1. We will conduct a survey of the major soybean-producing counties in roughly the northwestern quarter Ohio, where waterhemp is most prevalent, in mid- to lateSeptember of 2020. The survey follows transects across the counties, and infestations of Amaranthus (pigweed) species in soybean fields are characterized for their severity (scale of 0 to 3), along with marestail and giant and common ragweed. Samples of seed will be collected from fields with populations of tall waterhemp and Palmer amaranth. Collected populations will be screened for herbicide resistance in the OSU greenhouse. We will expand our screening to include atrazine and mesotrione, to determine if metabolismbased resistance is developing in Ohio. 2. We will continue to monitor the known Palmer amaranth infestations, and be a resource for the growers and agronomists managing these infestations. As new infestations become known, we will add these to the database of sites and do the same. This includes conducting meetings with local communities dealing with infestations, including OSU County Educators, local agribusiness, growers, and animal producers, as necessary to provide further education on prevention and remediation. 3. We will have a focused effort to provide information on problem Amaranthus (pigweed) species to Ohio soybean growers, agribusiness, and consultants. This includes information on prevention, identification, current distribution in Ohio (by county - keeping exact locations of infestations confidential), resistance, and management. We will work with the OSU Agronomic Crops team to provide this education at winter extension and pesticide applicator recertification meetings, and provide resources to OSU Extension Educators so they can conduct this education independently. This includes providing live samples of the various pigweeds to county educators and agribusiness for use in teaching identification in their winter educational meetings. Information will also be made available via the C.O.R.N. newsletter, and the OSU weed management website (u.osu.edu/osuweeds) and Youtube video channel. We will also continue to distribute large quantities of educational materials at all OSU Extension agronomy meetings and pesticide recertification events. We distributed 10000 folders in 2019, and we propose to do something similar in 2020 but with pigweed identification posters and herbicide site of action posters. We are also providing rigid posters for OSU Extension educators to use in their teaching and in displays at meetings, fairs, etc. Our OSC funding request covers part of the printing cost for these materials, which is supplemented by the OSU Pesticide Applicator Training Program. The support of OSC is prominently recognized on these materials.
4. Continue with the “No pigweed left behind” campaign, to increase awareness
specifically about the importance of preventing waterhemp and Palmer amaranth seed. We will use all of the methods outlined in #3 above to get this message out. An additional tool is the “No pigweed left behind; Go rogue, Stop the seed” car magnets, which we have already been distributing. These are distributed to industry reps and other influencers, and growers, with emphasis on areas already experiencing significant waterhemp issues.