Weeds can rob your desired plants of nutrients, moisture and sunlight, causing lower production and profits. Weeds can also harbor insects and diseases and contaminate grain. Herbicides are only one of many weapons in your arsenal against weeds. Other methods of control are mechanical, cultural and biological. Mechanical control means physically removing the weeds by hand weeding, hoeing, cultivation, mowing or flaming.
Biological treatments use natural enemies of the weed for control.
Broadleaf weeds are identified by those features that make them different than grasses. For seedlings, this primarily is done by examination of the cotyledon or seed leaf. Cotyledons are the first pair of leaves to emerge. The shape of the cotyledon is a way to initially identify different broad leaf plants. Plants can have linear, oblong, oval, round or butterfly-shaped cotyledons and different extremes of each.