Weeding Techniques

[heirloomgal]

Wow, never thought of Amaranth as a weed

Aside from maybe mint, it is the WORST aggressive vegetable I've ever planted. Worse than tuberous sunflowers, which are bad, thistles, dandelions, purslane, plantain, horsetail. The seeds last forever in the soil. Takes years to get them all to sprout so you can hoe each plant.

 

[ducks4you]

I Love aggressive turnips!!! They scatter thousands of little seeds, fill in places where the weeds want to grow, if you forget about them they grow 3 ft tall and make More seeds, AND you can pull them out of the ground any ole time you please.
Turnip dreams...

 

[ducks4you]

Sorry, just that I have amaranth seeds never planted...now, I'm not so sure!!!

 

[digitS']

If it is a vegetable amaranth then we are probably not talking about
Love-lies-bleeding
Prince's Feather
Joseph's-coat
or, farther afield to Celosia and Gomphrena.

Those are probably all edible. More traditional edibles include grain amaranth and, farther afield, spinach, chard and beets.

Some in the family are considered weeds. Several of those are native to North America and thrive in disturbed soil so they can invade farm fields. An example is redroot pigweed, invasive but native. Of course, since there is a market for grain amaranth and amaranth flour, Cooperative Extension has advice for farmers wanting to grow it as a crop

Steve

 

[Moon888]

Not sure where I found this tip for pulling carrots so I can't credit the original source-- but after breaking off many carrots I discovered that this technique actually works on all but really, really long carrots. First you push down firmly on the shoulders of the carrot, plunging it about 1/2" into the ground; this action severs the fine feeder roots that anchor the carrot in the soil. Next you grab the green top growth nice and low down, and gently pull the carrot straight up. It is remarkable how easy it is in most cases. One extra step, but I find that it sure makes a difference.

Thanks for the tip : )

 

[heirloomgal]

Sorry, just that I have amaranth seeds never planted...now, I'm not so sure!!!

Actually, you mentioned you have birds right, that pillage around? You might be okay, they probably like those seeds!

This is the one I'd recommend avoiding. I haven't found others quite as bad, but then, I sort of avoided a lot of them after this one. I grew a new one last year, I guess I'll see if it's as bad.

 

[ruralmamma]

Thanks for the heads-up about amaranth. I'm planning to grow it this year and will attempt to remove any seed heads I'm not using.

The worst weed I've encountered in the garden has been sorrel. My second garden is in an ideal area as far as the land is level and it's in full sun. However it is also the part of the yard in which the grass really didn't grow much. Occasionally I'd find a scrawny, struggling sorrel plant and grab a few leaves for a salad. Well now that I've added raised beds and heavily mulched that area with wood chips, the sorrel thrived and I decided to leave one plant in the corner of the garden. Well that plant not only thrived, but has put out runners and it has showed up in a bed three feet away. Spent quite a few hours pulling it out of the beds and paths last year and have deemed it no longer welcome in the garden. It's even more aggressive and harder to eradicate than mint!