Earlier reports told of Texas cotton fields overrun with the herbicide-resistant, fast-growing Palmer amaranth weed, commonly known as pigweed.
Experts suggested applying different herbicides throughout the growing season to combat the weed, but some farmers use the old-fashioned weed management strategy—chopping it out of the field with a hoe. Can pigweed become hoe-resistant, too?
The best made and implemented weed management strategies sometimes fall short of perfect and pigweed will take advantage of any glitch, reports Southwest Farm Press.
Weeds left to seed will result in more problems the following year, which can lead to crop losses. Points to consider in keeping pigweed from becoming hoe-resistant:
• If growers see more than 10 pigweed plants per acre, it’s important to get those plants out of the field.
• An unchopped pigweed will produce 400,000 seeds in dryland cotton production.
• One chopped to 6 inches will regrow and still produce 130,000 seeds.
• One chopped down to 1 inch still produces 36,000 seeds.
• And, finally, if the pigweed is chopped all the way to the soil, it can still regrow and have time to produce more than 22,000 seeds before frost comes along.
• Even if you pull it up, it can still resucker if any part of the remaining root touches soil.