Tone Ag Consulting Ltd.

I was intrigued by an article in the July-August 2009 issue of Crops and Soils describing the ontarioweeds.com website.  Unsurprisingly, it is a tool for identifying weeds in Ontario.  Since there is overlap in the weeds found in Ontario and Manitoba, I thought I’d take a look at it.

When I checked the site, it had information on 92 weeds.  This should cover most of the common weeds though some oddballs may fall through the cracks.  Not to worry though – if you can’t pick out your weed from the lineup on the site, ontarioweeds.com also offers a weed identification service where you can send in photographs and a description and they’ll help you identify it.  (In Manitoba you can send your weed samples in to the Crop Diagnostic Centre for assistance). 

The information on the weeds I looked at was very thorough and included such information as:

• diagrams
• life cycle
• description of leaves
• description of fruit and flowers
• description of roots
• habitat
• distinguishing features
• historical information
• edibility
• several photographs of the weed at different stages

With all this information, you should be able to identify most weeds easily. 

Once you’ve identified your weed, you can move on to weed control options.  These aren’t as thorough as the rest of the site.  I would suggest checking out Alberta’s Herbicide selector for additional information. 

This is a very useful site, especially if you’re out there crop scouting and run across a weed you’re not familiar with.