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Get a head start on noxious weedsBy Randy Buhler CSU Extension Agent, agronomy, Logan County Colorado Now is the time to get a sprayer going on a new noxious weed threat to Logan County and northeastern Colorado. The threat is diffuse knapweed. The plants are now in the rosette to early bolt stage of growth. Diffuse knapweed is on the Colorado Noxious Weed B list. The Colorado Department of Agriculture Noxious Weed Advisory Committee has produced an integrated management plan with recommendations for control. The document is available at http://www.colorado.gov/ag/csd. At this webpage, you will need to scroll down to Conservation Services on the left side bar. Click on Conservation Services and another list will come up. Under Noxious Weed Management Services, click on the Educational Materials and Fact Sheets listing. This should bring up a list of PDF files. Click on the diffuse knapweed fact sheet. Adobe Reader is needed for reading the PDF files. The key to diffuse knapweed control is to prevent seed production. Prevention of flowering is the ideal control goal. Reducing the amount of bare ground available for establishment in rangeland and pasture is the best cultural practice. Planting, rehabilitating, or maintaining a good stand of grass is an effective practice. Unfortunately, we are commonly finding diffuse knapweed in more recently started CRP fields. Diffuse knapweed control is required on CRP contracts. Failure to control the weed can result in a costly default process against contract holders. Another location of heavy diffuse knapweed establishment has been in the tree windbreak plantings. A mature diffuse knapweed plant breaks off at ground level during the fall or winter and acts like a tumbleweed. Since each plant can produce up to 18,000 seeds, it can produce a large swath of new seedlings when our breezes blow. Diffuse knapweed has spread across Weld County, the Pawnee National Grasslands, Logan, Morgan, Washington and Yuma counties. Should you not have knapweed now, you soon will as the wind has dispersed the seeds far and wide. That means control has to be initiated or soon a monoculture of knapweed will become established. This plant is the only plant I have observed to survive untouched in a prairie dog colony. Plants growing right in a burrow mound are ignored, or avoided by the occupants. Even prickly pear cactus is gnawed down during the summer. Cattle and bison graze around the plant and leave it alone. Loss of range and pasture to knapweed will prove extremely expensive to landowners. Some land in Montana cannot be sold, nor can a loan be obtained from any lending source because of knapweed infestation. Ignoring the problem only allows the weed to become well established by generating a huge seed bank. Annual control effort will be necessary to prevent the plant from taking over your place. The Conservation Districts are eligible for grant money used as cost share incentive to help control this rapidly invading noxious weed. Your participation in the district helps earn those grant dollars. Another grant proposal is due in July of this year. It would be a good idea to participate so you are in line for some cost share money. Recommended control herbicides and rates are listed on the diffuse knapweed fact sheet from the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Our experience is that Milestone, while expensive, is also the better control herbicide for the sites where it can be used and the level of control it provides. If you lack the ability to access the webpage, or need help identifying the weed, assistance can be requested from your county weed control program. In Logan County, you can reach us at 970-522-3200 extension 284. Voice mail is available so you can leave a message and your number so we can return your call or send you the information you need. 6/2/08 Date: 5/28/08 Advertisement
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