Bill Johnson

80 articles by this author

Article List
thumbnail image

With harvest season right around the corner, now is the time to start making plans for the control of winter annual weeds, including marestail.  When harvest and post-harvest conditions allow, fall is the best time to control many of these weeds.  This is because the weeds are a lot smaller in the fall, and our fall weather tends to be consistently warmer and drier than our variable cool and wet springs.  With fall-applied herbicide season upon us, we wanted to provide a few application tips to those who are planning on making fall herbicide applications: Scout fields and determine whether you need an application. Not all fields need an application; however, if you pull back the crop residue after harvest, especially in corn fields, you are likely to find infestations of winter annual weeds.  Scouting fields should begin soon after a field is harvested, with special attention paid to fields[Read More…]






thumbnail image

Every spring we receive several calls and e-mails about a certain 3-foot tall weed with yellow flowers (Figure 1).  The most common yellow-flowered weeds we have in Indiana are cressleaf groundsel, the buttercup species, and dandelion.  Occasionally, we have some fields of canola or rapeseed in the state.  But, by far the most prevalent specie we see in no-till corn and soybean fields, and occasionally pastures, is cressleaf groundsel.  I have only rarely observed wild mustard in Indiana.  Wild mustard is more common in the northern tier of states near the Canadian border.  This year, field activities were delayed due to cool temperatures and frequent precipitation.  These weather conditions also allowed cressleaf groundsel to reach the reproductive stage, and it is currently flowering in many Indiana fields that haven’t been worked yet.  This article is intended to provide information on the biology and life cycle of cressleaf groundsel, as well[Read More…]