Bartolo Bladder Clover

We recommend Bartolo Bladder Clover for low to medium rainfall rotations from 350mm. It is an aerial-seeding, self-regenerating annual legume, and its high level of hard seed lets it regenerate after cropping, which suits self-regenerating arable land and short-term phase farming systems. Sow at 5 to 10 kg/ha on its own, inoculated with Group C.

Bartolo Bladder Clover is a good alternative. It is well adapted to mildly acid and alkaline sandy loam and loam soils and is generally more widely adapted than sub clover or medic. It produces more dry matter and seeds prolifically for persistence. It won't tolerate prolonged waterlogging or salinity.

We recommend sowing Bartolo Bladder Clover at 5 to 10 kg/ha as a single species, or 1 to 5 kg/ha in a mix. Sow shallow at about 0.5cm, as close to the autumn break as possible, inoculate with Group C inoculant and roll after sowing if you can. Sow with 100 to 150 kg/ha superphosphate, or super and potash on sandy soils.

We recommend sowing Bartolo Bladder Clover shallow, at about 0.5cm, as close to the autumn break as possible. Rolling after sowing helps. Sow with 100 to 150 kg/ha superphosphate, or super and potash on sandy soils, and inoculate the seed with Group C inoculant.

We suggest Bartolo Bladder Clover. Its high level of hard seed means only part of the seedbank germinates on an early rain, so the stand survives a false break. It flowers around 105 days in Perth, and many seeds even survive passing through sheep.

We recommend Bartolo Bladder Clover for sheep and beef cattle, and horses can graze it as part of a grass-based pasture. Its formononetin and genistein levels are lower than in sub clover, so it is unlikely to cause phyto-oestrogen problems in ewes. In very pure swards it can cause bloat in cattle, so we suggest mixing it with other species.

Bartolo Bladder Clover tolerates heavy grazing, especially in winter. Reduce the stocking rate at flowering to protect seed set, which drives regeneration. Its spring feed is highly digestible, with around 22% crude protein, similar in feeding value to sub clover, and quality declines as it senesces.

Bartolo Bladder Clover is less affected by red-legged earth mite than sub clover or medics and is moderately tolerant of blue green aphid and lucerne flea. It has little sensitivity to clover scorch. However, it is sensitive to bromoxynil, Spinnaker and Raptor, so check your herbicide plan with us.

Bartolo Bladder Clover mixes well with sub clover, biserrula, serradella, crimson, rose and gland clovers and annual medics, plus Italian and perennial ryegrass. Our Casbah Biserrula, Hykon Rose Clover or a serradella such as Margurita French Serradella are good companions. In mixes, sow Bartolo at 1 to 5 kg/ha.

The main differences are flowering time, hard seed and rainfall. Bartolo Bladder Clover flowers around 105 days in Perth and suits 350mm+ rainfall. Diamanti Bladder Clover flowers 10 to 14 days earlier (about 95 days), has harder seed for more false-break resilience, has a more upright habit that is easier to harvest, and suits 300mm+ and the drier eastern wheatbelt.