Charlie's Clover - Orchard Perennial - 4LBS
This premium perennial blend of 6 carefully selected clovers was developed specifically for orchards, chestnut groves, and wildlife tree plots. Charlie's Clover creates a highly attractive, protein-rich food source for deer, turkey, and other wildlife while delivering long-term benefits to the trees growing above it.
Designed from decades of real-world experience at Morse Nursery, this blend helps improve soil health, suppress competing weeds, retain valuable soil moisture, and naturally fix nitrogen to support healthy tree growth.
The result is a productive, low-growing understory that attracts wildlife, supports your trees, and can persist for 3-5 years with proper maintenance.
Full Planting Instructions
Key Features
- Thrives in full sun to partial shade
- Excels in well-drained uplands and fertile, moist bottomlands
- Adapts to a wide range of soil types and growing conditions
- Rapid establishment with multi-year forage production
- Built to withstand heavy browse and grazing pressure
- Drought tolerant once established
- Naturally fixes nitrogen to support tree growth
- Helps suppress competing weeds and retain soil moisture
- Provides highly attractive forage for deer, turkey, and other wildlife
Contains carefully selected varieties of white, ladino, red, berseem, and balansa clovers for a diverse blend capable of performing across a wide range of conditions.
Use it beneath orchards and chestnut groves, around wildlife tree plantings, as a microplot, or as a destination food source. Either way, Charlie's Clover provides season-long forage while helping create healthier, lower-maintenance tree plots.
How We Formulated This Mix
Charlie's Clover is named after Charlie Morse, founder of Morse Nursery. Originally planted around young trees to attract deer and wildlife, Charlie soon discovered that clover provided significant benefits to the trees as well.
Each clover variety in this blend was selected to complement the others. Some contribute exceptional forage production, while others provide drought tolerance, grazing tolerance, rapid establishment, nitrogen fixation, or improved performance in wetter soils. Together, they create a diverse understory that supports wildlife attraction while improving soil conditions around your trees.
The result is a blend that establishes quickly, withstands heavy browse pressure, tolerates a wide range of growing conditions, and continues improving your planting year after year.
WHERE TO PLANT
Orchards, chestnut groves, wildlife tree plantings, trails, logging roads, small food plots, and destination food plots.
Performs best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade.
pH RANGE
Tolerable pH Range: 5.8-7.5
Ideal pH Range: 6.2-7
MINIMUM SOIL FERTILITY NEEDED
Moderate
WHEN TO PLANT
Zones 3-4: April-June or August
Zones 5-6: March-May or August-September
Zones 7-9: February-March or September-November
Can be frost seeded 4-6 weeks before the average last frost date.
SOIL PREPARATION
Best results are achieved with conventional tillage or no-till planting into exposed soil.
For no-till applications, mow existing vegetation short and broadcast seed onto exposed soil before a rain event. Cultipacking or driving over the seed with an ATV can improve seed-to-soil contact.
Can also be frost seeded or overseeded into existing plots.
PLANTING DEPTH
1/8 inch or less
COVERAGE
4 lbs covers up to 1/2 acre when frost seeding.
For best results, plant 4 lbs per 1/3 acre for a thicker, lusher, and longer-lasting stand.
Ideal coverage for approximately 10 trees spaced on 20-foot centers.
