Is this Smartweed?

ghadarits · May 6, 2014

I've been working on finding stuff to plant to add additional food to my hunting spots and have found this that looks like it could be smartweed.

This plant is growing right on the waters edge and possibly into the water.

If anyone can confirm one way or the other it would be very helpful.

steelshotslayer · May 6, 2014

It favors it greatly if it starts blooming pink I would say most likely yes.

NCHillbilly · May 6, 2014

Nope, I see tall goldenrod, curly dock, and japanese honeysuckle in that pic.

northgeorgiasportsman · May 6, 2014

Looks like goldenrod to me as well.

ghadarits · May 6, 2014

Dang I was hoping it was smartweed!!

If anyone knows where some smartweed is growing in a public accessible area in north east GA please IM me I want to try transplanting some.

Forest Grump · May 6, 2014

I had (Penn. smartweed) growing in a low-lying food plot, but Basagran took care of that for me :bounce:

(It is a very competitive weed in crop fields)

https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=POPE2

P. amphibium (water smartweed) seems to grow just about everywhere but here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/polygonum_amphibium.shtml

seems kinda like one of those "be careful what you wish for" things;

DeweyDuck · May 7, 2014

ghadarits said:
Dang I was hoping it was smartweed!!

If anyone knows where some smartweed is growing in a public accessible area in north east GA please IM me I want to try transplanting some.

There is a source for seeds out in Texas I think. Google it. They sell it by the pound.

ghadarits · Jul 24, 2014

Here are some pics of the smartweed I've found in north metro Atlanta. I'll take some pics of it growing at one of my ponds and post this weekend. Everyone I've talked to has told me its something the ducks really like and if you have a good stand of it you'll have ducks.

Not everything in the top pic is smartweed the low stuff in the middle is mostly smartweed and most of the stuff sticking up out of the water is.

Wild Turkey · Jul 24, 2014

Thats weed but not smart.
Smartweed looks like wierd corn stalks almost bambooish.

NCHillbilly · Jul 24, 2014

Wild Turkey said:
Thats weed but not smart.
Smartweed looks like wierd corn stalks almost bambooish.

Nope, that's definitely smartweed in ghadarits photo. There are a lot of different species of Polygonum. Most of them that go by the common name "smartweed" look very similar to that photo. Even buckwheat is technically a smartweed, depending on whether you're a lumper or splitter taxonomist.

ghadarits · Jul 24, 2014

NCHillbilly said:
Nope, that's definitely smartweed in ghadarits photo. There are a lot of different species of Polygonum. Most of them that go by the common name "smartweed" look very similar to that photo. Even buckwheat is technically a smartweed, depending on whether you're a lumper or splitter taxonomist.

Thanks for confirming that.

I've found that the plants can be a little different even plants growing in close proximity to each other so can understand why there could be confusion.

Until I started really learning about the plant myself it was hard for me to tell what was and what wasn't smartweed. Like anything else the more time you invest the better you get at it.

The thing I look for when determining if it is smartweed are the collar for lack of a better term around the stem where the leaf attaches and the leafs grow alternately there won't be two leafs sprouting from the same place.

Wild Turkey · Jul 24, 2014

Sorry confusing, i was refering to the orginal post photo not G man's. His is smartweed. see the corn/bamboo similarity.
Like he said the collar around the stalk at left like corn/or bamboo rings

NCHillbilly · Jul 24, 2014

Wild Turkey said:
Sorry confusing, i was refering to the orginal post photo not G man's. His is smartweed. see the corn/bamboo similarity.
Like he said the collar around the stalk at left like corn/or bamboo rings

Oh, ok, sorry 'bout that, I misunderstood you.

Yeah, the OP was goldenrod.

Wild Turkey · Jul 24, 2014

I hate latin terminology. Nothing like a 2000 year old dead language

Scrapy · Jul 24, 2014

Last year I did not get my corn planted in my duck pond. I thought about planting rice but when I looked at the field it was about 100% covered in smartweeds. Needless to say I let nature take its course. I will definitely say it is not as good of duck feed as corn by a long shot.

GLS · Jul 25, 2014

Wild Turkey said:
I hate latin terminology. Nothing like a 2000 year old dead language

It may sound high falutin', but it's precise with not much confusion worldwide as to what someone is talking about. Try pinning down what someone means by "Hummingbird Bush" from different parts of the US. "Hummingbird Bush" can mean several diverse species of plants some native, some exotic, depending on where you live.
And then there are oak trees and mushrooms.

ghadarits · Jul 25, 2014

Scrapy said:
Last year I did not get my corn planted in my duck pond. I thought about planting rice but when I looked at the field it was about 100% covered in smartweeds. Needless to say I let nature take its course.

Scrappy did it seem like the area with all the smartweed drew in ducks? How big of an area of smartweed are you talking about?

Without knowing it I would guess that I've always hunted spots with smartweed to some extent. I just wish I knew then what I know now and paid more attention to what was growing in the places I had a lot of success.

Up until the last year I just found places that were holding birds and hunted them without paying attention to why it was holding more birds than the place 3 miles down the road. Knowing what I know now I can scout areas before the ducks start migrating and focus on areas that have the most duck grocery's to look for birds when it counts.

Scrapy · Jul 25, 2014

The field is about an acre within four acres of oak and gum when flooded. The smartweed year about 1 to two dozen summer ducks used it regularly. When I make corn 100 to 200 ducks make breakfast club and supper club.

I'd scout for where ducks are actually using. Looking for feed sources is good BUT. If I don't know where ducks are using I look for "duck looking" holes. In the upper tidal freshwater areas I pick the holes that have a lot of smartweed. It makes the hole look ducky. Sometimes it works and sometime it doesn't.
Some folks also confuse smartweed with alligator weed and some call alligator weed, pigweed. And some people confuse pigweed with redroot pigweed which they call redroot. Redroot is pretty good feed while the others are not.

Is this Smartweed?

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