GardenAnnual Cover Crop · 6 varieties
Crimson Clover
Trifolium incarnatum
Fabaceae — the same plant family as bush bean, pea, pole bean, cowpea and 9 more here. Relatives share pests and diseases, which is why rotation plans group by family.
Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is an annual cover crop. It wants full sun and pH 5.5–7 soil, with about 1 in of water weekly. It matures in about 180–240 days from sowing. Watch for clover head weevil and crown rot. Below: its full sourced profile from 5 extension sources, plus a planting calendar timed to your frost dates.
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP for yours. This calendar assumes the crop is direct sown. Timing is a guide from the crop's sourced growth stages; confirm with your local frost dates and extension before you sow.
What we will not put a number on
We do not give a feeding rate for this crop, and that is deliberate rather than a gap. The figures published by extension services are pounds of nitrogen per acre for a production field — they do not convert safely to a raised bed or a pot without knowing your soil test and your fertilizer's analysis, and guessing errs toward burning roots. It is also why every chart you find online disagrees with the next one.
We give watering as a depth per week rather than gallons per plant, because that is how it is actually measured and how the published figures are written. A gallons-per-plant number depends on your spacing, your soil and whether the plant is in a pot — so it would look more precise than it is.
Site & soil
- Sun
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7
- Soil texture
- Well drained, Loam, Sandy loam, Sandy, Clay
- Frost tolerance
- Hardy
No published figure for the temperature frost starts to hurt it and the temperature that would kill it. We looked — where a number is missing here it is missing from the research, not skipped. The crop’s frost and heat tolerance above still applies.
The plant
- Mature height
- 1–3 ft
- Mature spread
- 1–3 ft
- Growth rate
- Fastest
- Spacing in row
- 1–3 in
- Between rows
- 6–8 inest
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.75 in
- Support
- Self-supporting
- Grown from
- Direct sow
Water & feeding
- Water needs
- Moderate
- Water per week
- 1 in/wkest
- Critical water
- Germination, Establishment, Floweringest
- Feeding
- Low
Timing & fruiting
- Days to maturity
- 180–240 days from seed
- Harvest cues
- First flowers, Pods visible
Planted again for autumn
- Sow by
- late Apr typical · zone 6b
180 days to maturity from sowing, counted back from the first frost above. Not published for anywhere in particular: it is your own frost date and this crop's own figure, which is why it works wherever you are. A days-to-maturity figure is a catalog number for a good season rather than a promise, and a cold month moves it.
Compiled from the extensions cited below. Which ones actually show up depends on your region — your extension's local list is the last word.
| Variety | Type | Days | What it is known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AU Robin | Named | 167 | |
| AU Sunrise | Named | 154 | |
| Common | Common | 180–240 | Clemson Cooperative Extension records this asdraws bees and butterflies · drops seed and comes back on its own |
| Contea | Named | 181 | Clemson Cooperative Extension records this asdraws bees and butterflies · drops seed and comes back on its own |
| Dixie | Named | 166 | |
| Kentucky Pride | Named | 166 | University of Kentucky, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences records this astakes the cold |
- Clemson Cooperative Extension
- Michigan State University Extension
- NC State Extension
- SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education)
- USDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service)
We compile bare facts from these university-extension and horticultural sources, never copied prose. 14 of the 18 values on this page carry a citation. The rest are marked est; hover one and it says why — either nobody publishes a figure we could point at, or a person set it and attached no source. Figures vary with climate and seed source; confirm with your local extension before you buy.
Growing more than crimson clover? Browse all crops, or grab the spacing calculator and frost date lookup. The GardenTrack app (now in beta) remembers what you planted and where, then tells you what to do and when. Join the beta →