August 27
-- Barbara Geltosky has long avoided using chemical herbicides to kill weeds
she finds on her half-acre property—until this year.
"We
needed the big guns" to try to control the crab grass poking up on the
front lawn, says Ms. Geltosky, a retired art teacher in Malvern, Pa. Even so,
the herbicide didn't do much good, and the weed "took off insanely."
Weeds are
bigger and badder this year in most states east of the Rocky Mountains than in
recent memory, horticulture experts say. A particularly wet growing season,
following a mild winter and last year's dry summer, has helped weeds flourish,
weather experts say.
"It's
part of summertime. But this year it's pretty unbelievable," says Susan
Pezzolla, a community horticulture educator in Voorheesville, N.Y., with the
Cornell University Cooperative Extension. University cooperative extensions
provide services to farmers and home gardeners.
"I
don't care how good of a gardener you are, this year you had trouble,"
says Richard Hentschel, a horticulture educator with the University of Illinois
Extension.
Larry
Caplan, Evansville, Ind.-based horticulture educator for the Purdue Extension
Service, says because the weeds have gotten so bad he has begun encouraging
gardeners to get a head start on next year. He says he is recommending that
homeowners apply so-called pre-emergent herbicides on their lawns this fall in
addition to the usual time of early next spring. Pre-emergents are designed to
prevent seeds from sprouting, which is why gardeners are told not to sow grass
at the same time.
Many
gardeners may be tempted to throw up their hands in despair. But experts say it
is a crucial time to wage war on weeds. Summer annuals are beginning to produce
seeds in much of the country. Among these are such wide-ranging plants as
lamb's quarters (Chenopodium
album); redroot pigweed (Amaranthus
retroflexus) and large crab grass (Digitaria sanguinalis). Pulling them before
they scatter the next generation all over flower beds can prevent lots of
headache next year.
Lamb's quarters, for
instance, can easily produce 100,000 seeds from a single plant, about 25% of
which will germinate in the first year. The other seeds might lay dormant for a
few years, eventually bursting into life, says Antonio DiTommaso, a weed
ecologist at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. "Just having one or two
plants escape control and you get that kind of seed production."
Winter weeds also will
start to appear in the coming weeks, as days get shorter. These include wild
mustard (Sinapis arvensis), common chickweed (Stellaria media)
and purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), all found in much of the U.S.
Catching them now before they grow over the winter can save on spring cleanup.
Natasha Hurwitz, a
gardener in Silver Spring, Md., says that because the weeds are so bad this
year she does "triage" when clearing her community-garden plot.
"Anything that has a flower or seeds, I try to get that out of the garden
first," she says. Even so, Ms. Hurwitz says it's been demoralizing to see
the weeds continue to multiply every time she visits her garden.
"It seems like I
just can't weed often enough," she says.
Perennial weeds can be
trickier than annuals to control. That's because perennial species often
establish deep root systems and will return year after year. The only way to clear
them is by pulling up the roots, which in some cases can be nearly impossible.
A
particularly frustrating perennial that gardeners have been seeing more of this
year is field bindweed (Convolvulus
arvensis), a vine that wraps around other plants in the garden. Its
root system can burrow 30 feet underground. Spraying it with an herbicide can
be tricky because gardeners run the risk of getting the poison on the plant the
bindweed is attached to.
Mr.
Hentschel, the Illinois horticulture educator, says the best strategy for
getting rid of bindweed is to hoe it back every two weeks, exhausting its
resources, until it's finally gone. The key is persistence. "You are
wearing down its ability to survive," he says. "If you keep that up,
you will win."
"It's
a real pain," says Gerald Turner, who has been battling bindweed in the
vegetable garden at his weekend home in Paris, Va. "When you try to pull
it out, you can get 6 inches of root up with it. And you think, great, I've got
it. But no, you haven't got it. That's the problem with it," says Mr.
Turner, who works as an investment banker in Washington, D.C.
Rainfall
has been abundant east of the Rocky Mountains, giving weeds a big boost. From
January through July of this year, Southeastern states have received 9.4 inches
above average in rainfall, and the Midwest is 5.7 inches above average, making
those two regions the second wettest since 1895. Northeastern states have
gotten 2.8 inches more rain than average, according to data from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On the
other side of the country—west of the Rockies—the story has been much the
opposite. Areas considered to be in "moderate to exceptional" drought
have expanded by 8% this year, NOAA says.
In
California, which has had its driest year to date since 1895, "there are
still lots of weeds out here, just not as robust as they'd be in a normal wet
year," says Joe DiTomaso, a weed ecologist at the University of
California, Davis. Cheatgrass (Bromus
tectorum) and medusa head (Taeniatherum
caput-medusae), in particular, are considered fire hazards in
grassier areas, he says.
Lots of
rain in the East has been a boon for weeds in other ways—many gardeners
couldn't get outdoors as often to do yard work. James Hodges, senior
horticultural agent for the Clemson University Extension Service in Greenwood,
S.C., says that on a recent Monday morning he didn't get any phone calls from
home gardeners, a rare occurrence. "That's because nobody was out this
weekend because it rained," he says. For gardeners, "normal
operations have been difficult."
Anne Marie Chaker www.online.wsj.com
