MZTRA-ACC Weed Identification Garden officially opens

Assiniboine Community College and the Manitoba Zero Tillage Research Association officially opened the MZTRA-ACC Weed Identification Garden.

The garden, which was made possible through a generous $57,000 gift from MZTRA, is located adjacent to the Sustainable Greenhouse on ACC’s North Hill Campus. This spring, ACC staff members began working to establish more than 80 common weed species found in the province.

For many years, there has not been a resource of this kind in Western Manitoba. The weed identification garden will be used by students in horticulture, agriculture and environment programs and will also be available to agricultural and lawn and garden professionals as well as homeowners who have weeds that they are trying to identify.

The first step to managing a weed problem is to accurately identify what the weed is. This garden provides an opportunity for people to examine the plant in person often in a variety of stages from seedlings to mature specimens and that can be very beneficial in leading to a proper identification.

Tomorrow marks the first day of weed identification training in the garden, starting with a group of Manitoba Agriculture employees who will be honing their identification skills before embarking on a province-wide weed survey. It has been more than 13 years since the last Manitoba general weed survey, an undertaking that has occurred every decade since the 1970s.

The 2016 General Weed Survey will be conducted in nearly 650 fields to provide information on the abundance and distribution of weed species across the province, including crop-specific data for wheat, barley, oats, corn, canola, flax, sunflower and soybean. The survey will also help to identify new and emerging weed issues (e.g., cleavers, biennial wormwood, and nightshade species).

Beginning Thursday, June 30, the garden will be open to the public Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visitors may contact the college’s School of Business, Agriculture & Environment at 204.725.8740 or email ag.enviro@assiniboine.net.

Manitoba Agriculture group honing their weed identification skills before launching the province-wide weed survey and ribbon cutting ceremony.