Topic: Bind weed

[salad muncher]

whats your secret hoping to get idea's on how to clear the bind weed. The reason is at the allotment today friend has found an old book that says if you soak bind weed in water (a long time I presume) and then water your plot from it, it will weaken whats in the ground then kill eventually.
So the question is has anyone heard of this or tried this idea or have you any great idea's on how to get rid of it with out industrial chemicals do like to be Organic.

[SpeedyMango]

The only way I've been dealing with bindweed (there was loads on my plot when I took it over this time last year) is to dig the plot over by hand removing all the roots you can find, then when the stuff pokes it's head above the soil again (and it will), yank it out. Extremely labour intensive, but it beats going to the gym!

Didn't want to use chemical either, and judging by people that do you need repeat applications of heavy duty weedkiller, and all that time you can't grow anything else.

[aquilegia]

Also if any does grow after you've started growing veg in the beds, poke canes in for the bind weed to grow up (rather than up your plants) and dig it out after you've harvested. Remember the roots are extremely brittle so they break very easily and each new bit of root with produce a new plant. good luck!

[Mrs Ava]

I have been tempted to use chemicals, but haven't and I just dig them out.  As aqui suggests, it is a good idea to grow them up canes, easier to locate, just watch your eyes when you bend down!

[DocAlgae]

Suffering the same problem on my new plot - d**n stuff shoots from any tiny fragment of root left in the soil.  Only thing to do is watch for when it pops its head up, and dig it out.  I think it'll give up the ghost eventually!

Same problem with nettles - I'm digging up tons of really thick, gnarly roots, which all shoot if you leave a bit in.  Tis hard work this allotmenteering! :)

[Tenuse]

At least you can eat the nettles!

Ten x

[DocAlgae]

True!  But bindweed flowers are also rather pretty, so it's not all doom and gloom! ;D

[busy_lizzie]

We have a wire netting fence all the way round our plot and covering the fence is bindweed.  It is a horrible weed, so invasive and difficult to shift.  Like most people here we don't want to go the chemical route and have been just digging it out as much as we can. There is nothing I can add to advise that has not already been suggested, but just wanted to say you are not alone.

 I haven't heard of any miracle formulae, just hard slog to keep it under control. When my sister-in-law visited the plot in the summer, she commented on how lovely the flowers looked on the plants covering our fence, needless to say my husband whispered several curses under his breath.  Just keep plugging away.  ;D busy_lizzie

[SpeedyMango]

Also if any does grow after you've started growing veg in the beds, poke canes in for the bind weed to grow up

Now why didn't I think of that? ::)

Great idea for next year!

[tim]

I really can't see how the use of glyphosphate on the foliage can have any affect on the soil & therefore be non-organic.

And if you do spray the soil, you can still sow or plant immediately. = Tim

[kevinc]

Hi all, new member,  been an allotment holder for just over 10 months.

My advice is no mmatter how temping it is to get the rotivator out DONT!! whilst it saves time early on all you do is spread the problem.  The only solution if you want to be organic is to simply roll up your sleeves and start diggin.

I have divided up my plot into managble chunks and will be digging over winter to get out as much as i can.  I have also got hold of some hefty black plasic to help as a supressant and help keep the plot less wet.

whatever happens dont get down hearted the felling this year of eating a sunday lunch with my won organic peas, french beans, carrots potatos and apple pie to follow was out opf this world.

[sandersj89]

Bindweed, you soon learn to love to hate it but it need not be a huge problem. I took over an allotment this spring, it had not been worked for a number of years and as a result had a healthy crop of weeds, bindweed, couch grass, docks, etc.

Approx half the plot had been covered from the previous autumn with a heavy tarpaulin. As I started to dig bind roots were still in evidence under the cover. I removed the dead/dying top growth of all the weeds and then started to carefully dig over the plot. It could take me 30mins to dig a square metre as I painstakingly sifted through each fork full of soil. I was also digging down about a spit and a half to get as much of the root as possible. All roots removed were placed in plastic bags and removed to the tip. (No way were they going on the compost and it can take years for them to rot down.)

After initial digging the first crops went in. I have had very little problem with re-growth so far. You do get some pop up from time to time but these have been pulled/hoed/dug out as soon as they are spotted. Weekly hoeing is the best treatment as you are constantly weakening the plant.

I am now into digging areas where I have harvested the crop, spuds, onions, carrots, etc. Digging now is a breeze. I can dig a 2 metre wide section of the plot in an hour or so. I still get a few roots but hand fulls rather than bag fulls. I fully expect to be still fighting the stuff in 3 or 4 years but good through initial preparation will save you loads of work down the line.

Jerry

[Multiveg]

I don't know about bindweed, but if you let a weed set seed, then you are at risk of at least 7 years of weeds! Bob Flowerdew said bindweed is beneficial - think some goodies 6 shoe insects like the flowers?

[salad muncher]

Like most of you I'm digging it out bit by bit but someone out there must have an answer as to how to kill it ...I remember as a kid going round the garden with Saxo salt pulling dandilions out of lawn and sprinkle salt to kill tap root ....may give that a go anyone tried this??

[DocAlgae]

You'd have to chuck a hell of a lot of salt around to get all the bits of bindweed root.  And it won't do your soil much good either...

[salad muncher]

Only salt the main tap root if you found it....and as for soil conditions it will save me salting my dinner  ;D...may use pepper aswell.
Back to serious note I do admire the weed but from a distance ie another plot holders..be nice to have an upper hand on it and be able to get ahead of it without double digging and so on.

[Len]

Some one told me that salt kept their Asparagus bed bind weed free a bit every year.

[john_miller]

Tim, glyphosate is a synthesised product which is why it cannot be considered organic. Additionally, research carried out in Denmark indicated that glyphosate can remain active in soil and even ground water- in sandy soils or soils high in phosphorous, where application of glyphosate is followed by rain, it is not absorbed onto cation exchange sites (sandy soils have low CEC's, high P means the active ingredient, a P molecule, is not adsorbed onto soil particles) and means it can pollute groundwater as an active poison. This further affects it's consideration as an organic compound.

[tim]

OK, John - consider myself caned!

I certainly would never try to call it organic, but will it actually translate from the foliage - which is sprayed or wiped with it - into the ground in sufficient amounts to cause harm? = Tim

[john_miller]

No admonishing was intended, Tim, it was just posted for informational purposes. The research in Denmark was done using glyphosate at the recommended rate. The active ingredient was found in run-off from the area where it was applied. Because glyphosate was considered a compound rendered inactive upon contact with the soil prior to this research I am not sure if anyone has come up with (like everything else- an arbitary) safe level of contamination- I would prefer 0 ppb to be considered safe so I will continue to grow and buy organically.