Welcome to the OG "Mikroklee"

The challenge

Peat taken from peat soil has served its purpose as a culture substrate in tree nurseries in the long term. But bark mulch and other substitutes have disadvantages. The soil life, which gradually decomposes the mulch, consumes nitrogen in the process. This makes it necessary to give additional fertilizer. In addition, unwanted wild herbs sprout in layers of mulch. Weeding them is very time consuming. There is hardly any public acceptance of the use of pesticides and the number of approved herbicides is falling.

The approach

Micro clover as a vegetable ground cover under the nursery stock can serve as an alternative and solve several problems at the same time: bind water, suppress weeds and collect nitrogen. The micro clover project is investigating how the plant can be grown in tree nurseries and measuring what contribution it can make to the nutrient balance.

Micro clover is a cultivated form of the native white clover. The micro clover varieties form a dense lawn of leaves. Clover can fix nitrogen in the soil in root nodules, which also becomes available for other plants. But the clover doesn't do it alone: it needs special nodule bacteria as symbiosis partners, which are very sensitive. One of the challenges is to encapsulate clover seeds and bacteria together in a storable but degradable granulate that can then be used for sowing in nursery beds or containers. In addition to cultivation studies in the tree nursery, the question remains to be clarified as to whether retailers and consumers approve of the three-leaved undergrowth.