My multi year battle with pigweed story:

[Jake]

Central Wisconsin 40 yard wide by 100 yard long plot. Almost 7.0 soil pH and 4ft 3pt tiller set as high as it can go.
I have other plot friends with pigweed issues all over and we all share ideas and stories so I am not alone...

Fall brassica planting of 2017 had pigweed go to seed in a brassica plot. Spring 2018 frost seeded clover heavy and kept mowed that year. Did some brassicas too in a different strip. Summer 2019 killed off clover and broadcasted brassicas in July and lightly dragged it as no tiller at the current time. Pigweed came back and hand pulled best I could and I weed whacked the tops off but it just grew shorter and threw a seed head shorter...Late summer 2019 I tilled up some bad area and planted winter rye before that pigweed went to seed..

Spring 2020 I tilled up early and planted oats and annual clover. No pigweed in sight... The rye side got annual clover frost seeded into it. Early June I cultipacked and sprayed the rye and oats down with hopes of broadcast/pack brassicas into it. (I should have waited a month and then it would have worked). Early July pretty well exposed soil and few pig weed plants popping up and a Creeping charlie weed. July 10th Decided to broadcast fertilizer and rototill the plot as I didn't like the weeds poking up in hopes of August 1st planting.
Came back 3 weeks later to a plot literally full of pigweed... Plans changed.....
So of course I tilled it under with the mindset of the seed bank sprouted and greened up and now it's time to do it again. Always hear guys saying disc then wait two weeks and disc again and plant.
Plan is end of August a winter rye and oats planting and spot spray 24d if needed.
Then spring 2021 let the rye grow up a little. Broadcast buckwheat, cultipack and spray. July then broadcast brassicas/pea/annual clover/oat seed and fertilizer and cultipack and spray buckwheat. No tiller!


Picture one is rye on right and spring planted oats on left...
2nd pic is what I walked up to 3 weeks after tilling
Next post is how it looks today.

 

[Jake]

As it sits today pics attached.
My house plots I don't have much of a pigweed issue and do alot more broadcast and lightly drag and spray and throw. So obviously that is the way to go..

Thanks in advance for any help or sharing your stories/battles.

 

[Barndog56]

I'm a little crazy but I think the current pic of nothing but dirt looks worse than the pic of a field full of pigweed. Right now there is nothing collecting sunlight, converting it to sugar(carbon), and transporting through the roots to feed your soil biology. The soil food web is starving. At least the pigweed would have been feeding it. Mother Nature grew a cover crop to try and improve your soil and you just tilled it under.

I would have waited til you broadcast the brassicas to either spray or mow the pigweed. While I'm not a fan of spraying, it's better than tilling.

Anyway, it sounds to me like you've already learned what to do. Broadcast, spray, drag, roll, or mow.

And you've also learned there are millions of pigweed seeds in your soil already. So if you have a few plants pop up here and there in the future, it's not a huge deal if they go to seed. Your soil already has more than it can grow, a few extras won't matter, especially if you don't till and give it the opening it wants.

I'm sure my soil has more pigweed, lambs quarter, ragweed, and marestail seed than anyone could count. But as long as I don't give it the chance, it doesn't grow.

 

[buckdeer1]

I would plant liberty beans and spray with interline but try not to work ground too deep

 

[Jake]

Thanks for the replies. I get the awesomeness of liberty beans and pre emergent stuff but how can I do that on a small half acre (total there) plot without knowing a farmer friend who has some extra. Not going to buy acres worth of the stuff and sit on it. Do I need a license to buy it? I can ask a farmer friend.

To me no matter if I till lightly (talking maybe 2 inch's deep) or lightly drag this pigweed is there to stay. So plan should of course is to be to till. I have to till in my screening though.

I know I'm not the only one in the food plot world with pigweed issues. Just I probably care more then the average Joe haha.

I could have yes not tilled and let pigweed grow a week and hit it with gly and 24d and broadcasted rye and oats and cultipacked and then spot spray 24d month later.

Funny one is wife's uncle has a flower pot he didn't plant this year. And a pigweed plant was only thing growing in it. I have never been near that thing or any of my stuff.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I have pig weed issues but gly still kills it for me. Places that I plant rye and roll down pig weed is nearly a non issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rit]

Well acres worth of stuff will last you a long time. I have seen liberty or interline actually for less than $100 for 2.5 gallons. A single mature pig weed plant can produce around 200,000 seeds. I wonder how many times those are brought to the surface via tillage? Sounds like you have severe pigweed problems and a seed bank that has plenty of reserves. I’d retire the tiller for awhile and keep that soil covered with growing roots at all times. I think the jury is still out on using interline for non-liberty crops inside the waiting period but we should have some answers in the coming weeks.

 

[BuckSutherland]

1. Waterhemp/pig weed LOVES tillage
2. You have enough seed to fill the seed bank for the next 2 decades
3. Throw the tiller in the garbage
4. Plant a crop that you can try to smoother it and STOP doing tillage (clover or alfalfa) and then MOW MOW MOW
5. The absolute BEST way to combat waterhemp is to NEVER let it germinate (pre emerge chemicals).
6. Tillage promote germination
7. Liberty chemicals are in the same place glyphosate was 3-5 years ago. Very quickly they are going to flop in the fight against waterhemp.
8. The most impressive weed I have ever battled with

 

[Tree Spud]

Here is some info on dealing with pigs weed/water hemp from the US Soy Bean Board. They advocate deep tillage.

Link ... Water hemp/Pigs weed

Management Steps
The focus of this section is predominantly chemical control. However, given the extend of herbicide-resistant waterhemp populations, cultural and mechanical options, such as the following, should be considered.

• Narrow row spacing and optimum soybean planting populations, which increase the crop’s ability to outcompete waterhemp for nutrients and resources.
• Deep tillage, which reduces the amount of waterhemp seed that germinates by burying the seed at unfavorable depths. A program consisting of deep tillage in combination with residual herbicides has been shown to reduce emergence of pigweeds, including waterhemp, by 97%.
• Fall-seeded cover crops, such as cereal rye, which can reduce early-season waterhemp emergence during the next spring.

The most effective strategies to reduce herbicide-resistant waterhemp populations will integrate cultural and mechanical techniques with chemical control.

 

[rocksnstumps]

1. Waterhemp/pig weed LOVES tillage
2. You have enough seed to fill the seed bank for the next 2 decades
3. Throw the tiller in the garbage
4. Plant a crop that you can try to smoother it and STOP doing tillage (clover or alfalfa) and then MOW MOW MOW
5. The absolute BEST way to combat waterhemp is to NEVER let it germinate (pre emerge chemicals).
6. Tillage promote germination
7. Liberty chemicals are in the same place glyphosate was 3-5 years ago. Very quickly they are going to flop in the fight against waterhemp.
8. The most impressive weed I have ever battled with

#4 above works fairly well but you have to be happy without trying to introduce brassicas or other mixes. When you try to give other plants space to grow, your nemesis pigweed can just come back and outgrow stuff. Personally I try for long term clover plots anyway but you have to be willing to be a mowing fiend to get the upper hand. As in you have to sacrifice brassicas or whatever is too tall to escape mowing when you gotta get in there and lop some heads off! (the pigweed of course)

A July planting of brassica, rye, and clover that got unruly with pigweed. Mowed em all down by early Sept. Gotta do it for later results or you are going to have to head down the herbicide path.



Same field a couple years later. Not super clean but good enough clover patch for me and not much for pigweed. My arch enemy thistle is still trying to get back in the game however. I just don't like using chemicals until its a last resort, besides mowing is me being cheap frugal!

 

[BuckSutherland]

^^^ I dont think a lot of food plotters can do deep tillage just because of HP requirements and access to their plots. That is gonna mean a small moldboard plow and the ability to completely flip the soil over as opposed to just rolling it on its side. I would be willing to bet his tiller has the seed well mixed in the top 6". If you can plow it Jake go ahead, but if you cant completely flip it and then till it again to level it off your are just gonna bring the seeds right back to the surface. There is gonna be no great answer no matter what you do. In my ag production fields I put down a kick ass pre emerge, and then come back with another residual product during the post emerge pass and try to NEVER let the bastards from hell germinate. A few still escape and then I have to walk and kill them with my own two hands.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Agree, deep tillage is for all those lucky enough to have great farm land and if I had that it would be making me rent not just goofing off with food plots. Deep tillage on my ridge would tough on equipment trying to rip up those 3 to 5 foot diameter boulders and throw in a 10 foot one on special occasions. Some hunting land is "sorta" affordable for a reason, like the nearby farmers don't want to screw with it.

 

[Jake]

Great responses and yes tiller is not going to get used as much. Hard not to use it... Was easy when friend and my brother borrowed the tractor for a year.

My home plots/yard plots basically had pigweed but I'm able to hand pick it and stay on top of it. One plot had some pigweed and that is in clover now and staying in clover at least another year.

So going forward in plot in pics. Pigweed plot will see how it looks on two weeks. If soil is still fluffy broadcast oats and rye heavy and maybe some brassicas and cultipack. Watch what it does next month and spot spray 24d and sacrifice brassicas.
Other clover spot I killed off with gly and will spot spray gly and broadcast brassicas.
Other section will get same oats and rye and annual clover and brassicas.

Keep the ideas and stories coming.

 

[buckdeer1]

With it being a 1/2 acre I would hoe them if I had to,i did a few yesterday.Liberty usually kills anything non liberty but I haven't tried on water hemp.One thing about it I will take pig weed over marestail because at lease the deer will eat pigweed.Keep it mowed and it's not a huge problem to keep choked out.Just don't let it seed out

 

[Jake]

2 week since last tilling update:.

Went back last night and you could see the spots where I kinda missed tilling as pigweed was a foot tall. But other tilled spots looked really good. Few pigweed sprouts but not bad. I was impressed.

So I seeded down heavy some oats/peas/winter rye and tossed some urea out. Then rototilled lightly and pulled the cultipacker behind tiller. Then went back and broadcasted brassicas and walked away.

I have a block in this spot that was old clover that needed to be re done. So I killed it off two weeks ago and last night broadcasted the same seeds as tilled spot and ran cultipacker of that. Will be a good comparison no till vs till.

So as of today I think I am on top of my issue. I seeded heavy and the tilling in early July,end of July and now early August flushing the weed seedbank seems to have worked for now. (Least in my head it worked and I will never be pigweed free)

Had I planted in July I'd be screwed majorly..... Lesson learned and no more July planting there.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

 

[SD51555]

Is the pigweed spreading beyond the food plots and into your undisturbed areas like the woods or grass areas?

 

[Barndog56]

New idea for those with pigweed problems. Florists will typically pay $1 per stem for Amaranth seed heads. Here is a bouquet sporting one of the red variations.


And these main stalk seed heads can bring as much as $20 when combined with a few cornstalks for a Halloween decoration.

 

[homerj]

Many kinds of Amaranth, those ^^^ pics are not of pigweed or palmer amaranth. Also https://geneticliteracyproject.org/...ath-and-glyphosate-still-a-far-fetched-story/

 

[Jake]

Is the pigweed spreading beyond the food plots and into your undisturbed areas like the woods or grass areas?

Not seen it in the woods but last year little bit on the lowest corner of the plot. Washed out through the grass and sprouted on a trail. I pulled them by hand when they got taller.

By my house seen it pop up in weird spots.

 

[Tree Spud]

As I wrote earlier, I had big problem with one of my plots last year with pigweed. Sprayed twice and knocked it back; however, by mid August another 30% of the plot had new plants emerging. Thought this spring was going to be another heavy infestation.

I spread a heavy load of WR & red clover on it is early Sept. Did not till the WR seed heads emerged in late June. As of today, no sign of pigweed.