

In most places where White Clover grows, adding seeds is optional according to F.W. Owen. White Clover has an exceptionally high percentage of "hard seed" that requires many years to break dormancy. If you have any doubts, a pound of seed goes a long, long way with about 750,000 seeds per pound. Ladino Clover is a giant form of White Clover and is very acceptable for orchard floors.

Since the seeds are very small (approximately 1/750,000 of a pound each) they don't have a lot of reserves. That means that favorable, fertile soil must be at the very surface.

White Clover is not happy with low-pH soil. Since acid rain leaches magnesium and calcium carbonates (the primary pH buffering agents in the 6.0-7.5 pH range) out of the top layer of the soil first, it is worth your time to broadcast pulverized lime or dolomite but not work it into the soil. Lime is cheap. The cheapest lime available in small quantities locally is used in barns to improve traction. I paid $3.99 per 50 pound bag today at TSC.

White Clover roots cannot compete with grass roots for Potassium or Phosphorous. Some places have potassium as the bottleneck nutrient. Other places are deficient in phosphorous. Clover hay exports four times more potassium than phosphorous, so if you are a betting man then you would bet that potassium is more likely to be a bottleneck than phosphorous. Since the seedling's roots cannot compete with grass, there must be a surplus of potassium and phosphorous in the top half-inch of soil.

As a sidenote, the addition of lime will INCREASE the availability of phosphorous in most soils, so even if the phosphorous is marginal, you are making what is there more available with the limestone. 

Potassium and Phosphorous are expensive. 6-24-24 fertilizer runs about $32 per fifty-pound bag. a 40 pound bag of 0-0-60 (potassium) might cost you $60. You don't need a lot because you are only trying to supplement the top 1/2" to get your White Clover seedlings going, but you probably need some. My philosophy is to over-do the cheap limestone and be stingy with the more expensive P and K, using it in dribs-and-drabs to find the minimum amount required to get the desired response.

White Clover needs direct sunlight and it is too short to compete with tall grass. Manage the grass species to favor shorter species like Bluegrass, Red Fescue or Perennial Ryegrass with mowing. If you cannot see your shoelaces when you are standing in the grass, the White Clover cannot see the sun.

White Clover is drought sensitive. Short grass species like Bluegrass, Red Fescue and/or Perennial Ryegrass go dormant during dry spells and that keeps the grass component and the White Clover in sync with each other. Additionally, neither component will have deep, plunging roots that will compete with your fruit trees during dry spells. They will green up nicely when the fall rains come.

Mowing the orchard floor frequently discourages rodents. Rodents girdle young trees. Rodents are BAD.