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

[patandchickens]

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 would not trust solarization to kill all of it, no. However it will put a reasonable dent in the root population, so it probably IS worth doing. I would then follow up with a Year (or more) Of Darkness, so that the remaining bits of root exhaust themselves trying to regrow into plants.

Mulch over black plastic has to be quite thick and a heavy material, in my experience, or it will all wash off in a rainstorm. Landscape fabric does not have that problem, but bindweed can sometimes grow thru it, even with a mulch on top. Cardboard is somewhere in between the two. If you use cardboard, based on my experience (and I currently have probably about 400 sq feet under cardboard-and-mulch at various places in the yard!) I would suggest using as large pieces as possible, overlapping them WELL at seams, mulching the heck out of it, and then laying some heavier objects around the edges and at strategic points in the middle (I use trimmed tree branches, and some old chainlink fence posts with concrete on the end that I don't have the energy to haul off to somewhere less conspicuous <g>).

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.

Dig the perennials back out, give them to your worst enemies unless you are *sure* you have extracted all the bindweed out of them (if you have any really beloved specimens, try propagating them from cuttings), solarize the bed and then smother it in darkness for at least a year no kidding. THEN you can (carefully) replant, preferably leaving as much of the smothering-cover in place as possible, even though it means you will have little spreading and no reseeding of your perennials for some years.

I know this sounds radical and time-consuming, but consider that really your only alternative is to spend YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME battling bindweed every week of every year.

Good luck,

Pat, who HAS largely conquered the bindweed along the front of the house by means of the perpetual darkness strategy (and repeated weeding in planting holes and where bindweed came thru the cover), and that's *without* solarization, which I avoided b/c of not wanting to kill some shrub roots

 

[KayRI]

pat wrote:
Dig the perennials back out, give them to your worst enemies unless you are *sure* you have extracted all the bindweed out of them (if you have any really beloved specimens, try propagating them from cuttings), solarize the bed and then smother it in darkness for at least a year no kidding. THEN you can (carefully) replant, preferably leaving as much of the smothering-cover in place as possible, even though it means you will have little spreading and no reseeding of your perennials for some years.

I know this sounds radical and time-consuming, but consider that really your only alternative is to spend YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME battling bindweed every week of every year.
*********

OMG my back hurts already! I just moved all those perennials back in place and I had to rent a backhoe for some of them. I can see your point about battling bindweed forever though. I'll just sit here and wring my hands for a while.

 

[LindaN]

Hi, I just joined this board and saw this thread. I've also battled bindweed in my yard and ended up taking a similar approach to Pat's.

I did not solarize with clear plastic first, instead I went straight to smothering with heavy black plastic and dark tarps. For 2 long years. This was a large area, too, about 30X30, that had been mostly lawn (heavily infested with bindweed, though).

In year 3, I did not put down the plastic and tarps. I let stuff just grow in. Mostly it was annual weeds, but some bindweed did start to come back up. So, I finally broke down and bought some Round Up.

I only applied the herbicide to the bindweed; I was not interested in broadcasting it, but using it only in a very targeted fashion.

By the end of year 3, the bindweed was pretty much gone. I pulled up the annuals by hand and covered up the soil with landscaping cloth topped with wood chip mulch.

I now have my veggie garden in this area. I garden in raised beds built on top of the mulch because I did not want to stir up the soil and bindweed seed. Those seeds are viable for 60 years. (Yes, 60!)

I still remain vigilant and stay on top of any bindweed I see. I recently treated a spot just outside my fence along the alley where bindweed was growing. I let it get strong and vigorous, then I "paint" the plant with Round Up. It dies within 24 hours.

This is the only time I've used an herbicide or any non-organic approach to gardening. I make an exception when it comes to bindweed.

 

[KayRI]

Thanks Linda, I wasn't sure that round-up or any herbicide would kill th bindweed root. I don't use herbicides either, but I could make an exception for bindweed.

Kay

 

[Nifty]

Dang that stuff is nasty! Seeds that last up to 60 years and roots up to 30 FEET!?!?! What in the world digs 30 feet deep!?!?!

After reading this thread I'm pretty sure bindweed is what I have growing in my raised planter boxes. un

 

[bills]

A good spraying of Round-up will kill morning glory, but you have to have lots of foliage from them first, to spray it on. Since it propagates mostly via its roots, Round-up is a systematic herbicide, and kills the roots as well. I don't use it in my vegetable garden, and only sparingly on the worst of the yard weeds, like morning glory.

Keep it away from fish ponds, water sources, kids, pets, and wear rubber gloves. Spray it only on a calm day. It's a very effective herbicide, but dangerous if used carelessly.

 

[lostsoulhelpmejebus]

I have been fighting bindweed for 10 years and it is winning. I have tried suffocation, sun deprivation, chemicals, manual removal, deep tilling, daubing with vinegar and even dark voodoo ceremonies...it is still here as strong as ever. Help???

 

[Cassandra]

Thanks for all the replies.

...

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. . .

Must be. I was just thinking about this again today because we have been keeping the area mown down and there was hardly any of it this year... like it's just dying out.

Cassandra (it looked so pretty growing up around the bluebird house)

 

[unclejoe]

GOATS!

 

[lostsoulhelpmejebus]

GOATS!

Hmmm...had not thought about a goat. Sometimes I think the other half is an old...nahhhh...never mind! lololol