Sow crimson clover & grow sprouts

Crimson clover is not only beautiful to look at - it also has many useful properties and is even edible. Here you can find out how you can grow red clover yourself and what you need to know.

Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is also called rose clover, blood clover or Italian clover. It belongs to the lepidopteran family (Faboideae) and is related to our native and well-known meadow or red clover (Trifolium pratense) related. However, the herbaceous plant with the blood-red flowers is far more than just a weed. Not only is the clover beautiful to look at, it also improves the soil and is edible. You can find out how to grow rose clover in your own garden, use it in the kitchen and multiply it yourself in our large fact sheet about crimson clover.

Crimson clover: origin and properties

Why the crimson clover is also called 'Italian clover' can be explained by its origin: the herbaceous plant originally comes from southern Europe and is native to the Mediterranean region. However, the clover was also introduced to other parts of the world via its use as a fodder plant and has become wild there. Blood clover was also introduced to us as a neophyte, i.e. as a non-native plant, and can be seen in meadows or on the edges of fields. However, its distribution is not considered problematic.

The annual plant can grow surprisingly large for a clover: the hairy stems shoot up to 50 cm. In addition to the tripartite and obovate leaves typical of clover, the plant also presents magnificent, red inflorescences that can grow up to 6 cm long. Like all clover species, the crimson clover also forms a legume at the end of the flowering period that contains a large number of small, yellowish seeds.

Crimson clover as green manure

Rose clover is typically grown as a cover crop in fields. Like all clover species, the herb can bind nitrogen from the air with the help of a symbiosis with specialized bacteria and is therefore excellent as a green manure suitable. So, in the vegetable garden, crimson clover can be used to improve the nutrient content of the soil. You can sow the clover after the vegetable harvest and just leave it over the winter. Alternatively, it can also be harvested and used as feed for livestock.
Apart from its practical use, blood clover is part of ornamental flower mixtures, because its bushy growth and the blood-red butterfly blossoms have something special and extravagant about them yourself.

Notice: The flowers of the crimson clover also produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen and are therefore very popular with bees, butterflies and other small beneficial insects.

Crimson clover varieties

There are also different types of crimson clover, which can be used differently depending on their use. The 'Linkarus' variety, for example, quickly forms a lot of mass and has a high protein content. It is therefore often used as animal feed. The 'Contea' variety, on the other hand, transports nutrients upwards from the deeper soil layers through its up to 90 cm deep root system and is therefore often planted as a previous crop. 'Heuers Ostsaat' is a particularly fast-growing variety that is traditionally planted as a catch crop and also provides good fresh fodder.
However, if you want to use the blood clover as an ornamental plant or as a bee friend in the garden, you don't have to pay attention to the variety. From a purely visual point of view, there are no major differences between them.

Grow Crimson Clover

Crimson Clover can be grown both in the kitchen and in the garden. Whether in sprout glass or in the vegetable patch – we will show you how to do it.

sow blood clover

Red clover is easy to sow in the garden or in a large pot. The best period for this is from May to July. The herbaceous plant makes no special demands on its subsoil, but sandy, loamy soil with good drainage is best. Very heavy or very dry soils, on the other hand, are less suitable. The seeds should be placed about 2 cm deep in the ground. 30 g of seed per square meter are enough.

In its function as green manure, crimson clover can be used both as a pre-crop and as a post-crop for many types of vegetables. Clover does not get along with other legumes (Fabiaceae) such as beans or peas. Before sowing the vegetable crops, the clover should be mowed down and incorporated into the top soil layers. If you use blood clover as a subsequent crop, you can leave it over the winter and only cut and incorporate it in the spring.

Grow sprouts from rose clover

Growing blood clover sprouts works similar to others sprouts. Wash the seeds and place them in a suitable germinator or sprouting jar. Then rinse the seeds twice a day with fresh water and ensure an ambient temperature of around 20 °C. After about a week your rose clover should start to sprout.

For the drawing sprouts conventional rose clover seeds are not suitable. Therefore, make sure that you purchase special germination seeds for this purpose. This was specially selected for growing sprouts and has a particularly high germination rate. Conventional seeds have a slightly higher proportion of poorly germinating seeds, which can be prone to mold growth in the warm, humid environment.

multiply blood clover

Even though crimson clover is quite hardy and can withstand temperatures down to -10 °C, the herbaceous plants usually only live for one or two years at most. So that you can always grow new rose clover, it makes sense to harvest the seeds at the end of the year. The seeds are ready for harvest when the legumes are brown and dried out.

Tip: Store the seeds in a dark, cool and dry place. An opaque storage jar, which is best kept in the basement, is suitable for this.

But you can also just let nature take its course and wait for the legumes to pop open by themselves. Then the seeds will disperse in the surrounding area and if the location of the plant suits you, you will see blood clover growing in the same spot again next year.

Using crimson clover

Incidentally, crimson clover is also edible for humans. The seeds are usually used for this. These can be roasted and used as a topping for salads or other summer dishes. But the sprouts and flowers are also edible and can be used for the same purposes.

Incidentally, the crimson clover is not the only representative of the papilionaceous plants, which has a lot to offer. In our overview you can get to know a whole range of other special legumes.