Montana is looking for new ideas for economic development, Mickelson said Monday afternoon. I was thinking that we could start the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Co.

Mickelson, a weed researcher at Huntley was showing off a field of sugar beets in which the kochia thats a tumbleweed to lay folks got the upper hand this year. The plants, some over 5 feet high, dominated the test plot he was working this year. They would make perfect Charlie Brown Christmas trees, he said.

Basically, the weather got the upper hand this year as it was abnormally dry in the spring and then the heavy rains came late, subverting a normal growing season and throwing a knuckle-ball at Mickelsons research team in some of its test plots.

Monday was Weed Science Field Day at the Montana State University-Bozeman Southern Agricultural Research Center. About 40 farmers and soil scientists spent the warm afternoon going over test results and numerous plots of crops infested with weeds and how each reacted to different herbicides and varied dosages of the weed killers.

What weed scientists are shooting for is effective, economical control rather than eradication.

Such crops as alfalfa seed, barley, dry beans, corn and wheat were exposed to the various weeds and controls.

One of the more interesting results was the damage to Canada thistle that was inflicted by a bacterial pathogen, which some how migrated outside the treated area.

Research assistant Niki Flowers described how a pathogen, pseudomonas syringae pv tagetis (PST) is a promising biocontrol for the Canada thistle, in this case, in a field of seed alfalfa.

PST was sprayed on the field of alfalfa which is being grown for seed instead of hay. During her periodic checks of the fields and the effects on the weeds, she found dead Canada thistle outside the treated area. She is looking for an explanation of how and why.

She noted also that the thistle was attacked by the painted lady butterfly larva this spring.

Most Montanans encounter weeds in their gardens or yards. But they have a responsibility for weed control, too, said Paul Dixon and Neal Fehringer.

Montana law makes it a crime from anyone to allow noxious weeds to go to seed. Seldom does anyone get a ticket for failing to keep weeds under control.

It is a matter of responsibility, of stewardship, said Fehringer, a contract soil scientist. He has a particular problem with ranchettes and too many horses for the acreage. He emphasized that weed control comes only when neighbors are responsible for their land.

Dixon, the Yellowstone County Extension Service ag agent, said anyone who likes to recreate outdoors has a stake in helping to control weeds.

Weeds on stream banks allow erosion, which silts stream and harms the fisheries, he said. spotted knapweed chokes out forage that reduces the number of elk.

Everyone must support control by not contributing to the spread of weeds, he said.