Clover Cover Crop Blend - 12 Seed BuildASoil Mix 60% Clover

Feeds the microbes directly. Living roots leak sugars and organic acids into the root zone. That exudate is the fuel your bacteria and fungi run on, and no bottled input replaces it.

Keeps mycorrhizae alive between crops. Mycorrhizal fungi need a living host. A cover crop bridges the gap between rounds so the network is still there when your next plant goes in.

Evens out an over amended mix. Home built soils often carry excess. A cover crop parks that surplus in plant tissue and releases it slowly when you chop and drop.

Fixes nitrogen in place. Clovers, vetch, peas, lentils, and cowpeas all host nitrogen fixing bacteria. Chop them down and that nitrogen cycles back into the bed.

Builds structure you can feel. Twelve species means twelve different root shapes, from fine fibrous mats to deeper taproots. Roots open channels, hold aggregates together, and leave the soil friable.

Protects the surface. Bare soil crusts, compacts under watering, and dries out. A canopy keeps the top inch soft, moist, and biologically active.

Makes watering easier. Actively transpiring plants pull water through the profile. It is much harder to overwater a container that has a cover crop working in it.

Crowds out volunteers. A thick stand takes up the space and light that weeds want.

Grows your own mulch. A mulch layer is part of the BuildASoil Way, and this is the cheapest mulch there is because you grow it in place rather than hauling it in. Plenty of growers run both: lay down organic straw first, then chop and drop the cover crop into it. The straw holds structure and moisture, the green material brings nitrogen and sugars, and together they turn into an active mulch layer instead of a dry blanket sitting on top.

Get the seed into contact with the soil

Do not just scatter and walk away. Broadcast the seed, then rake it in, scratch the surface, or top it with a light layer of compost or coco so the seed is actually touching soil instead of sitting on top of dry mulch. Seed to soil contact is the number one reason germination fails.

Then irrigate the surface more often than usual for the first two weeks. Light and frequent beats deep and occasional here. After germination you can go back to your normal watering.

Method 1: green manure between rounds

The most common way growers use this blend. It resets a bed between crops and puts a fresh pulse of biology and biomass into the soil.

1. Sow after harvest, or undersow before it. Seed the bed once it is cleared, or take the Masanobu Fukuoka approach and sow underneath the canopy shortly before you harvest, so the cover crop is already established when the main plant comes out.
2. Let it run to 3 to 6 inches. Tall enough to be real biomass, young enough to break down fast and stay tender.
3. Chop and drop. Cut it at the surface and leave the material right there. Work it lightly into the top inch if you want it gone faster.
4. Cover it. A sheet of cardboard or row cover over the chopped material holds moisture and heat and speeds decomposition considerably.
5. Plant in about two weeks. Pull the cover, and the bed is ready for transplant.

Method 2: living mulch under an established crop

Here the cover crop stays alive all season underneath your main plant. The goal is a low, subservient layer, not a competitor.

Timing is the whole trick. Sow after your main crop is already growing vigorously. If you seed too early, the cover crop can get ahead of the plant you actually care about. Seeded on time, the main canopy shades it out and keeps it in check on its own.

If any of it gets leggy, smash it down with your hand or chop a little off the top. Keep it low and keep it subordinate. In exchange you get a soil surface that never bakes, a root zone that stays biologically active, and a container that is much harder to overwater.

Half a tablespoon per square foot is the rate that reliably works. Plenty of growers go to a full tablespoon or more per pot when they want the thickest, fastest stand, and that is a legitimate choice, not a mistake.

For reference, we weighed it: a level tablespoon of this blend runs about 12 grams and a heaping one about 15.

Here is the way to think about the heavy rate. Seed is stored food. When you sow thick and then chop and drop, you are essentially top dressing living seed meal that germinates first and builds a canopy on the way. Very little of it is wasted, because it all ends up back in the same soil either way. The reason we publish the lighter rate as standard is economics, not agronomy. Sow heavy in a few containers if you want the fastest results. Sow light when you are covering ground.

A 5 gallon container measures about 13 inches across, which is just under one square foot of surface. A 4 foot by 8 foot raised bed is 32 square feet, so a little under half a pound covers it at the standard rate.

Four clovers make up the bulk of it, with legumes, grains, and flax rounding out the root architecture and the flowering window.

White Dutch Clover, Medium Red Clover, Crimson Clover, Yellow Sweet Clover, Hairy Vetch, Common Vetch, Forage Pea, Indianhead Lentil, Red Ripper Cowpea, Mancan Buckwheat, White Proso Millet, Carter Flax.

We aim to keep every batch identical. Seed availability shifts from season to season, so there can be slight variation between batches. Questions about a specific bag go to support@buildasoil.com.

We recommend it, and we use Rootwise Mycrobe Complete. Sowing a cover crop is the best window you get to introduce biology, because you are about to have thousands of brand new roots looking for partners at the same time. Putting it down with the seed means those relationships form as the stand establishes instead of months later.

If your soil is already well established and biologically active you can get away without it. If you are sowing into a new mix, a bagged soil, or anything that has been sitting bare and dry, do not skip it.

Not if you time it right. As a living mulch, sow it once your main crop is already growing vigorously so the canopy shades it and keeps it low. If it ever starts reaching, smash it down or chop the tops. As a green manure between rounds there is nothing to compete with, so let it run to 3 to 6 inches and cut it.

It borrows them and gives them back. Everything the cover crop takes up is held in plant tissue that returns to the same bed when you chop and drop. That is exactly why it helps an over amended mix. The legumes in this blend also bring in nitrogen from the air that was not in your soil to begin with.

No, and we would rather you did not. Chop it at the surface and leave the residue as mulch, or work it lightly into the top inch if you want faster breakdown. Deep tillage undoes the structure the roots just built.

Almost always seed to soil contact or surface moisture. Seed sitting on top of dry mulch will not germinate. Rake it in or cover it lightly, then keep the surface damp with more frequent light watering for the first two weeks.

Yes. Cover crop is not just a field practice. Under lights it germinates fast and stays low, and it is one of the easiest ways to keep a no-till container alive between rounds instead of letting it sit bare and dry out.

Cool, dark, and dry, sealed against moisture and rodents. Stored properly, it holds up fine for the following season.