About the time the lespedeza was making seed, the ground would be worked and seeded back to small grains. Korean lespedeza also was grown alone for use as summer pasture or harvested for a good quality hay crop. It also was successfully planted into many acres of bluegrass pasture in central and northern Missouri. Lespedeza was used extensively in new seedings of orchardgrass or tall fescue in the late 1940s and 1950s. Growth habits Annual lespedezas will germinate in early spring but usually grow very little until June.
Plants are drought resistant and respond well to favorable conditions.
Dry conditions may reduce growth, but the plants recover quickly following summer rains. Plants are more drought resistant in the seedling stage than alfalfa or clovers. Severe late-spring freezes may kill some of the early germinating lespedeza plants, but the problem is not as bad as with clovers. Mature lespedeza plants are killed by the first hard frost in the fall. It will withstand heavy trampling and will produce some seed even under heavy grazing.