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BINDWEED

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Piglet:
Started an allotment 3 yrs ago, and its nextdoor neighbour 2 yrs ago, have been organic from the start - decided to do it the hard way and didnt like the thought of loads of chems on my food.  But...... bindweed, couch grass i have managed to resolve after 3 yrs dig dig dig it out, but bind weed another problem altogether.  I unfortunately made the fatal mistake of putting a manure heep to rot down where bindweed crept it from the vacant overgrown plot nextdoor and then i managed to spread it around some areas of my 2nd plot in the manure. clever girl!  I have 2 problems, 1st the area at the front of my plot around size of a garage i would like to use as a composting, manure rotting area how do i clear it completely it is covered with plastic with grass growing on top but under the plastic looks like string - i am toying with a chemical solution and the 2nd problem how do i clear it from the 2nd site where i grow veggies without chemicals?

Please can anyone help!

Hugh_Jones:
Ah, Bindweed. Next to runner bean trenches one of my favourite subjects.  Unfortunately there is no quick solution.  With regard to the area in front of your plot there is no doubt a great temptation to dig up all those lovely white roots, but please resist this temptation, as every bit you break off and lose will start another colony. Moreover it`s too late in the year to do anything with weedkillers, because even the bindweed is now becoming dormant.  I suggest that you leave your plastic in place until the spring to stop anybody trampling on it, then take up the plastic and give the area a thorough soaking with an ammonium sulphamate based weedkiller (e.g.Deep Root).  This acts both on above-surface plant matter and on the roots.  Don`t worry about poisoning the soil - ammonium sulphamate breaks down in the soil in a matter of weeks into ammonium sulphate.  This will see off a good deal of the bindweed.  However you must leave the plot uncultivated to allow for regrowth (and there will be plenty), which you should allow to make a foot or two of growth before dousing them with more of the same. To get rid of the bindweed completely you will probably have to repeat this for two or three years.

I used to recommend SBK, but nowadays the formula is much less affective than the original one, and I consider glyphosate products as being mere palliatives where bindweed is concerned.

I regret that unfortunately I cannot help with your second problem - I don`t believe that there is any chemical-free way of really getting rid of bindweed, and the most you can hope to do is to keep it under control with constant handpulling which will certainly slow it down considerably if done often enough.

Doris_Pinks:
Piglet I too suffer with bindweed.oh nasty stuff! I dig it up as best as possible, but you always get some left behind  >:(  was watching a fellow allotmenteer digging into his bindweed infested bin, sifting it and putting it into bags, where are they going I enquired, oh taking this lovely compost home was the reply, just sifting out the roots. i replied very nicely that did he realise that bindweed can grow from a tiny bit, and the reply was well he was sieving it! I wouldn't bring any compost from my bindweed ridden bin home.  Wonder what his garden will look like in the spring  ???  Good luck!  DP

Chloe:
I've learned to live with my bindweed over the years.  It has a pretty flower, especially when trained up canes ;D

ina:
I just dig and pull. No chemicals in my lottie thank you. It seems to be getting less over the years. -Ina

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