Weeds can be important agents of soil conservation. Weed roots can stabilize erodible soil and provide channels for the movement of water and air in the soil. They contribute to soil tilth. Some weed roots penetrate so deeply that they tap nutrients unavailable to crop plants.
In other words, weeds have arrived because the soil has some sort of deficiency or condition that both allows them to thrive and prompts nature to repair systemic damage. Nature will move towards a permanent, stable system, and weeds are part of that process, especially in troubled landscapes.
Weeds Block Out Sunlight and Steal Water
Not only do weeds compete with your crops for nutrients in the soil, but they compete for sunlight and water as well. It's no secret that weeds seem to grow more aggressively than the plants you carefully tucked into the soil.
Weeds have the ability to improve the balance in soils because they contribute to the deposition of nutrients in the soil. “Many people find it difficult to understand that plants can deposit nutrients. Most people think of plants as extracting nutrients from the soil.
By removing nutrients for their own growth and development processes, weeds are leaving crops with lower amounts of key nutrients necessary to maximize yields. Research has shown that up to 60 percent of yield is dependent on soil fertility, and weeds that rob nutrients from crops limit yield potential.
Avoid Weeds
The best way to stay ahead of garden weeds is to stop them when they're seeds. If you stop weed seeds from sprouting, they never grow and you won't have to pull them.
Weeds can also be a great indicator of your soil's health. An observant farmer or gardener can notice the subtle changes in weed populations in response to their soil management skills. They can reveal the soil pH, aeration, moisture holding capacity and even the nutrient deficiency or toxicity of the soil.
Presence of weeds increases the cost of agriculture and hinders the progress of work. It increases the irrigation requirement. They reduce the value of produce or otherwise adds the cost of cleaning. Some weeds when eaten (Cleome viscosa) by milch animals will produce an undesirable odour in the milk.
Use a garden spade or rent a sod cutter to slice and cut through the top 1 to 2 inches of vegetation and soil. Turn it over and let it decompose. Like rototilling, this method exposes weed seeds that may germinate. Cover with a tarp, plastic sheeting or 2 to 4 inches of compost to reduce seed germination.
Not only do weeds protect bare soil; over time, they improve the soil every which way. Their roots break up soil to improve aeration and extract nutrients. As weeds' roots die, they, along with weeds' dead leaves and stems, decompose to enrich the ground with humus.
It turns out they're actually very beneficial to attracting wildlife and important pollinators. Rather than allowing weeds to take over your gardens, the book Gardening for Wildlife: A Complete Guide to Nature-Friendly Gardening suggests letting some of them be in a small corner of your yard.
By pulling weeds when they're small, they're not only simpler to remove, but they also don't get a chance to bloom and go to seed, which significantly increases weed problems. Being conscientious in early weed removal also reduces the need to use chemical herbicides that are not healthy for the environment.
Currently, foraging for wild foods and mushrooms has made a comeback. Weeds in the legume family fix nitrogen in the soil and are often used as a cover crop to help enrich the soil over winter. Weeds have also been used to help indicate the presence of ground water.
For example, weeds with deep taproots such as dandelions and burdock indicate compacted soil lacking in water, air, and nutrients. However, weeds are also nature's way of repairing the soil for a more stable, healthy system. In the case of dandelions and burdock, their deep, strong roots also help break up that soil.
If you really want to rest a piece of ground, you got to have plants growing on it. Just don't remove the nutrients from it. Let it grow, let it cycle, let it go back into the soil. That's what's really going to make that improvement and really help it.
Weeds may cause problems in a variety of ways. Characteristics which result in weeds becoming a problem are: Competition – Weeds can grow faster, out-compete desirable plants and use up precious water, nutrients, sunlight and space. For example, paterson's curse in pastures.
Weeds compete with the crop plant for light, nutrients, water, space and other growth requirements and reduce the crop yield.
Clover and other weeds that fix their own nitrogen can be a sign the soil is lacking in nitrogen. Dandelion, flatweed and oniongrass are supported by poor soils that lack structure. Dock and plantain indicate the soil is likely to be acidic and heavy. Sedges and nut grass are usually found in waterlogged heavy soils.
Signs of healthy soil include plenty of underground animal and plant activity, such as earthworms and fungi. Soil that is rich in organic matter tends to be darker and crumbles off of the roots of plants you pull up. A healthy, spread-out root system is also a sign of good soil.
They can re-grow if even small pieces of their roots remain. Be sure you pull up weeds by their roots, and don't just yank out the leaves. They can re-grow if even small pieces of their roots remain.
The most effective homemade option is a mixture of white vinegar, salt, and liquid dish soap. Each of these ingredients has special properties that combine to kill weeds. Both the salt and the vinegar contain acetic acid, which serves to dry out and kill the plants.
Keeping pulled weeds on your property is a bad idea because they can still spread their seeds and regrow. It's easy enough to stop this from happening: Simply stuff the weeds into a garbage bag and discard them with your trash.