Weed Question

[Texasmark]

Where was the dirt-moving equipment before it came to your place to move dirt? Almost all new infestations like that came in on equipment. steve

The pad for the shop was the only place I had new soil, and you buy deep pit sand and clay to prevent the influx of wild seeds from the digging locale. Yesterday I was getting the mail and they were even up under the Juniper trees near the road and I installed 160 of them years ago to cut down on road dust, road noise, and having to look at the neighbor's junk in the back. I have never seen this weed anywhere before. Had they blown in from somewhere it would have had to be 10 miles or so away and from a direction from which I have never been in living 45+ years here....... and if they flew, how did they get everywhere, in every nook and cranny N-S-E or W.....and thousands of them.

 

[stevieb49829]

The pad for the shop was the only place I had new soil, and you buy deep pit sand and clay to prevent the influx of wild seeds from the digging locale. Yesterday I was getting the mail and they were even up under the Juniper trees near the road and I installed 160 of them years ago to cut down on road dust, road noise, and having to look at the neighbor's junk in the back. I have never seen this weed anywhere before. Had they blown in from somewhere it would have had to be 10 miles or so away and from a direction from which I have never been in living 45+ years here....... and if they flew, how did they get everywhere, in every nook and cranny N-S-E or W.....and thousands of them.

Some of those questions will never be answered. But some plant seeds are so mobile they can travel on the wind for 100's of miles. One event of the seeds being ready to fly, and one gust of wind to get them airborne, is all it takes. One of the other avenues is some seeds stay viable for dozens of years. They can get transported in any soil that moves around, and then germinate under ideal conditions, when they occur. Mother nature abhors a vacuum. If there is an organism for a suitable niche, the organism will eventually occupy that niche.

One good example of this is when I cut down a Doug fir during my thinning. There aren't a whole lot of bugs flying around, but within 2 days of that tree hitting the ground, there are little piles of sawdust all over those logs where the DF beetles are burrowing under the bark to make another batch of beetles. 2+2 turns into 1000's. steve

 

[Texasmark]

Some of those questions will never be answered. But some plant seeds are so mobile they can travel on the wind for 100's of miles. One event of the seeds being ready to fly, and one gust of wind to get them airborne, is all it takes. One of the other avenues is some seeds stay viable for dozens of years. They can get transported in any soil that moves around, and then germinate under ideal conditions, when they occur. Mother nature abhors a vacuum. If there is an organism for a suitable niche, the organism will eventually occupy that niche.

One good example of this is when I cut down a Doug fir during my thinning. There aren't a whole lot of bugs flying around, but within 2 days of that tree hitting the ground, there are little piles of sawdust all over those logs where the DF beetles are burrowing under the bark to make another batch of beetles. 2+2 turns into 1000's. steve

Well all this fore thought is really nice, but had this been the cast then years ago I would have had this problem.....I didn't. You aren't going to convince me tha all of a sudden, after DECADES of wind blowing across my farm that all of a sudden the wind blows in these thousands of seeds..............HOG-WASH!!!!!