Kochia is a highly invasive weed with strong reproductive ability. Its growth not only has a malignant impact on surrounding plants, but also causes significant harm to human health, leading to diseases such as asthma. Let's take a closer look at the hazards and growth habits of kochia.
Image of Kochia
1. Strong Regeneration Ability
Stems, nodes, branches, and roots can all grow indefinite roots. Cuttings can form new plants, and the remaining aboveground remnants after removal or cutting can quickly regenerate. The growing period is irregular and overlapping.
The emergence period starts from mid to late March and can last until late November, lasting for 7 months. Early and late maturing kochia have a difference of more than a month in their growing period. This is the direct cause of the irregular and overlapping growing periods.
As a malignant weed, kochia also exhibits strong vitality and high reproductive capacity. A single kochia plant can produce thousands of seeds, which can be spread everywhere by wind, humans, livestock, birds, and water flow. Broken kochia stems will grow more new branches from the root stubs.
2. Thrives in Moisture, Fears Drought
Kochia is a shallow-rooted plant that cannot absorb water from deep soil layers. Therefore, it often appears wilted and withered in the dry autumn season, while it thrives in moist areas. It has strong cold resistance.
Mature kochia can withstand temperatures of -3 to -5℃, becoming a perennial kochia. It grows densely. Since kochia fruits generally scatter within a radius of 1-1.5 meters around the plant, year after year, it forms dense clusters of growth.
Image of Kochia
3. Flowering Habit
Male flowers have a habit of blooming every other day, blooming from 6-10 a.m. and producing pollen and pollinating from 7-11 a.m., closing after 11 a.m.
If it encounters rainy weather, it will not bloom. After it clears up, it can bloom continuously for 2-3 days before returning to its habit of blooming every other day. Each male flower cluster only opens 2-5 small flowers at a time, with a total of 2-4 times of blooming.
The main reason why male flowers do not bloom on rainy days is due to the high humidity in the air. Therefore, spraying water on male flowers in the early morning of sunny days or soaking them in water can completely suppress the blooming and pollen release of male flowers on that day.
4. Hazards of Kochia
Kochia is a globally malignant weed. It has a particularly strong ability to compete for water, nutrients, and sunlight with other plants. Kochia can consume water and nutrients more than twice as much as field crops and grain crops, resulting in serious yield reduction or even complete crop failure.
The pollen of kochia can trigger hay fever and bronchial asthma, posing a serious threat to human health. According to relevant information from abroad, if there are 30-50 kochia pollen grains per cubic meter of air, it can induce pollen allergy.
Kochia pollen has caused 10 million people in the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries to suffer from hay fever and allergic asthma, with severe cases posing a life-threatening risk.
