Do I need to inoculate my clover?
So
let's return to Everett's comment --- should I buy an inoculant to get
my clover patch off to a good start? If you already have clover
growing in your yard (which we do), chances are good that the proper
bacteria are already present. Go out and dig up a plant, and you
should be able to see little white bumps on the roots --- the nodules.
However, even if the
nodules are present, your plants may not be
currently teamed up with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The way to be
sure is to cut a nodule open and look at the color. Nodes that
are actively fixing nitrogen are pink or red inside, while inactive
nodes are white, tan, or green. My nodes were white --- why?
The clover I dug up was
right in the middle of our muddy mess, an area
which has been waterlogged for about a month due to heavy rains and
snows. When legumes are stressed, they stop feeding their
bacteria and start paying attention to their own survival, so acidic or
waterlogged soil, drought, lack of organic matter, or even high soil
temperatures can kill off your nitrogen-fixing bacteria. I'll dig
up another plant in the part of the yard where I want to plant my
clover (currently under snow), and if I find more white nodes, I'll
need to inoculate.
| This post is part of our Nitrogen Fixing lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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