Herbicide Resistant Horseweed in New York and Possible Implications
Mike Basedow, Tree Fruit Specialist
Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture
Horseweed (also called marestail) is a frequently occurring species in New York. It can be found growing in a variety of habitats, including along roadsides, in field crop and vegetable operations, and in berries, grapes, and tree fruit. Often considered a winter annual, horseweed has a wide germination window and seedlings can emerge in the spring, summer, and fall. Herbicide resistance, particularly to glyphosate, is widespread in the US and has recently been identified in New York (see the 2022 summer issue of Fruit Quarterly https://nyshs.org/fruit-quarterly/). Many of these populations were collected from soybean systems where glyphosate is frequently used for managing unwanted vegetation. Two New York populations, collected from a vineyard and an apple orchard in the Finger Lakes Region, were found to be susceptible to glyphosate but resistant to labeled rates of paraquat. Paraquat resistance in horseweed has been formally confirmed previously in Belgium (nurseries), Canada (peaches), Japan (orchards, grapes, roadsides, railways), California (almonds), Delaware (soybeans) and Mississippi (soybeans) (https://weedscience.org/Home.a... ).
Herbicide Resistant Horseweed in New York and Possible Implications (pdf; 1849KB)

