Mark Renz

Extension Weed Scientist, Agronomy Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

 

As you may remember Ed Luschei (a UW-Madison Agronomy weed scientist) created a weed phenology tool several years ago called the weedometer. This tool used data collected from the weed garden at Arlington to develop easy to read graphs that show the range of first emergence, the typical first emergence, and range of flowering times of 69 common weed species found in Wisconsin. This tool has recently been updated and improved with several new features; it accessed at the following web address: http://weedometer.net

 

What is particularly useful in the update is that Ed has allowed the user to get an estimate of germination from different locations than just Arlington. With some simple calculations, the data taken from Arlington can be used to estimate germination and flowering at other locations within the northwestern United States. Currently 128 cities within our region can be queried. The updated version also allows the users to plot several species at a time. These graphs may seem a bit complex, but I urge you to take some time to view them. If you are confused, Ed has created some excellent help windows that provide information on how to interpret these graphs located at the bottom of the website.

 

If you have further questions or comments with regards to this tool please contact Ed (email: ecluschei@wisc.edu)