Sicklepod / Coffee Weed

[bigbendmarine]

Not that it's something to exactly brag about but think I might have world-record sicklepod growth in a couple of my plots planted last fall. Every bit of 8' high if not 9', and thick as thick can be.

When I planted the plots last year, I had done light discing in advance, let green growth come up and then sprayed with gly before seeding, and plots looked / performed pretty well throughout fall. Not sharing the pic because of the buck, but honestly is probably the best pic I have showing plot growth. Pic was taken mid-december.



Same exact field in June (relatively sickle free area where deer are standing is lane I keep cut around plot so can drive UTV around fields)



Doing some research on sicklepod found this advise with a few others supporting it:

"Here is a scheme that would make inroads upon the weed, but would require that you plant no summer crop. Till it in the early spring and let it lie until weeds and grass, (including coffeeweed) germinated and began to grow vigorously. Spray the entire field with Roundup.

Till the soil again and repeat the same process. You should be able to repeat this process at least three times during one summer. You will have drastically reduced the incidence of coffee weed and other weeds and grasses as well.

Obviously you would have spent a few bucks along with expending some labor. As far as I know there is no other way to deal with this nuisance."
​

So a few questions:

1) What do y'all think about the above advise? Spot on?

2) Versus tilling would it be feasible to strictly mow the problem plots a few summers? It does seem that in mowed "road edges" I keep regularly cut that the bigger weeds seem to give way to more regular grass growth that gly would likely better handle.

3) Finally, my 100 acre place currently has only about 25 acres of open fields whereas neighboring property is a 3,000 acre quail plantation. Kind of fearing I might be asking a question a bit blasphemous to some on the board, but would ignoring the sicklepod spots (about 3 of the 25 field acres) during summer be out of the question? It honestly seems to be most problematic exactly where I've planted food plots / disturbed soil / limed and fertilized. Other more fallow areas I have while still weedy are much more diverse weedy spots with thick blackberry, passion fruit, ragweed, etc, and the does and fawns seem to love it / have stayed in the area all summer long. Might I just designate the sicklepod spots as fall-plot areas only, appreciating that they'll do ok attracting and feeding deer during season while my other acreage attracts / feeds deer in summer (areas with more favorable weed forbs AND lots of clover on our place including a few pretty pure clover stands).

Very curious to hear thoughts from anyone who is willing to share any.

 

[Bill]

I don't know anything about sickle pod but the scheme of disking through the summer for a fall plot works well. When I first started plotting I could never get my fall clover patch to not get swallowed by weeds. Long before I had clue...

I went the disk throughout the summer route and by September had a clean field with fluffy dirt. That plot is still in clover today. If I can't get the pigweed under control may go that route in a few other places soon.

 

[Ben Glantz]

It sounds like each time you disk you are getting into the seed bank and bringing up more seeds. Maybe try mowing it, then spraying, waiting a month, spray again and then do a throw and roll? You should have good thatch with the all of the dead plant matter and if you do the trow and roll, you wont be breaking into the seed bank again.

 

[Eggman]

You could plant RR beans and keep the weeds sprayed back if you wanted a summer task to work on.

 

[bigbendmarine]

You could plant RR beans and keep the weeds sprayed back if you wanted a summer task to work on.

Eggman, appreciating you're one of the guys who hunts south of the Mason-Dixon line have you fought it / have much experience dealing with it? I have no shortage of it, as well as rattlebox and spanish needles.

Lots of things I hate about spanish needles, but one thing I can't help but like about it is the amount of butterflies it draws. We've got lots of passion fruit vines too, and as they serve as the main food for gulf fritillary butterflies we have thousands of gulf fritillaries fluttering around our place spring, summer, and early fall.

 

[Eggman]

Yes sir the 2 main weeds I battle are pig weed and sickle pod. Round up will kill the sickle pod at any stage of growth but you must sprayer the pig weed early if you want it to be effective. I used some new chemical this year as a pre emergent and the first spraying over the top to help get a better control on the pig weed. This seemed to help but the timing of my spraying was not right due to access to equipment and being 9 hours away.