Friendly weeds

3 posts

Member for

9 years 1 month
Last seen: 10/08/2015 - 13:01
Joined: 10/07/2015 - 16:30

Friendly weeds

Hi,
I have about 10 acres in Neerim south, near Warragul in Victoria. The soil is uneven in its nutrient content, and I havent had any animals nor was it sprayed with any chemicals for years.


I was wondering, how do I go about growing Clover? I have some in patches but not much. Where do I get seeds or otherwise?


And any suggestions as to how to get rid of onion weed?

Thank you
Bianca R.

Last seen: 12/26/2018 - 09:21
Joined: 05/31/2011 - 09:44

Hi Bianca,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the question.

Regarding the clover, there are a few diffent types. It is most likely to be either sub-clover or white clover (which has a distinctive white flower this time of year). With either of these clover species they like bare ground in the autumn and soil wih adepuate sulphur and phosphorus levels.  Where there is lots of organic matter on the ground being an annual (grows, sets seed and dies) it struggles to establish.

To get more clover you could spread some fertiliser (phosphorus and sulpur) with clover seed mixed in during the Autumn. You will need to make sure the paddocks are grazed down hard prior to try and get some seed in contact with the soil. You can buy clover seed from most rural supply stores.

I haven't had much experience with onion weed, have any other members?

Regards,

Charlie

Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi Bianca,

Not an easy weed to get rid of because of all the little bulbs attached to each plant from underground risomes. I had this problem in North Qld many years ago and the advice from Qld DPI was to spray with Glyphosate (Round Up). However, they said it would take several applications over a few months to finally get rid of it. To cut a long story short, it took three applications over about 4 months to do the job. Warning don't try to dig the plants out because if you do, all the little bulbs will break off in the soil, which means that the the Glyphosate can't reach them because their connection to the main plant has been broken.

 

Getting rid of it is a long slow process, the key to success is persistance.

 

Hope this helps,

Barb

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