Beware the Palmer
yikes!
you heard about "the weed"?
not just the weed.... the pigweed.
the pigweed that has agricultural producers and agronomists all riled up and extremely concerned?
Beware the Palmer !!
Palmer Amaranth !!
Based on what I've seen in the agricultural media, this dude is nasty!
it's fast-growing... and can reach 6-10 feet in height.
it's highly competitive.
it's noxious.
it's also known as "carelessweed", because... well... it just doesn't care.
what an evil beast!!
quotes I found online about the weed....
"It's an efficient ... bad weed."
"The best name I’ve been able to come up with is ‘Satan’."
“[T]his is the one that scares me to death."
Apparently, farmers in the Southern U.S. have reported corn yield losses as great as 91 percent due to Palmer Amaranth pressure.
so what makes it such a bad-boy weed?
it is resistant to glyphosate.
say what?
(yup, I had to look it up too, in order to make sure I understood.)
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill weeds especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe.
sold under many different brand names, the most popular glyphosate is Roundup.
Wait a minute.... Roundup won't kill Palmer A? Roundup kills everything!
This is one mean weed.
The University of Illinois has released these recommendations for dealing with the weed.....
- Fields with Palmer amaranth populations should be the last fields harvested this fall and the last fields planted next spring.
- Mark or flag areas where Palmer amaranth plants have produced seed. These areas should be intensively scouted the following season and an aggressive Palmer amaranth management plan implemented to prevent future seed production.
- Do not mechanically harvest mature Palmer amaranth plants with crop harvesting equipment. Physically remove the plants immediately prior to harvest and either leave the plants in the field or place in a sturdy garden bag and remove the plants from the field. Bury or burn the bags in a burn barrel as soon as possible.
- Fields in which Palmer amaranth seeds were produced should NOT be tilled during the fall or following spring. Leaving the seeds near the soil surface increases the opportunities for seed predation by various granivores.
DANG! sounds like a prevention plan for a venereal disease! almost. except for the "burn barrel" and "granivores" parts.
quarantining the field to prevent "infection" of other fields! WOW
definitely not a weed that I want to meet in a dark alley.
Out for now.....
Matt
