On this day Suzanne (the commercial horticulture agent) and I went out to visit a farmer who is having trouble with horsenettles. Horsenettle, Solanum carolinense, is a perennial weed that grows by rhizomes that is covered with conspicuous spines on the leaves and stems. Plants may reach 3 ft in height. They are found throughout the southeastern, eastern, and north-central United States (Flessner, n.d.).
This particular farmer is having a very bad problem with horsenettles growing in their fields. He is growing collard greens and kale, and during harvesting, the horsenettles are a big problem. You cannot see the horsenettles under the greens, so they are harvested right along with them. There has already been one complaint from someone who bought the greens at the grocery store and bit into a horsenettle. Ouch! For control, they have tried to figure out what will work. After trying different herbicides to no avail, the farm resulted to having the migrant workers removing them by hand, costing hundreds of dollars in labor and creating a time burden.
After our visit, Suzanne decided to work with Dr. Allen Straw, an area specialist in horticulture, small fruit, and specialty crops, to develop a trial using different herbicides in different plots to see if they can find a way to control this weed. She is also going to contact different weed specialists throughout the state to try to find any information that may help this farmer get rid of this horsenettle problem.
On the way back to the office, we stopped at another farm just to talk to the farmer and see how things were going. Sure enough, he is having a horsenettle issue as well, particularly in his pumpkin fields. He informed us that he has had no luck with different herbicides either, and he had even pre-treated his fields earlier in the season. The areas he has that are most affected are the pumpkins that were sod planted into a cover crop, such as wheat or rye. He needs a solution as well.
Horsenettles are particularly bad in pastures and plowed fields that were recently pasture. Both of the farms we visited may have had this as a contributing factor. We will keep working on trying to find information and solutions for these farmers and others who we are sure are having similar problems.
Flessner, M. (n.d.). Horsenettle. Retrieved July 22, 2015,
from http://oak.ppws.vt.edu/~flessner/weedguide/solca.htm
After our visit, Suzanne decided to work with Dr. Allen Straw, an area specialist in horticulture, small fruit, and specialty crops, to develop a trial using different herbicides in different plots to see if they can find a way to control this weed. She is also going to contact different weed specialists throughout the state to try to find any information that may help this farmer get rid of this horsenettle problem.
On the way back to the office, we stopped at another farm just to talk to the farmer and see how things were going. Sure enough, he is having a horsenettle issue as well, particularly in his pumpkin fields. He informed us that he has had no luck with different herbicides either, and he had even pre-treated his fields earlier in the season. The areas he has that are most affected are the pumpkins that were sod planted into a cover crop, such as wheat or rye. He needs a solution as well.
Horsenettles are particularly bad in pastures and plowed fields that were recently pasture. Both of the farms we visited may have had this as a contributing factor. We will keep working on trying to find information and solutions for these farmers and others who we are sure are having similar problems.
Flessner, M. (n.d.). Horsenettle. Retrieved July 22, 2015,
from http://oak.ppws.vt.edu/~flessner/weedguide/solca.htm
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