Kansas State University weed specialist Sarah Lancaster is urging producers to be on the lookout for rosette weeds in the mustard family, saying controlling those could be a key to producing a better yield in the coming season.
The mustards, she says, have two phases: One as a rosette close to the ground, and a flowering phase.
“That means they don't have a stem; the leaves are all stacked up right on top of each other,” Lancaster said. “So it can be difficult to see that rosette unless you're walking your fields, or you have a really bad problem.”
Controlling the weeds “will require good scouting and finding the right weather conditions to spray,” she said.
Despite the name, mustard weeds can be a variety of colors. Some are mustard yellow while others are white or purple flowering plants.
“Mustards are a large family of flowering plants, sometimes called the brassicas,” Lancaster said. “They have flowers that have four petals in the shape of a cross and a lot of them tend to smell bad because they have high sulfur content in the plant.”
Some examples of plants that are mustards include:
- Canola
- Shepherd’s-purse
- Field pennycress
- Bushy wallflower
- Pinnate tansymustard
- Blue mustard
- Wild mustard
“If farmers know that they have a history of problems with these winter annual mustards in their fields, it would be a good idea to be walking fields and be on the lookout for mustard weeds,” Lancaster said.
Source: k-state.edu
Photo Credit: pexels-tom-van-dyck
Categories: Kansas, Crops