Weed Research

 

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Video Transcript

Chuck Denney (UT Institute of Agriculture)
It’s about the last thing a Tennessee farmer wants to see in his field. This spiky green plant is called palmer pigweed - a harmful intruder that can choke cotton, corn or soybeans. When conditions are right, it thrives.

Dr. Larry Steckel (UT Extension)
“When it gets up to about two to three inches tall and we get 90 degree days like we have now and good water, it will grow an inch-and-a-half a day.”

Chuck Denney
UT Extension specialist Dr. Larry Steckel works with Tennessee farmers to get rid of palmer. At UT’s Research and Education Center in Jackson - he’s conducting tests to see how the weed can take over a cotton plant. Some rows here were treated with herbicides and look clean. But right next to them - no treatment, and there’s a mess of weeds. Steckel says palmer is spread quickly by pollen and heavy rains.    

Dr. Larry Steckel
“One palmer pigweed with some sunlight and a little space and some water can produce 250 thousand to a million seeds. Just one plant.”

Chuck Denney
Steckel says prevention is key in dealing with palmer, but if the plant establishes itself, then you have to look at other measures. A problem with palmer is that it has become resistant to roundup herbicides, which up until 2007 were very effective at controlling the weed. Now producers are having to turn back the clock to fight palmer.

Dr. Larry Steckel
“We’re going back to herbicides we used ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago, and trying to mix and match and come up with some good recommendations.”

Chuck Denney
But Dr. Steckel says farmers often have to spend upwards of an extra $30 per acre for these older herbicides. And when you’re growing thousands of acres, that’s a lot of money to fight a stupid weed. A serious weed problem can mean a significant decrease in crop yields for farmers. Weeds compete with good plants for two things - space and nutrients in the soil. Lauderdale County producer Eugene Pugh farms with his father, and says palmer pigweed can be a real threat to their livelihood.

Eugene Pugh (Lauderdale County Producer)
“It competes for sunlight. It’s very tough. It’s very drought tolerant. It’s a very hearty plant - a tough plant to kill after it gets some size on it.”

Chuck Denney
Palmer is likely an issue Tennessee farmers are going to have to deal with in coming years. It’s hoped with increased research and careful management, this weed will become rare in row crop fields.

END

NOTE: UT experts held several “weed tours” around the state this past year giving farmers information about eradication efforts.