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Getting to Palmer amaranth early

Palmer amaranth is a tough, tough weed and at winter meetings Extension weed specialist Mark Loux at Ohio State University stressed how aggressive the weed is and how big of a problem it could be.

“The problem with this weed is that it produces so many seeds and is so hard to control,” said Loux. “It’s able to take over a field much more rapidly than most of the other weeds we deal with.”

The good news, with residual herbicides being used on over 80 percent of Ohio soybean acres and most of the corn acres, we do have something in place to take care of the first flush. For those with an infestation of Palmer amaranth, the Extension weed specialist says specific control measures will be needed.

“Our goal, everyone who works in my program here at OSU is to work with anyone who gets that as directly as we can and get information to people so that if they do end up with a patch of it they’re on top of it and have the right control in place,” Loux said.

Audio: Mark Loux, Extension weed specialist, Ohio State University (2:20 mp3)