Thorny Pig Weed Seed Heads

Victor Van Meter

5 year old buck +
Just curious if these seed heads are already viable or can I spray and kill the plant and seed without having to worry about reseeding them when the plant dies?
If they are already viable, can I go in with a torch and burn off the seed heads and then spray the plant? Will that kill everything?
I pulled a bunch last year, but it appears I didn’t do much good.
Thanks for the help.
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If the seed has somewhat formed, seed is viable by the time you spray and plant dies.

I am on 3rd year of this stuff and the seed bank is scary. You have already lost whatever you have planted. It dominates nutrients, sun exposure, water, etc.

Time to spray, wait 2 weeks, till, allow to germinate, and repeat .... keep repeating till no more evidence of it. You need to raise the seed bed and get rid of seed source. You can always consider soil contact herbicide in the fall.

What is amazing is the seed seems to stay where it is at, no wind drift. I have a 0.75 acre plot that it got into and I can't get rid with normal methods.
 
If the seed has somewhat formed, seed is viable by the time you spray and plant dies.

I am on 3rd year of this stuff and the seed bank is scary. You have already lost whatever you have planted. It dominates nutrients, sun exposure, water, etc.

Time to spray, wait 2 weeks, till, allow to germinate, and repeat .... keep repeating till no more evidence of it. You need to raise the seed bed and get rid of seed source. You can always consider soil contact herbicide in the fall.

What is amazing is the seed seems to stay where it is at, no wind drift. I have a 0.75 acre plot that it got into and I can't get rid with normal methods.

I hate this stuff! Not sure I have ever seen it before, but it seems to have found a home in my plot. I may wait until later in the summer to plant anything next year in hopes of getting it sprayed and killed.

VV


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I feel your pain, started showing up in my plots the last couple years, really tough to get rid of. I am trying the till/till/ spray to get rid of it method like Tree Spud suggest, but I have been chastised for to much tillage. I don't give a damn, I am still going after this crap with everything I have.
 
This stuff is truly a curse. Found some in another food plot in a completely different location. I am now thinking that I brought this curse in with some manure I got from a stock yard. Next year I will not be planting beans in this area, I will plant some red and crimson clover and keep an eye for the pigweed to sprout up. When it does, I plan to do the kill, till, kill option until it is time to plant brassicas for the fall.

VV
 
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The big problem is it germinates at any time. So even if you kill some, more will return.

I’ve had very good results with liberty link beans and liberty herbicide. I’ve sprayed 3 times this year because of different germination times.
 
I did a TNM clovery chicory plot last fall without spraying. After I mowed the Rye in early June there was little to be desired. I decided to hit the plot with gly to see what would happen. There is clover/chicory growing but at a very small percentile. I over seeded it with some annual and perennial clovers in mid august but I don't see any germination taking place. My plan was and still is to throw 100#/acre Rye on it when the forecast calls for it and then I'm going to hit it heavy with 24-D next spring (we dont have much for problem grasses) and try again at a TNM clover/chicory plot next fall.
 
As said above; plant Liberty beans if it's the RR resistant stuff and keep it sprayed. It's a warm weather plant so you can plant wheat, rye, awp, etc for fall attraction, but you will probably want to be able to spray it in the summer.
 
This stuff is truly a curse. Found some in another food plot in a completely different location. I am now thinking that I brought this curse in with some manure I got from a stock yard.
VV

Holy shzzz ... there was a reason the farmer wanted it off his property ... :emoji_astonished::emoji_wink:
 
This stuff is truly a curse. Found some in another food plot in a completely different location. I am now thinking that I brought this curse in with some manure I got from a stock yard. Next year I will not be planting beans in this area, I will plant some red and crimson clover and keep an eye for the pigweed to sprout up. When it does, I plan to do the kill, till, kill option until it is time to plant brassicas for the fall.

VV
Why not plant beans and spray them to kill the pigweed? At least you will have something growing there all summer and maybe some pods for winter.
 
Why not plant beans and spray them to kill the pigweed? At least you will have something growing there all summer and maybe some pods for winter.
I could do that. Maybe if I did that over a few years, it would put a dent in the seeds already in the ground.
 
I could do that. Maybe if I did that over a few years, it would put a dent in the seeds already in the ground.
Research to see if you can get Liberty beans and Link herbicide. This system will kill any weed that you are having trouble with. Then spray each time that you get a flush of weeds, never let them get tall or go to seed. Sometimes the problem never goes away, but if it's relatively new you might not have a huge seed bank yet and like you said in a couple of year you may have done enough.

I don't bring in manure, soil, walmart bags of dirt, uncertified seed, etc. The possible problems are just to crappy to deal with to make that stuff worth while.
 
Research to see if you can get Liberty beans and Link herbicide. This system will kill any weed that you are having trouble with. Then spray each time that you get a flush of weeds, never let them get tall or go to seed. Sometimes the problem never goes away, but if it's relatively new you might not have a huge seed bank yet and like you said in a couple of year you may have done enough.

I don't bring in manure, soil, walmart bags of dirt, uncertified seed, etc. The possible problems are just to crappy to deal with to make that stuff worth while.

Thanks for all this info. I have a local farm and seed store that can order what I need.

It is in a pretty small area, but it is spreading.

The manure was a rookie mistake. I have never planted anything up until about ten years ago and thought manure was a cheap alternative to fertilizer and now I know that any number of seeds can be brought in with it.

Looking forward to spring/early summer to see what this does for the pigweed population.
 
Also, what was the cost of the beans and herbicide for this year? I want to give myself a bit of time to get used to the price if it is expensive.

Thanks.
 
LL beans cost me $50/bag this year. I never bought any herbicide for them as my weeds didn't become enough of a problem (some grass and ragweed, neither bother me much). I think I'll buy the new beans that are both RR and LL next year.
 
Both RR and LL?

I accidentally planted LL beans this year and sprayed with Gly. Needless to say I replanted that plot about 3 weeks ago.
 
LL beans cost me $50/bag this year. I never bought any herbicide for them as my weeds didn't become enough of a problem (some grass and ragweed, neither bother me much). I think I'll buy the new beans that are both RR and LL next year.


$50 a bag is doable, paid $36 a bag for forage beans this year.

I appreciate all this help.

VV
 
It's called GT27
 
I planted RR beans this spring in an area that had pigweed the year before. Let it emerge this spring, disc'd it under, planted the beans and sprayed twice over past 3 months with gly. The pigweed showed up a 3rd time in about 1/3 of the plot.

Next year I may just seed with clover and mow multiple times or leave unplanted and disc/spray with gly multiple times to see if I can eliminate.

Could also try the LL beans.

This stuff is a real pain.
 
The problem is you can't mow it short enough. It'll just set seed below your mower height. But you will eliminate the big 6 footers that put hundreds of thousands of seed out. You could also think about the dicamba Extend beans or the 24d Enlist ones. Keep your sprayers going when the pigweeds are small. They're too hard to kill when they start to get big.
 
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