Small Fruit

Small fruit are a popular commodity group in New York; we have farmers producing strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries as well as more specialty crops like currants, elderberries, gooseberries, and more. Small fruit crops are perennial, which leads to very different weed problems from annual row crop production. Often perennial weeds are more of an issue, and management methods are quite different both from row crops and from one small fruit species to the next. We collected problem and common weeds from a range of small fruit specialists to develop a weed list for this commodity group. If you have a weed in small fruit that is not represented on this page, please let us know.

Problem Weeds

Hedge bindweed photos showing leaves, flowers and stems. Figure from "Weed Identification, Biology and Management", by Alan Watson and Antonio DiTommaso.

Field and hedge bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis and Calystegia sepium)

Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus
esculentus)

Horseweed (Conyza canadensis)

Common lambsquarters seedlings.

Common lambsquarters (Chenopodium
album)

Mature Redroot Pigweed plant with flowers photo by Robert Videki via Doronicum Kft., Bugwood.org

Redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus)

Wild parsnip flowers. Photo by John Cardina of the Ohio State University, via Bugwood.org.

Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)

Quackgrass (Elytrigia repens)

Large crabgrass flower. Photo by Antonio DiTommaso of Cornell University.

Large and smooth crabgrasses (Digitaria spp.)

Whole plant and habit of green foxtail.

Foxtails (Setaria spp.)

Orchardgrass flower. Photo by Scott Morris of Cornell University.

Orchardgass (Dactylis glomerata)

Fall panicum mature plant on tan brown soil.

Fall panicum (Panicum dichtomiflorum)

Large crabgrass flower. Photo by Antonio DiTommaso of Cornell University.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Hairy galinsoga (Galinsoga quadriradiata)

Hairy galinsoga identification is available from the University of Missouri.

Management of hairy galinsoga: Cornell University’s Crop and Pest Management Guidelines, or Cornell University’s Turfgrass and Landscape weed ID app.

Goldenrods (Solidago spp)

Grape vines (Vitis spp)

The University of Pennsylvania provides a good page on wild grape control.  Make sure to check whether any herbicide used is legal for application in New York.

Pennsylvania smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)

Identification and control information from the University of Michigan Extension.

Red sorrel (Rumex acetosella)

Identification from the University of Missouri: https://weedid.missouri.edu/weedinfo.cfm?weed_id=245 

Management suggestions are available at Bugwood.org. 

Virginia creeper

Identification from the University of Wisconsin Extension’s article on Virginia creeper.

Management from Ruger’s University Plant and Pest Advisory article on virginia creeper.

Additional common weeds

Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)

Barnyardgrass. Photo by Lynn Sosnoskie of Cornell University.

Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-gali)

Common Chickweed flower head photo by user Phil Sellens via flickr.com

Common chickweed (Stellaria media)

Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)

Mature Witchgrass plant photo by Olivia McCandless via Cornell University Weed ID site

Witchgrass (Panicum capillare)

Virginia pepperweed flowers Photo by Ohio State Weed Lab of The Ohio State University via Bugwood.org

Virginia pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum)

Wild mustard (Brassica kaber)

Giant hogweed plant. Photo by Leslie J. Mehrhoff, of the University of Connecticut, via Bugwood.org.

Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum)