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North Central Illinois | I can confirm that your caveat about late planting is important to mention. I rented a farm for one season that previously relied heavily on delayed planting to reduce giant ragweed pressure. I was optimistic when I saw moderate density of GRW seedlings in early May. After false seedbed preparation I found that there was 5-10x the seedling density with the crop after the final field cultivator prep pass in the last week of June. Not only had late germination been selected for, early germination appears to have been bred out of it.
On my home farm it is primarily an early emerging fence row weed so management by addressing those areas as well as I can has been keeping it in check. I inherited several very severe patches 20 years ago, but an extended period of perennial forages pretty well cleaned them up.
I picked up another rented field this past year and it has fairly significant giant ragweed pressure around the perimeter and one patch in the middle of the field. I'm still debating the best course of action to clean it up. It is wheat with frost seeded clover right now. I'm considering harvesting hay and clover seed in 2026 and then canola or wheat in 2027 to get it cleaned up. Though I may only utilize those lower revenue options on the highly infested areas and rotate through corn and soybeans everywhere else. | |
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Controlling Giant Ragweed in Organic Farming Systems
