How Weeds Deal with Drought
Currently, Ohio has experienced the third worst drought, only surpassed by 1930 and 1933. Fall is the driest time of year (August-November) and about 60% of Ohio is still in a severe to exceptional drought. That means that field capacity, the amount of soil water held in the soil after the excess water has drained away, is still very low for next year. After a rain, it generally takes 2-3 days for excess soil water to drain away. The small amount of precipitation (rain, snow) we currently received may help, but it will take considerable moisture to fill up our available soil water holding capacity reserve for growing crops next year. In Nebraska, a graduate student (Mandeep Singh) studied how weeds handle drought conditions. He studied 89 journal articles with 1,196 paired observations over 30 years. The data was collected all over the world; mainly North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Here are his findings on how drought and water stress affects weed pr...