Iowa State University Extension weed specialist Bob Hartzler says farmers need to do a better job of preventing weed seed, produced by weed escapes, from entering the seed bank.
“We just have a lot of growers who tolerate ‘non-economic’ infestations of late-emerging waterhemp, because they’re not affecting yield and they don’t affect the efficiency of harvest,” Hartzler says. “So they just let these late-emerging waterhemps survive because they don’t affect the bottom line in the short run.”
But left uncontrolled, Hartzler says, those weeds are producing thousands of seeds that build up in the seed bank.
