A Low-Down Dirty Weed

[digitS']

Today, I snapped a picture of a 3/4 inch red-root pigweed that has bloomed & is setting seeds.

How can a garden be protected from weeds when they behave like that??! I mean, the seed leaves are the largest leaves on the plant but the darn thing is going to seed. Elsewhere, others are reproducing before I can get them pulled. I found 1 that was even shorter than this:

There is mulch. There are also slugs, earwigs and voles - 3 problems I have had with mulches. (You know, those rocks act as something of a mulch .)

Steve

 

[journey11]

I've found that the ones I try to pull out and end up breaking off then branch out and set seed heads on each prostrate branch. I've faithfully weeded out the pigweed for 6 years now and they've finally gotten down to just a sparse handful in my garden this year.

Now let just one of those babies go to seed.... And we start all over again! Got to admire their tenacity, I guess.

 

[lesa]

I am always amazed by that! Mother nature has a plan- they are going to make seed, one way or another. If I don't keep up on the nettles- they grow 3 feet tall, before they seed. If I pull like crazy- I will find an inch tall one with seeds!! Quite amazing when you think about it... if our veggies grew like that, we would never have to go to the grocery store! I always admire your rock mulch, Steve!

 

[MontyJ]

I really, really, really HATE that plant!!! I never had it or even heard of it until 2006. That year I hauled in a couple loads of aged cow manure from a dairy farm. During the summer I saw these little seedlings come up. Being curious, I let them grow to see what the were. What a mistake that was! By the time I found out what they were, it was too late. They overran the garden. In an attempt to eradicate them, I let the garden go fallow in 2010 while I did a till and kill approach. I would let them germinate, spray them, let them die and till it all under. I did it over and over all summer long. I planted the garden again in 2011 only to see millions more come up. So, last year I went fallow and tried the till and kill again. Once again, I killed millions of those bastiges. This year I planted the garden out again, and guess what...here they come again.

I have since learned quite a bit about those monsters. For one, each plant can produce up to one million seeds!! Not only that, but the seeds produced have a viability of better than 95% and can survive in the soil for as long as 40 years!!!

They are extremely tough to get rid of because they will seed under even the toughest conditions (as evidenced in the pic). And, as Journey said, if they break off, they will seed even more. According to what I have read, they must be removed, root and all, before reaching approximately 4 weeks of age.

The lesson I have learned from this is to NEVER let an unidentified plant grow. I know a lot of people will say to "Let it grow and see what it is." I will never do that again.

 

[so lucky]

Pigweed is related to amaranth, right? I wonder if sufficient research has been done to find a use for these super tough plants. Medicinal? paper pulp? animal feed? fuel? building material? ("My house has a pigweed block foundation and 6" pigweed fluff insulation") If it becomes useful, it will probably then develop some dread disease, and wipe itself out. :/

 

[digitS']

Sometimes, we don't even know where the weed comes from.

MontyJ, I had about the same experience with bindweed, wild morningglory. It came into Dad's backyard in a load of cow manure. It would have been there sooner or later and was probably already there just not getting much of a chance to mature into a perennial. The roots came in the manure.

I can't identify every weed I come across. One of the most common weeds in my yard, not so much the gardens, is a little thing that I have forgotten the name of the several times I've searched it out. It doesn't cause much trouble - annual. Gets an early start and I can't identify the flower - flowering is always my cue to panic! I will get very, very serious about getting weeds out at that point. This one has the best of me. It is like chickweed in that way altho' not as troublesome. Chickweed, I can see flower - when I arrive in the garden in late winter!!!

At least pigweed is an annual and, in my soil, is quite easy to pull. Bindweed requires an approach all its own. "Don't walk past it." When I can get a hold on it, and as much root as will come up, out it goes! If it has hidden from me and developed those amazing roots, it must take years of pulling to weaken, weaken, weaken. And, the bindweed seed -- I've read that it may be dormant for a couple of decades. The seedlings are coming up in the garden addition, which was a hay field of grass until this year. I've got a little while with them but the trips over the ground with the tiller are already scheduled.

Steve

 

[baymule]

Why is it that the snails and slugs eat my veggies but not these healthy strapping pigweed plants? I'll even change the name to beer and doughnuts it the snails will eat them......... goes out in the dark shouting Get your beer and doughnuts here!

 

[MontyJ]

I know something else about redroot pigweed...chickens love it!

 

[digitS']

I thought I was going to claim something else special about my garden pigweed.

There is the "tumbleweed pigweed" as well as the redroot . . .

Turns out, that's not so special for here! You can click on the little guy to see its US distribution:



Steve

 

[bj taylor]

I didn't know what you were talking about until I clicked on your link. I have one of these growing in my raised bed & I thought 'what is that? i'll just let it grow & see what it is'. in the morning before I leave the house, i'm headed out to get that plant out & away from my garden. glad I read this thread. saved by monty.