Topic: bindweed - an amazing plant

[antipodes]

I kid you not when I say that last week there was almost NO bindweed on my plot, and last night I walked around and pulled out (Just of the planted bits, about half the plot) a whole bucket full of the stuff! Some of them were already 20 cm long!!! How can it possible grow so long so fast  ???
I have given up now trying to eliminate it, it just comes back again and again so I am opting for a plan of progressive control. I have tried this time digging it out with a hand trowel, as even if the roots are still there, I at least dig out about 5 cm of roots which hampers its progress. Forget about stifling it, works for everything else but that...

Blessed be the weedtakers, for theirs is a nice tidy plot...

[froglets]

Ditto lily of the valley, now infesting my non invasive bamboo stand.  I swear the l-o-v waits till I put the fork away then pops up behind my back.

[allaboutliverpool]

Bindweed is very susceptible to Glyphosate (Round-up or Resolva).

I eradicated mine in one season.

http://www.allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[tim]

Agree - I just lay it out on sheet of paper & paint a few leaves.

[gp.girl]

I've been told you can make fertiliser from it. Soak in water for 2 weeks, dilute and use instead of comfrey.

I'd rather have comfrey though....

Round up works great though and this year the stuff is in for a bad time ;D

[cacran]

I battle with bindweed all the time. It encroaches on my lot from both sides. It is a battle of wills. I think a combination of pulling all the roots out and a bit of roundup is breaking it's back!

[goodlife]

Hold on!!! there is a bindweed...and BINDWEED...first one is quite easy to get rid of..=field bindweed..and the other is hedge bindweed (read bas...d weed)...and that one is utter nightmare ....just as you think you have cleared it...it comes back with vengeance....roots are like big fat snakes with horrible poison fangs and once you touch it it multiplies into thousand of new monsters and while doing it just laughs at you...and it never leaves you alone ..nightmare...real alien ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Hedge bindweed doesn't start growing till the soil is warming up. So you get halfway through April (most years), and it suddenly appears.

[goodlife]

"and it suddenly appears."

..yes that's it!...It hides away..and when you turn your back ..it's there!
So that you all know...I have mother of all bindweed living in my lottie..yes living.. and when you try to tackle it..in it's veins it has pure acid..touch it and it melts your spade away.. :o..That's why I cannot win ::)

[tonybloke]

Bindweed is very susceptible to Glyphosate (Round-up or Resolva).

I eradicated mine in one season.

http://www.allaboutallotments.com/index.html

here we have a doctor advocating the use of toxins!!
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GTARW.php
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/wwwfuc1e.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253709/
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123020?cookieSet=1&journalCode=publhealth
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Roundup-Glyphosate-Factsheet-Cox.htm

[Digeroo]

I have been trying to get rid of the stuff for years.  I have gone against my principles and started using roundup.  I put a handful of it into a clear plastic bag and then spray inside.  I hope that does at least minimise the spread of the stuff,

[JJane01]

I empathise.  We had bindweed in our first garden and it was regarded with disdain; we gave up on the battle with it as that part of the garden was akin to a ski slope and just unworthy of anything more than a strim.  We've just got our allotment (after a year or so on the waiting list) and we have started clearing brambles, a host of weeds, nettles and the killer weed - bindweed.  Oh fab!  All those creamy white roots..... I don't use weedkillers but prefer to dig and clear by hand, so it's going to take a while but as we win the war (we WILL win the war), we can feel a sense of satisfaction... and a few of these  :P :P :P won't go amiss either!

[Unwashed]

I had a bed infested with hedge bindweed - the big-leaved one with the lovely big white flowers - and I eradicated it in one season by digging it out, no real effort.  I pulled out handfulls of the roots the first time and then just a few stragglers the second time.

I have more trouble with field bindweed - the one with the small pink flowers.  It's quite deeprooted.  But it's only really a problem in the onions.  With everything else it has a bit of trouble competing and I just pull it up from time to time.

[saddad]

I have a confession to make...  :-[
Although it is a pig I love the flowers... of both forms... it got me into Morning Glory... If it wasn't so hard to get rid of we would want to grow it....  :-X

[Tulipa]

Goodlife you could be describing my allotment!

You know the April fool program about spaghetti growing years ago, well David Dimbleby got it wrong - it grows underground!  I get buckets full of the stuff, the hedge bindweed, at this time of year and it never seems to lessen.  It is in the half near the gate and most of the other allotment holders comment on how much I find as they pass by, no matter how careful I am to try and get it all out.  The chap before me allowed it to grow up his bean poles for a whole season so it had taken a good hold. One day it will be gone.......hopefully!!

[Unwashed]

I don't believe the roots live more than a year, so it's susceptible in the spring when it's mobilising the starches stored in its roots and before it's put on much green grown.  Dig it up then and it's very weak.

Hedge bindweed has a variety with shades of pink too, it's every bit as lovely as morning glory.

[goodlife]

"I don't believe the roots live more than a year".... :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

[Unwashed]

No, really.  I think it makes new roots each year and last year's die.

[Tulipa]

I don't believe the roots live more than a year, so it's susceptible in the spring when it's mobilising the starches stored in its roots and before it's put on much green grown.  Dig it up then and it's very weak.

Unwashed we must be talking about different plants.  ;)

[grannyjanny]

We took out a very weak hedge a few years ago. Bindweed used to grow up the hedge. Now no hedge for it to climb so it went where ever it wanted to. Rather than fight with it in a border I suggested we got some chickens & put them in that area ;). Just to save OH battling the dreaded weed you understand ;D ;D ;D.