Any suggestions for @##$!!! bindweed ?!!!

[KayRI]

Any suggestions for bindweed? When we put a new septic in, they had to dig up everything and it looks like bindweed pieces have been scattered to all four corners of the yard!!! I am paying my daughter and her friends 2 cents/inch of root. It doesn't take them long to make 4-5$ a piece, and I still can't control it!! Help!

 

[Grow 4 Food]

not really sure what that is? Is the just a common name or can you get us some pictures? What extent are you willing to go to get rid of it?

 

[KayRI]

It is also called wild morning glory. The flowers in this picture are white, mine are pink. It is a viny type plant with arrow shpaed leaves and a morning glory flower. It is totally awful. just thinking about it gives me a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach.

I'm not crazy about using herbicides, but this is the second year I've been pulling it by hand and it looks like it is getting worse. . .


http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=687&storyType=garde

 

[Cassandra]

I have some of that, but I have never been troubled with it... so maybe that isn't what it is. It's been there, growing on the fence in the summer. Then it dies back to dead vines over the winter. It's been there for years and I haven't noticed it taking over or anything.

What's the deal with that stuff?

Cassandra

 

[Beekissed]

We don't have it here! But I have a very bad thistle problem this year that I didn't have last year....go figure! I plan to dig up all I can and spray the rest with apple cider vinegar...kills weeds dead. May leave brown spots in your yard but it sure kills stuff!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

We just continually pull it by hand since we don't use pesticides either. Just make you get it before it flowers each time and you'll eventually get rid of it.

Lot's of tilling will also help kill it. If you keep tilling up the roots then they dry out.

I don't know is solarizing your soil is a possibility? Till the area that has the weed, lightly water the area, take a piece of plastic or tarp and lay it over the area. Leave it there for a couple of weeks and it will kill EVERYTHING under it. It will also make seeds sprout and kill them. It's a useful technique

Also using a cover crop rotation to crowd and shade them out could work but this takes a year or so to do.

 

[patandchickens]

Gosh, that is a problem. I *loathe* bindweed (altho I suppose the flowers are sorta cute - as long as they're on someone else's property far far away )

Solarizing, or smothering the area so it gets zero light for a year or so, would be your best bet (although if seeds are in the soil, they remain viable for a considerble number of years, IME). But that is obviously not an option in lawn. Religious thorough handpicking will eventually get rid of it but your daughter and her friends are going to end up very well-off - you might consider paying them less, disguised as 'fill this container and I will give you $X" If that's too much work/expense and you live in an area where lawns stay damp and green, and don't mind a spotty looking lawn, I suppose a weed torch would be your best plan B, again doing it frequently and thoroughly.

IIRC bindweed is one of the weeds that is not overly impressed by Roundup or other herbicides, and personally I'm not sure that the risks of using the herbicides (to you, and to your soil/groundwater/plants) are really worth the level of control it would give. Everyone has their own opinions of course.

I don't suppose the bindweed is, perchance, mainly in an area that you would like to convert to a garden bed of whatever type? That would simplify your life. Remove absolutely all the roots you can find there, then you have several options but the best would be to solarize for a month or so (depending on your climate) and then put down cardboard or black plastic under heavy mulch and leave it that way til next year, when you could begin planting (making sure to promptly pull up any lingering bindweed that might surface).

Good luck,

Pat, whose bindweed problem was mainly confined to right along the front of the house when we moved in, and my way of dealing with it was to put down landscape fabric under heavy mulch, planting only a few large things thru holes in the landscape fabric, and weeding VIGOROUSLY. Five years later, I still get some seedlings around those plants and anytime I make a new planting hole, but seedlings are easily rubbed out with the fingertips within the first week or two, and the bulk of the problem is gone... whew

 

[aquarose]

Field bind weed and garlic mustard are my worst weeds. My bindweed is mostly in a little patch next to my driveway. Every time I get out of my car, I try to spot the tiny ones growing and pull them up gently, getting as much of the root as possible. I also gave up trying to grow flowers there. I figured it is easiest to spot it if its grass, and also if I mow frequently, it at least will never get big enough to flower and go to seed. I also warned my next door neighbors, who are originally from another continent and may not be familiar with it, that, despite the pretty flowers, it is a noxious weed. Unfortunately, last summer, I noticed it starting to come up next to another flower bed. Constant and vigilant hand pulling is my plan. (Although, thinking hard about it, solarization should work).

 

[KayRI]

Thanks for all the replies. Do you think you actually have to solarize it? Or can you just cover it with cardboard and mulch over the top? If you put blacK plastic down, could you mulch over the top of that? or do you think it is the heat that would eventually get all 4 billion pieces of the root?

I acutally have converted part of where it is to a perrential garden bed and I think it is worse because it hides its roots among the roots of the perrenials. Evil weed that it is.

Cassandra, maybe you have a tame version of morning glory. I think if it was bindweed, it wouldn't be in one place, it would have taken over your yard by now. . .

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Thanks for all the replies. Do you think you actually have to solarize it? Or can you just cover it with cardboard and mulch over the top? If you put blacK plastic down, could you mulch over the top of that? or do you think it is the heat that would eventually get all 4 billion pieces of the root?

That would probably work. I'd put the black plastic down, leave it there for a week or so. Mulch and plant through it if you'd like.

Good luck