Frequent rainfall this spring has allowed marestail to thrive everywhere including gravel driveways
Marestail . . . if you frequent farm stores you’ve heard people talking about how hard it is to kill. If you’ve been to a lawn and garden store, it’s the one they call, “that bushy leafed weed that Roundup doesn’t kill.” Yes, that’s correct, Roundup doesn’t kill it and it’s seemingly everywhere again this year.
Marestail has been plaguing farm fields and landscapes for the past 7+ years. It can germinate all year long, survive the winter, and then grow aggressively in the spring.
We’re even finding healthy marestail plants growing in separations in the concrete
If not pulled out or destroyed otherwise, the marestail plants that overwinter will make seed heads in late summer. Because the seed is similar in appearance to dandelion seed but only half as large, marestail seed (or fuzz as some call it) can be carried in the wind for miles. That, in fact, is the reason it can be found most anywhere – from city landscape to farm fields; growing in gravel driveways and even within cracks in pavement – regardless if it’s ever been there before.
Marestail has a shallow but fibrous root that allows it to be pulled easily.
It has developed nearly total tolerance to Roundup. Only broadleaf herbicides have proven to be effective and they must be applied before the plants are 4 to 6 inches tall. Broadleaf killers found to be effective such as 2,4-D and dicamba are the same as those used to control dandelion or clover in lawns. Once plants exceed 6 inches in height, pulling the plants while being careful to also get as much of the root as possible is about the only effective method of control.
DON’T waste money, time and effort spraying marestail with Roundup (some claim it only makes it mad!), and DON’T let it go to seed!
These marestail plants in full bloom will produce tens of thousands of tiny hairlike seeds that can blow and spread for miles
– Stan Smith, PA, OSU Extension, Fairfield County