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Home Flowers Red Clover (Green Manure)
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Red Clover (Green Manure)
Red Clover (Green Manure)

Red Clover (Green Manure)

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Trifolium pratense. The discreet companion of European agriculture since the Middle Ages, and one of the invisible heroes of the 18th-century English agricultural revolution — integrated into crop rotation, it restored the fertility of soils exhausted by centuries of monoculture and helped feed a doubling population. The reason for this...

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Trifolium pratense.

The discreet companion of European agriculture since the Middle Ages, and one of the invisible heroes of the 18th-century English agricultural revolution — integrated into crop rotation, it restored the fertility of soils exhausted by centuries of monoculture and helped feed a doubling population. The reason for this power? Like all legumes, it lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria lodged in its roots, which capture atmospheric nitrogen and make it available in the soil — up to 200 kg per hectare per year. Better still, it leaves much of it in place when buried as green manure.

A plant 30 to 60 cm tall, with trefoil leaves often marked with a characteristic white "V," crowned all summer with pompoms of purple-pink that delight bumblebees (whose long tongue reaches the deep-set nectar where honeybees often give up). Several uses to choose from: green manure to enrich a garden bed between two heavy feeders, flowering meadow to support pollinators, quality forage for backyard animals, or harvest of the flowers for a traditional infusion with a light honey taste — though the medicinal properties long attributed to it (support for hormonal changes, irritated skin) remain little confirmed by modern science. The young leaves and flowers are also edible, in small quantities, in a salad.

Grower's tip: Clover germinates quickly and easily, but it needs the Rhizobium bacterium in the soil to properly fix nitrogen. On land that has never carried legumes, an inoculant added to the seed at sowing time makes a real difference — otherwise, you'll have to wait a few years before reaping the fertilizing benefits. Sow broadcast on well-packed soil, cover very lightly (the seeds are tiny), and keep moist until emergence.

  • Open-pollinated. Short-lived perennial (2 to 3 years). Mainly bumblebee-pollinated; crosses with other red clovers nearby — isolate for seed saving.
  • Height: 30 to 60 cm.
  • Flowering: June to September.
  • Exposure: full sun to part shade.
  • Ordinary to rich, fresh, well-drained soil. Tolerates a wide range of conditions, including slightly acidic soils.
  • Direct-sow from early spring (April) through early September. Broadcast for green-manure or meadow uses, in rows for flower harvest or seed production.