I want to be sure to cater my work to address the biggest weed management challenges that growers in Massachusetts are facing. So, as is the answer to many Extension questions, the first thing I wanted to do in my new role was to conduct a survey. Below are the summarized results of that survey for you all to see.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey, but I wanted to give special credit to the growers who attended the New England Vegetable and Berry Growers Association (NEVBGA) meeting in Shirly, MA. Over half (55%) of the responses came from the growers who attended that meeting (Fig. 1).
The most common crops grown were apples, corn, cucurbits, blueberries, and tomatoes (Fig. 2). Responses came from diversified farms; 29 out of 53 farmers (55%) grew a mix of fruits and vegetables and only 4 farms grew only one crop.
Grasses were identified as the most difficult to manage weed (Fig. 3). All three of the next most troublesome weeds were perennial weeds: bittersweet, nutsedge, and bindweed, which is what led in part to the blueberry research project currently underway. I was surprised that horseweed was not identified as difficult to manage. It can have high rates of herbicide resistance in other parts of the country1, so we may be doing a good job avoiding resistance. If so, let’s work together to keep that up!
Herbicides and hand weeding were the most used weed management tools (Fig. 4). Herbicides were also the tool that people wanted the most information about (Fig. 5).
Thank you all again for completing this survey. I learned a lot from the responses you gave, and I hope you were able to learn a little as well! If you did not get a chance to complete the survey and you would still like to, you are welcome to fill it out by following this link.
1Heap IM (2024) International survey of herbicide-resistant weeds. Available at https://www.weedscience.org/Pages/Species.aspx Accessed April 2024.