Identify "Early Season" Weeds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2008

As temperatures warm up in the spring, no-till fields or fields with delayed tillage can rapidly "green up" from the growth of winter and early-summer annual weed species. Knowing what species are present by correct identification is the first step to effective control. Some of the early season weeds may be less common to some producers and possibly more difficult to identify for control purposes. Producers and agbusiness staff can get help with identification from two University of Illinois websites. "Color pictures of many of the early species and a brief description are available at the sites," says John Church, University of Illinois Extension Educator, Natural Resources, Rockford.

The first site is from the University of Illinois Extension Pest Management and Crop Development Bulletin at http://ipm.uiuc.edu/bulletin/pastpest/articles/200104h.html. A number of winter annual pictures and descriptions of weed species and their families is included in a fact sheet format. Also available on the University of Illinois website is the North Central Region University publication, NCR 614, "Early Spring Weeds of No-till Crop Production". It is at http://weeds.cropsci.uiuc.edu/extension/Other/NCR614.pdf.

For Illinois control recommendations, information is available from the 2008 weekly updates of the Bulletin newsletter and the from the 2008 University of Illinois Agricultural Pest

Management Handbook on the web at http://ipm.uiuc.edu/pubs/iapmh/index.html. Publications are also available through local University of Illinois Extension offices.