Vegetable or Weed?

[Thadeus]

I recently planted a variety of different plants and I forgot exactly what I planted. Is this a weed or vegetable?

 

[Beth_B]

I can't think of the name but it looks a lot like a weed that grows around here. (It would be helpful to know where in the US you live, btw.)

Doesn't look like any vegetable I can think of.

 

[Thadeus]

I live in North Carolina

 

[Thadeus]

Actually If I remember correctly these may be the pole beans I planted, still not sure though

 

[Beth_B]

Pretty sure that's not a pole bean. I grow both pole and bush beans and mine look nothing like that.

When something I can't identify pops up, I wait and see if it does something interesting, like have pretty flowers or berries. If it doesn't, it's a weed and I pull it. If it does something interesting (and it's not in the way or invasive) I let it stay.

 

[Thadeus]

Ok thanks for the advice. I think I will do that then.

 

[LIcenter]

That my friend is a weed with an extraordinarily long tap root. If any of the root breaks off, and is left in the ground, it will grow right back. I think it gets some sort of ink berries when it is mature. I'm at work right now, so I can't show pics of what the root is all about. Will post a pic tomorrow morning of a big one I pulled last year. Oh yeah almost forgot, PULL IT NOW!

 

[Arielphf]

That's pokeweed - aka inkberry (Phytolacca americana).

 

[Thadeus]

Thanks for the identification, I just pulled the weeds roots and all.

 

[LIcenter]

That's pokeweed - aka inkberry (Phytolacca americana).

Good call Arielphf! Here's a pic of the root system if anyone is interested.

 

[Beth_B]

Thanks for the ID and photo! It is something I pull up, now that I think of it. Not very common in my yard though.

 

[Arielphf]

I just put some leaf compost that had a pokeweed plant growing on it on my garden - now I'm pulling out thousands of little pokeweed seedlings. You could say I am intimately familiar with this little bugger.