Medicago lupulina
Black medick
Common names: Hop clover, Yellow clover
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Lifespan
- Biennial
- Flowering
- May–Sep
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −20 °C
- Water need
- Low
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Black medick, botanically Medicago lupulina, grows wild in our region along roadsides, on nutrient-poor grassland, and in calcareous meadows. Its ripe, black seed heads resemble small hop cones, which is why it is also called hop clover. The plant lies flat or ascends, staying low at 20 to 40 cm, and from May to September it bears small, round, lemon-yellow flower heads that bees and bumblebees readily visit. In the garden it is used as a low green manure and as an undersown cover crop, for example under fruit trees and berry bushes, where it covers the soil and occupies space that weeds would otherwise take. Through root nodule bacteria it fixes nitrogen. It tolerates mowing and drought well, which makes it suitable for sunny, lean field margins. It is annual to biennial, grows slowly at first, and readily reseeds itself.
Care instructions
Black medick needs a sunny spot with permeable, calcareous soil. Sow it from March to August on a clean, finely crumbled bed, because it grows slowly at first and weeds can easily overtake it. Weed during the first few weeks and keep the soil evenly moist until emergence. Later it copes well with drought and needs watering only rarely. As an undersown crop under fruit trees, mow it occasionally, which keeps it low and encourages repeated flowering. To prevent it from spreading, cut it back before seed ripening. To incorporate it into the soil, mow it at flowering, let the cuttings wilt, and dig them shallowly into the soil. Count it among the legumes, and do not grow peas or beans directly before or after it on the same bed. Typical mistake: acidic soil, in which it struggles.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–Aug
FloweringMay–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 5 °C, ideally 15 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 1 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
lime-loving, well-drained, loamy, lean
Black medick loves chalky, free-draining soils and also grows in poor, temporarily dry places, such as you know from path edges and nutrient-poor grassland. A pH between 6 and 8 suits it; on more acidic soils below that it struggles. On loamy soils it grows stronger; only permanent wet it does not tolerate. If your soil is very acidic, you are better off choosing a different green manure.
Feeding
Light feeder
Black medick needs no fertiliser and prefers poor soil. Via nodule bacteria on its roots, it fixes some nitrogen from the air itself. On nutrient-rich beds, fast-growing weeds often outcompete the low medick, so you do without compost and other applications. It shows its effect as ground cover and when it is worked in later.
Overwintering
Black medick is hardy and survives frost down to about minus 20 degrees without protection. From a late-summer sowing, small plants overwinter and flower and set seed the next year. After that the plant usually dies, and the stand renews itself by self-seeding. If you do not want that, mow the medick before the seeds ripen. In spring you can leave it lying as mulch or work it in shallowly.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate black medick from seed, which you buy as green manure or undersowing seed. Sow directly into the bed from March to August: prepare the seedbed fine and crumbly and free of weeds, scatter the small seeds, rake them in about 1 cm deep and firm the surface. Keep it evenly moist until emergence. Early development is slow, so in the first weeks you weed out any weeds that come up. When sown in spring it often flowers in the same summer; late-summer sowings give a plant that flowers the following year. The ripe, black pods drop off, and the medick self-seeds.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example CarrotCeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCoriander and 21 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example GarlicOnionLeekChivesWild daffodilRocambole and 12 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Black medick yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
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