COLUMBUS, Ohio—GROW (Getting Rid Of Weeds) is a network of weed scientists from land grant universities such as the Ohio State University (OSU), nationwide or scientists from the USDA. They are all dealing with the growing epidemic of herbicide resistance. 

Increasingly, growers, crop consultants, and other agricultural professionals are turning to integrated weed management (IWM), the practice of using multiple weed control tactics, to manage herbicide-resistant weeds on their farms. Combating weeds with a combination of cultural, mechanical, and chemical strategies can create better weed control programs.

“These scientists all have farmers who are struggling to manage weeds, and they have farmers who are running out of herbicides that work to kill weeds,” said Emily Unglesbee, GROW’s director of outreach and extension. “The goal of GROW is to pool all of these researchers’ knowledge.”

Unglesbee said previously the scientists were doing research projects separately in their own states. They formed GROW because they realized they could conduct more powerful research with data from across the country. Once they had the research, they needed a way to get it to farmers, so they developed a website and social media platforms.

“The website and social media platforms are a way for this research to be translated into language, fact sheets, videos, and webpages that are easy for farmers and the farm advising community to understand and use whenever they need it,” Unglesbee said.

The goal of IWM is to complement herbicide use, not to replace it, Unglesbee said. Herbicides are a critical part of weed control for most commercial row-crop farmers. However, chemical use faces many threats including regulatory scrutiny, consumer and environmental concerns, and the growing biological reality of weeds becoming resistant to herbicides. 

“The goal of this research is to find these other tactics, study them well, get information on how they actually work on the ground in farmer’s fields, and that way, when farmers are ready to start varying their weed control programs, to start complementing them with new non-chemical options for weed control, the research is all there, ready to go, on our website, on our social media platforms, ready to educate and ready for them to find it and learn from it.

GROW is a resource on any new innovative weed management happening in the industry, Unglesbee said. The scientists are focusing current research projects on cover crops, harvest weed seed control — that involves destroying the seeds at harvest so they cannot grow again the following year or concentrating them in one area — and precision weed management, which involves precisely applying herbicide only to the target weeds, not broadcasting it on the entire field.

Gathering this research from across the country makes the knowledge gained that much broader. For example, at OSU Dr. Alyssa Essman, assistant professor and weed science extension specialist, is collecting data with funding received through the GROW network from the United Soybean Board. This is part of a multi-state collaborative effort focused on speeding the development of precision weed management technology.

“We are collecting data that will support various weed management tools,” Essman said. “This involves taking pictures and videos of cover crops, cash crops, and weeds. We then collect the biomass associated with the imaged areas and provide this data to the project leadership team.”

This is part of a larger effort to create an open-source database of reference images, called the National Agricultural Image Repository with the goal of developing software that will support tools like precision herbicide applications, she said.

Meanwhile, at Penn State University, Dr. Bill Curran, emeritus professor of weed science has been working on several GROW projects, including updating the herbicide-resistant (HR) weed management information. Dr. Curran and Claudio Rubione, GROW’s IWM outreach and extension associate, are working on two HR education modules, both of which will soon be available on GROW’s website. 

The first project presents information on the Basics of Herbicide Resistance addresses questions that everyone has about HR, such as what is it; how does it happen; can it be reversed; how can you identify it, are all weeds and herbicides vulnerable, and more.

“The second module addresses management focusing on IWM,” Curran said. “Topics include target-site versus non-target-site resistance; how to use herbicides including tank-mixing and rotating mode of actions; what non-chemical strategies are available; what new technologies are on the horizon; and developing an IWM strategy.”

GROW is an open access, public resource, Unglesbee said. 

“Everything on our website is free for people to reprint with attribution, to use in their own educational programs to print in their magazines, use in their own presentations,” she said.

The best way for farmers or crop advisors to learn about GROW’s resources and webinars, some of which offer continuing education credits, is by subscribing to GROW’s website. They will receive a newsletter which will tell of any upcoming events and any news stories of interest. To subscribe, go to www.growiwm.org. At the bottom of any webpage there is a box to subscribe.