With spring upon us, I want to make a big effort to get rid of weeds this year.

Have any of you used weed identifier apps on your phone and can you vouch for the best one? I have an iPhone if it makes a difference.

Thanks!

Most states will send you a book with the 25 most common weeds for close to nothing.

Android - the Google app using the phone camera works pretty well for flower ID.

Your County Extension Agent website should be helpful and area specific

I look at some a good while back. The only one I actually tried guessed wrong and then required $25 a year to keep so I didn't buy it.
Forgot which one it was. Looked at another one but it didn't cover the South East US. Gave up.

I’ve have good luck with Seek.

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

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These guys could help. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I have found the application PlantNet the most accurate for me.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I’ve have good luck with Seek.

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

The Seek app is great, I use it a lot.

Picture This works well for me. Not only can I take a picture of the plant, and the app accurately identifies the plant, a bunch of information on the plant is provided, including feeding, planting, pruning, etc. The base app is free, and the full app is like $20 for the year; well worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:
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These guys could help. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

That was the direction I thought the title was taking us on this... I have a childhood friend who now revels in the photos in Hightimes magazine like we used to do with Playboy and Penthouse.

Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

Didn't think to clarify which weed.

I use PlantNet. Seems to work well.

I must admit, I’ve never been overly concerned with identifying weeds. Didn’t even consider using an app on my phone. I usually spray with triclopyr. I prefer Remedy, sold on Amazon for $112 in Ag concentrations. Doesn’t really matter what the weed is, if it isn’t grass and it gets hit with tryclopyr, it’s a goner. Especially if you use an oil carrier like diesel fuel.

^^ One thing I learned from my local AM radio lawn garden guru is that identifying the weeds in the lawn is rarely necessary. The reason is that most herbicides (aka weed killers) kill a class of weeds so 95% of the time what is needed is to classify the weed into either:

Broadleaf Weeds (e.g. dandelion)

Grass-like weeds and nondesirable grasses (e.g. crabgrass)

Sedges (e.g. kyllinga)

The other 5% of the time is for a weed that only responds to a specific herbicide or combo of herbicides. Here in the Houston area it's Virginia Buttonweed. Last week, there was a forum post for an invasive species in the St Louis area that was hard to kill.

I use a pre-emergent (e.g. Barricade) which prevents most broadleafs and nondesirable grasses. I'll use a good broadleaf (e.g. Bonide Weedbeater Ultra) for Southern Lawns (it's important to use a herbicide safe for your grass type and a rate safe for your grass type) for the weeds that germinated prior to the pre-emergent. I have one spot in my lawn that gets a lot of traffic from neighbor kids so grass gets thin and sedges grow which I treat with a sedge killer (e.g. Bonide sedgehammer).

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

Maybe I should have been more specific. The weeds I want to identify aren't in a lawn. I have a hill area around the front of my house down to the street. Within that area there are trees, ornamental grasses and various decorative shrubs. But in the middle of summer it's a jungle! I want to know what shouldn't be there.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I want to know what shouldn't be there.

My wife (gardening aficionado and holds Advanced Master Gardener certification) defines "weed" as "something growing there I don't want growing there"

Thus, the wildflowers and various other flora growing in the field out back are not "weeds." When any of those same things invade her gardens, they are weeds.

^^^ I guess I could look at it from a purely aesthetics point of view...

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Maybe I should have been more specific. The weeds I want to identify aren't in a lawn. I have a hill area around the front of my house down to the street. Within that area there are trees, ornamental grasses and various decorative shrubs. But in the middle of summer it's a jungle! I want to know what shouldn't be there.

My oversimplified answer to this is to find a weed killer that doesn't kill the grass I have in my yard (Bermuda, in my case) and then spray with that. Whatever is left over (usually just patches of grass) is the winner, the losers are all dead. Sometimes I have to come back to hit crabgrass or something that's more difficult, but usually that'll do 'er.

For plants I use an app called “PictureThis”. It is free and does a great job at identifying any plant. The app will make you think you have to pay to subscribe, but when it does when you open the app, you have to look at the very top right of the screen and click “cancel” and then just use the app. It will do that each time you use it and the “cancel” can be hard to see but it is there and app work fantastic.

For insect identification, I use the app called “Picture Insect”.

For bird identification, I use the app called “Picture Bird”.

All work the same way with the “cancel” and all of the apps work great. I love them.