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Oats as nurse crop for clover

So I planted oats as a nurse crop for whitetail clover everything looks good. Oats about 8-10 inches high. Real goal is for the clover to be nexts years plot. A few questions on next step. When the leaves surrounding the field fall they will next hard into the oats. Should I leave them or blow them off? Could I mow the high oats in late November and mulch up the leaves then pick up, or even leave it. Just not sure what to do here in a few weeks.

We've used oats as a cover crop for fall clover plots for years. Typically don't worry much about the leaves until March. Blowing or mulching/mowing them off prior to frost seeding additional clover seed in the plot seems to work well for us.

PAV covered it pretty well. What kind of trees are around your plot? Some leaves can potentially be a bigger issue than others. From my experience, oak leaves seem to a bigger problem than most other types of leaves. They don’t seem to break down as quickly as other leaves and have a tendency to get matted down, as well, smothering the new sprouts, and keeping the frost seeded seeds from making good contact with the ground. Mulching and/or raking them definitely helps.

Yeah mostly oak. I like the idea of waiting until March/April to remove them.

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