Red root pigweed

[Nova]

I had a pretty big issue with this in a small 1/2 acre plot at home 2 years ago. Gly won't touch the stuff and it was getting out of hand. Last year I planted winter rye in the plot to fend it off and it worked great. Absolutely zero of it came up last summer, so I thought I was in the clear. This morning at 4:00 am I went out to spray the plots before work since I had perfect conditions for spraying. Low and behold I see a ton of these little buggers coming up. How long will the seeds from this sit in the soil dormant waiting for a chance to come up? Looks like I am going to have to watch it closely and pull ever plant that comes up by hand this summer. Should that fix the problem assuming I get it all?

 

[wiscwhip]

RRP is a VERY prolific seed producer and the seed will sit dormant in the soil until conditions are right for it to germinate for up to 5 years. Removing it completely will be a multi year proposition. Stay on top of it and you might still keep the infestation to a minimum. Dicamba plus 2,4-D should control it while young, but may also take out whatever you have planted there, depending on the crop. Hand removal is a good alternative, use a hoe and get into the roots, remove all plants from the field and burn them. Also, keep up the rye plantings, they have been proven to lessen the amount of germination in the spring.

 

[Wild Thing]

I had the same issue a few years ago with pigweed. I sprayed it and planted roundup ready crops in the plot for the next 2 or 3 years, spraying as needed and I don't see any sign of the pigweed now.

I have been no-till drilling this plot for 3 years now. If you don't have a no-till drill, I would spray it, wait a couple weeks and turn it under and spray it when it comes up again. Plant RR crops for 2 or 3 years and spray when it comes up again. Each one of those buggers will turn into a thousand seeds so you may have a lot of seeds in your soil. You just need to keep after them.

 

[Nova]

I had the same issue a few years ago with pigweed. I sprayed it and planted roundup ready crops in the plot for the next 2 or 3 years, spraying as needed and I don't see any sign of the pigweed now.

I have been no-till drilling this plot for 3 years now. If you don't have a no-till drill, I would spray it, wait a couple weeks and turn it under and spray it when it comes up again. Plant RR crops for 2 or 3 years and spray when it comes up again. Each one of those buggers will turn into a thousand seeds so you may have a lot of seeds in your soil. You just need to keep after them.

I had RR crops in there before it started to show up and while it was showing up, but gly won't touch RRP, so spraying it did nothing. I do have RR beans and corn in there now, so 2-4-D is not an option this year.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

It sounds like you have three options.

You can continue doing what you are doing and hand weed the plot.

You can no till your crops so you dont bring new seed to the surface and use rye cover crops.

You can till the soil every two weeks throughout the growing season and hopefully deplete the seed bank. Although it may take multiple years of doing this.

 

[wiscwhip]

Your other option would be to get Liberty Link crops instead of RR. For this year though, it appears control will come in the form of some hand field work...

 

[Nova]

Your other option would be to get Liberty Link crops instead of RR. For this year though, it appears control will come in the form of some hand field work...

yep, this year hand pulling will have to work. Next year I will have to come up with a game plan. I'll prolly overseed this plot with rye come August and go from there.

 

[Nova]

Well after this weekend the plan to hand pull all the red root pigweed has changed. The stuff absolutely blew up in 2 of my plots. Next year the plan is to rip up the plots and wait for it to germinate, then spray and repeat until I have terminated it all. Might have to let the plots at home rest for a year and just concentrate on terminating the RRP. Just about everything you see in the pics that isn't beans and corn is RRP. All other weeds and grasses turned brown after a dose of gly.

 

[wiscwhip]

That infestation is going to produce a scary amount of seed!

 

[SwampCat]

I have 600 acre row crop field next to me. They spray no telling what, several times each year. Some years they disk and spray. Been doing this for 20 years. Fields are always essentially weed free. Two years ago, they didnt plant or spray. Those fields blew up into a weed jungle. Not sure the seed bank ever dies out.

 

[Nova]

That infestation is going to produce a scary amount of seed!

I KNOW!!!, but short of terminating what I have planted this year I am not sure what I can do.

 

[j-bird]

Depending on spacing and what tools you have can you cultivate? It's a lot of work, but can you spray a broadleaf specific and shield your beans? Get a buddy and put some handles on a sheet of plywood to serve as a shield or cover with some poly and a backpack sprayer or something. That looks like a lot of manual labor otherwise.

 

[Nova]

Depending on spacing and what tools you have can you cultivate? It's a lot of work, but can you spray a broadleaf specific and shield your beans? Get a buddy and put some handles on a sheet of plywood to serve as a shield or cover with some poly and a backpack sprayer or something. That looks like a lot of manual labor otherwise.

I thought about cultivating too, or even get a blow torch and burn between the rows. I have heard of Organic farmers who burn the weeds between rows. I wonder how that would work on RRP?

 

[Nova]

Something like this
torch

 

[wiscwhip]

Well I had a post all typed up, but it appears I did not push send and my suggestions have already been tabled. Cultivator or flame weeding. I have a bad feeling that if nothing is done, that pigweed will overtake those beans in short order and they will suffer once the pigweed overtakes them. In a production agriculture situation, most farmers would terminate that crop, kill the RRP, and start over with a short term crop if that happened. I would put rye on very heavily this fall to try and get some allelopathic effects to help you control it next year. See the link...

looks like you have to copy and paste it into your browser?

articles.extension.org/pages/65208/weed-profile:-pigweeds-amaranthus-spp

 

[Wild Thing]

This ought to work:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiyp_-xjN7bAhW5CDQIHSEpBfYQtwIILzAB&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpfMHM75EJc&usg=AOvVaw22JcDcC3tJmyLw6DtuREBN

or this if you have a little bigger tractor:

if you can haul enough propane...

 

[j-bird]

Your going to have to get creative. Either make a boom torch to cook them or even consider running a narrow tiller to act as a cultivator or even a push mower if the rows are wide enough to keep it under control. Hell soak a bath towel in a broadleaf killer and use it like a weed wiper down the rows. Like I said time to be creative.

 

[Bill]

Yep that’s bad. Anything but let that all go to seed. I’d start planning on liberty link beans and corn for next year.

I switched this year because I had it that bad in one plot and it got away from me. I see on one trial cam it’s cominig on pretty good again. Based on rain I won’t have beans but I’m hitting the RRP with liberty anyway.

 

[Jake]

Update from me in your situation kinda.

Plot in iola. Had it pigweed bad in my brassicas 2017. Young pigweed got Lightly rototilled under some of the problem areas/strips in early August and re-did more brassicas and rye. Hand picked enough pigweed too. Broadcasted clover mix and rye mid August over the whole half acre plot.
Frost seeded clover in the plot heavy this spring and honestly i am impressed... Kept it mowed low so far this year in strips and only have a little big of pigweed back but nothing bad. Knock on wood...

My house plots. My middle 2017 brassica plot 1/4 acre ish. Pigweed did its thing and got away on me bad..... Went to seed. Still big brassicas so i left it. End of winter i plowed the plot off with tractor snow pusher blade thinking it push the plants that went to seed off to the side. Seemed to keep plant seed head in tact when i looked in the snow bank.
Frost seeded clover in plot heavy in spring. Waited a while to see what popped up. Pigweed was coming back good in a few areas. Mowed it once low with zero turn mower and waited a week. Sprayed 24db / crop oil and that seemed to smoke it... That or maybe it will piss it off??... I did hand pull a few pig weed plants. I did overseed some more clover after I sprayed 24db. (heavy 3oz a gallon spot spraying). Also hit it with some clethodim earlier to clean up grasses.
Idea on home plot is to keep it clover a few years and keep it mowed and hope to smother it..

Barn plot had some pigweed last year and some this year but i was able to hand pull it. Some is coming back but that got 24db and will get scratched up for rye/brassica in august im thinking.

Other plot had pigweed last year but also not as bad. This year my free beans failed and had some pigweed but i sprayed it off young and mixed in a little 24d. That plot will get something with brassicas or back to clover.


So going into the brassica planting season im slightly concerned on two plots on the pigweed issue out of my many.

Damn pigweed showed up last fall by my in laws mailbox in the ditch.. I dont get the stuff. I seen it in on strip i killed off grow 6 inchs and make a seed head vs like a foot or 2 and make seed heads. Last year seemed a bad year for pigweed in all the plots i was in around central Wisconsin. We will see what this year brings....


Keep us posted on your endeavors and i will do the same.

 

[Nova]

If I were to hand spray 2-4d between the rows is there a possibility of the chemical going thru the soil into the corn and bean plants? I know gly is sterile once it hits dirt, but I thought 2-4d had some residual.