Time for fall herbicide treatments

COLUMBUS – Now that Ohio has experienced its first frost of the season, growers should spray herbicide treatments in preparation for spring planting.
Jeff Stachler, an Ohio State University Extension weed specialist, said that attacking winter annuals and simple perennials and biennials in the fall, rather than waiting until spring, is the most effective way to control these weeds.
“With winter annuals, it’s easier to kill them in the fall when they are young and smaller than when they are much bigger in the spring and stressed from the winter weather,” Stachler said.
With biennials and simple perennials, any translocating product will go with the nutrients down to the root systems and kill the plant.
Most wanted list. Winter annuals, such as purple deadnettle, common chickweed, and marestail or horseweed, pop up in August and grow until June – with the exception of marestail which grows until October.
Simple perennials, such as dandelion and curly dock, and biennials, like wild carrot and poison hemlock, can survive during winter by redirecting nutrients to the roots before cold weather sets in.
Why treat now? Stachler said that a fall treatment of such weeds is effective for several reasons: