This weed is most troublesome in tropical and subtropical regions and causes problems in more than 40 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Taiwan, and Thailand. Various types of pigweed constitute the worst of all weed problems in Puerto Rico where they affect many fruit crops, beans, and garlic. And although there are registered herbicides that control pigweeds on major crops, there are problems associated with their use. These problems include nontarget effects and toxicity. Her collaborator on this project is R. Charudattan of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science.
Purple nutsedge is considered the world's worst weed.
It is extremely troublesome to Florida's raised-bed, plastic mulch pepper and tomato production systems. Some plastic mulches and soil solarization suppress this weed somewhat. We want to combine D. higginsii with these practices to see if we can get better control. Rosskopf and Charudattan are studying the conditions necessary for large-scale application, as well as what form of the organism would be compatible with current cropping practices. They plan large-scale field testing this fall.