We have the potential to wipe out your entire crop or lawn. In fact, sometimes, they cause harm to livestocks. Such cases abound every year where animals succumb from feeding on poisonous weeds.

Weeds reduce farm and forest productivity, they invade crops, smother pastures and in some cases can harm livestock. They agressively compete for water, nutrients and sunlight, resulting in reduced crop yield and poor crop quality.

However, some weeds are friendly and which are foe. For some of them, their advantages outweigh the disadvantages that we can afford to live with them in our gardens.

Therefore, to be able to successfully control weeds in your lawn, garden, or pastures; you must first of all understand them beyond common knowledge. By doing so you’ll know better how to sustainably keep them under control.
Here are some of the invasive weeds in your garden and lawns.

1. PIG WEED (Amaranthus spp)



You might find two common types of pigweeds; low amaranth (deflexus) and tall amaranth (palmeri).

Palmer pigweed is a broadleaf species of edible flowering plant in the amaranth genus.
This wild edible can be a beneficial weed as well as a companion plant serving as a trap for leaf miners and some other pests; also, it tends to shelter ground beetles (which prey upon insect pests)

The plant can be toxic to livestock animals due to the presence of nitrates in the leaves.
Palmer amaranth has a tendency to absorb excess soil nitrogen, and if grown in overly fertilized soils, it can contain excessive levels of nitrates, even for humans.

Like spinach and many other leafy greens, amaranth leaves also contain oxalic acid, which can be harmful to individuals with kidney problems if consumed in excess.

Palmer amaranth may be the most aggressive pigweed species with respect to growth rate and competitive ability.

2. Lamb’s quarters – Chenopodium album



Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed.

It is one of the more robust and competitive weeds, capable of producing crop losses of up to 13% in corn, 25% in soybeans, and 48% in sugar beets at an average plant distribution.

It may be controlled by dark tillage, rotary hoeing, or flaming when the plants are small. Crop rotation of small grains will suppress an infestation.

It is easily controlled with a number of pre-emergence herbicides.

Chenopodium album is vulnerable to leaf miners, making it a useful trap crop as a companion plant. Growing near other plants, it attracts leaf miners which might otherwise have attacked the crop to be protected.

It is a host plant for the beet leafhopper, an insect which transmits curly top virus to beet crops.

As some of the common names suggest, it is also used as a feed (both the leaves and the seeds) for chickens and other poultry.

See full post here>>
http://farmersbrain.com/2017/06/09/7-obnoxious-weeds-you-should-be-wary-of-in-your-garden/