Ready for resilient turf? Our plant breeder explains the Microclover revolution
Microclover is a game-changer for the turfgrass sector – a clover that’s near-invisible in the sward, yet packed with beneficial characteristics. It’s a natural nitrogen-fixer while improving the green colour of turfgrass. Our plant breeder, Sabrina Rasmussen, talks about the excitement of developing improved varieties of Microclover.
‘The excitement of making a better product’ – Sabrina Rasmussen talks about her work on Microclover
Sabrina Rasmussen loves creating new varieties: “It’s fun working with plants. The excitement comes when you cross them, see their offspring grow, then select the best to make a better product for customers.”
During the years that Sabrina has pursued this endless, trial-and-error search for improvement, she’s worked on a wide range of turfgrasses, but her current focus is on Microclover.
“A clover lawn is almost self-fertilising if you leave the clippings. It looks better too. And I like the potential for less frequently mowed lawns to be full of bee-friendly flowering herbs that never grow tall.”
A lifelong search fuelled by customer insights
In practice, turf swards containing Microclover rarely flower. Regular mowing keeps all components short and green. That’s one of the missions of breeding Microclover for commercial use: turf managers want a uniformly green sward, while breeders need the perfected clover component to keep costs down for customers by producing generous quantities of seed.
Microclover satisfies both needs. When mown it grows laterally through stolons that help to fill any bear patches.
“We know what characteristics to breed for,” says Sabrina, “because we keep in touch with the market. We visit customers and welcome numerous visitors – wholesalers and retailers – to our breeding programme.”
“A clover lawn is almost self-fertilising if you leave the clippings. It looks better too. And I like the potential for less frequently mowed lawns to be full of bee-friendly flowering herbs that never grow tall.”
A constant cycle produces year-by-year improvements
Although Microclover has been a game-changer for turf growers, Sabrina tends to see success in terms of the year-by-year improvement outcomes of her breeding programme.
“Plant breeding is a long cycle. The varieties we’re working on today are 15 years away from commercial release, but those commercialisations are constant. We produce something new every year.”
Sabrina measures success by the rankings her varieties achieve in official trials: “Our sales teams want to sell varieties that make it into the top three on their country’s official lists. My job is to produce varieties with those top-scoring traits.”
Microclover – the clue is in the name
For Microclover, Sabrina’s chief breeding goal is size. The clover should be ‘micro’, and remain hidden by not growing taller than the surrounding grass. By keeping clover small, we take advantage of the other benefits that come with the plant.
Sabrina explains: “Microclover is white clover, Trifolium repens, with especially small leaves. It’s more drought-tolerant than most temperate grass species, surprisingly wear-tolerant, and very persistent. The big advantage lies in the ability of clover’s companion, Rhizobium, to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. The Rhizobium bacteria lives in symbiosis with the grass. In exchange for sugars, it provides nitrogen to the plant right out of the air. That nitrogen feeds back into the surrounding grass plants through clover clippings and dead roots.”
PIPOLINA, our top-selling Microclover variety
What’s not to like with Microclover? It’s more than an engaging product story, easily understood by your customers, it actually makes a world of a difference to turf’s appearance, costs, and management footprint. Get it from your nearest DLF representative.