Bindweed

I yank it and cart it away, since the roots will spread if thrown on the ground. I Round-Up it (though I HATE using the stuff and cannot once my garden is well-started). I burn it with a propane torch. I cannot plow it up because that just spreads it further. What to do??? Every year, the bindweed takes a little more territory. I live in New Mexico where all members of the bindweed family, even annual morning glories, quickly become pests. I'm getting desperate.

It sounds like you are doing everything. The only thing I can think of is talking to you county extension agent. It's really hard to get rid of. I try to get it before it goes to seed.

We have a problem with bindweed up here too and there does not seem to be an earth friendly way of dealing with it. I don't like using the sprays, but that is about the only thing which controls it. And some of them don't work all that well on it.
I tried covering a patch of it with plywood,but that just spread it further through the garden.

This message was edited Jun 1, 2010 2:49 AM

I have bindweed also. I have had good luck spraying it with round up and THEN putting it in a Wal-Mart sack down to the soil. I leave it on the plant for at least a month. It goes away. I do this as soon as I see it before it goes to seed. Occlusion seems to work pretty well for me. Good Luck.

This message was edited Jun 1, 2010 7:50 PM

Yes, Round-up is the only chemical I use -- and I don't like to, but it's the only thing I've found that actually kills the stuff down to the root. I have one area where it wraps around hostas, some astilbes and a golden dicentra. I carefully unwind it, stretch it out on bare ground (sometimes clear out of the bed and onto the pathway), and then "foam" as many leaves as I can safely cover. That's been the only thing that works for me -- but it requires constant vigilance...

Yes, and it comes back even if I round up it if I don't put a plastic sack on it also.

I try to go organic whenever I can but have given up on that method with the bindweed. And I have tried a lot of methods including the pulling it up, digging it up, cooking by using the solar heat and plastic, etc. I've also used roundup on it and not much change.

What we now do (and it has worked everytime) is to cut the bindweed back to the ground, put a dab of stump killer on the cut stem where it goes into the ground, and then make sure we throw the cut off section into the trash.

Good Idea-Thanks for sharing. I will try that. Plus, it's very selective.

What is the plastic bag for?

I use a WMart plastic bag sometimes for very stubborn weeds. It's occlusion: no air, rain etc. The poison is stronger then.

I've had success in NE Ohio with round-up. I like the quick pro formula and i use spreader-sticker. Since it was wrapped around my other plants, I used a little sponge brush and painted the leaves -- especially the younger growing ones. Just a few leaves will kill the entire plant. It will still come back but I think this helps a lot.

I am becoming convinced that Bindweed is an alien lifeform that has come to take over Earth!! I never had it in my garden until I had soil brought in. At first I was foolish enough to believe it was a Morning Glory. Then it went nuts trying to devour every plant in my garden with it's veracious appetite! I think some plants have an evil twin...

How to kill it? I don't know. It survives in the barren places. I swear this stuff will grow on bare concrete in dust...it will also grow in raw clay that's so wet and sticky it'll suck your shoes off. I think the only way to truly be rid of it for good is to dig 18" or more deep and remove every bit of root. I've done that with bishop weed and may end up doing it with this...or I may just have a lobotomy and assimilate.

Heather, have you ever tried letting it grow out some and spraying the foliage with brushkiller?

I'd have thought somewhere like New Mexico was too hot & dry for bindweed, its a common weed here in Britain but its quite cool and damp here by comparison, where it can smother large areas of ground. Even if its uncontrollable it helps to remove all the flowers so as to stop it setting seed

Honestly, I have had very good luck killing this weed with small amounts of non-selective systemic herbicide (like round up). since the stuff was intertwined with all of my plants (strangling them) I could not spray. But I painted the newer growth in hot weather (about 75 degrees) -- just a few leaves -- with herbicide and I did not see the stuff for a year.
Without systemic herbicide it is very difficult to control anything that grows like this.