Alkali weed is a New Plant in Pistachio and Almond Orchards

Alkali weed is a new plant that's plaguing almond and pistachios grower, but you really can't call it a weed because it hasn't been officially classified as one, but still it's called alkali weed.. James Schaeffer is a staff research associate at University of California Cooperative Extension Fresno County.

“This plant first became on our radar and we identified it as alkali weed in 2017 and in 2018 I decided that I wanted to go to Graduate School and get my master's degree and then develop my project,” said Schaeffer. “This plant seemed like a perfect fit for me. Alkali weed is a relatively new species that we're finding in cropping system such as pistachio, almonds and cotton crops.”

Schaeffer said it is being seen predominantly along roadsides and canals. “The plant is interesting to me because as of now, growers are struggling with controlling it with your traditional chemical herbicides,” noted Schaeffer. “It seems to be that this plant is spreading faster than we are really accounting for. And on top of that, no research out there that has been done on the plant,” he noted.

“I like the idea of being on the forefront of producing this data to hopefully propel either strategies for controlling it or, creating opportunities for other students or researchers to do research and experiments and provide more data for this plant,” he said.

Alkali weed is in the same family is field bindweed with a very deep taproot, making it difficult to control.