# Is this a weed?



## NatTheBrit (May 19, 2012)

Hi everyone i have these growing in my garden and not sure if they are weeds or not


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## mistletoad (Apr 17, 2003)

Looks like young pokeweed to me.


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## NatTheBrit (May 19, 2012)

mistletoad said:


> Looks like young pokeweed to me.


Oh ok thanks..i was getting excited thinking it was a lovely flower i had planted *sigh* oh well!!


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

mistletoad said:


> Looks like young pokeweed to me.


Agree.


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## rockhound (Sep 25, 2009)

Poke. At least your ground is not too rocky, I see dirt here and there between the poke.....lol


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## DarleneJ (Jan 29, 2012)

hahaha. I removed and potted up about twenty plants from my raised bed so that I could use it for a garden this year. Apparently, I've potted up a pokeweed along with the rest of my plants. I was wondering what that was...


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## rockhound (Sep 25, 2009)

Nat~ Actually poke DOES make a nice flower. A bunch of tiny white blossoms that lead to a bunch of purple berries. In Colonial times, pokeberry juice was used for ink. It still makes a good natural "watercolor" paint for nature artists. Ages to a brown tho after a while or too much sun. Too bad no one has come up with a sterile hybrid that doesn't multiply like the devil....


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

The mockingbirds really like the poke berries.


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## NatTheBrit (May 19, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys...they are EVERYWHERE along with a million other weeds. I'm having a LOT of problems with weeds this year in my veg garden..have had to resort to the newspaper/cut grass mulching method. Seems to have worked so far and the plants are thriving in the areas i have mulched!! Next year i think i'm gonna get some decent weed barrier and use that instead. ---- weeds!!


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## NatTheBrit (May 19, 2012)

rockhound said:


> Poke. At least your ground is not too rocky, I see dirt here and there between the poke.....lol


Hehe yeah the ground isn't too bad as i had it ploughed prior to planting. Still TONS of rocks everywhere though and i just couldn't be bothered to do anything about them, so i have just left them in the garden.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Those plants are too young for me to identify them as so many of the wild plants on our place start off looking like those. However, if that is indeed poke salet, you would be wise to take some of the young leaves, cook it like spinach and try it first. Poke Salet is more nutritious than spinach and is better tasting. It is my favorite green.

Just let "one" of those plants grow long enough to seed and you can be sure.


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## kycountry (Jan 26, 2012)

It's poke.. I have been told that a full grown plant is poisonous.. along with the berries..

We use it for greens here... Young leaves are stuffed in a kettle and wilted down by boiling it, then drain. It then goes into the cast iron skillet a little cooking oil and cook the water out and enjoy..


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