Hey guys, Evan here with EZ Custom Ag. We’ve been out spraying a lot the past couple weeks, seen all types of weeds, but the ones we get the most question about are Palmer Amaranth and Water Hemp.
What I’m holding here is a Water Hemp. A lot of guys don’t know how to identify them versus a Red Root Pigweed, which is what I’m holding here in my left hand. We’ll go through ways to identify them out in your field when you’re walking and scouting your fields here in just a second.
So, what we’re looking at here is a Water Hemp. Some people get them confused with Red Roots because obviously they do have Red Roots at the bottom. This is not a telltale sign of what it is. As we move up the stem, both Water Hemp and Palmer have a smooth stem, meaning they have no hair like the Red Root does. If we look at petal length on a Water Hemp, the petal will go about half to three quarters of the way up the leaf, just like that when you fold it over backwards. A Palmer would come all the way to the end or a little bit past.
Now, when we look at a Red Root, we obviously still have that red color near the roots, but if we look closely, we can see some small hairs along the stem, making it look just a little bit fuzzy or dirty or something. Petal length is not as important on the Red Roots. We can still fold them over and they’re going to be about three quarters of the length of the leaf. The real thing that tells us the difference of what we need to be worried about is the hair on the stem.
That wraps it up for today. We’ll see you guys next time out in the field.