I was hoping for a bit of a magic bullet when I read the title to your article. Sigh, not so.
But the information is encouraging. I have been fighting it for quite a few years in my raised beds. It used to be a solid mass at the end of winter. Now it is a quick job of weeding every week or two. The population of bindweed has greatly diminished.

Thanks for the article Larry.

My front lawn is full of bindweed. The lawns on each side of my yard are full of bindweed. My lily garden off my patio is full of bindweed. My vegetable gardens (2) are full of bindweed. My raised lily bed (between the two vegetable gardens are full of bindweed. It is hard to work on all of this and see any progress. Add to that wild garlic and Arum italicum that I would love to see GONE .

Lately I have been working on the front lawn, pulling the bindweed where ever I see a bloom or greenery (easy to see in our summer drought as I and everyone else quit watering and the lawns are all brown).

The concept of starving the underground elements makes sense and that is what I focus on. I suspected that the roots ran deep as this stuff looks so green when the lawn is dead looking. Guess I will just keep pulling (read: break off).

Thanks for the info, Larry.

Thanks for the encouragement on bindweed.
I am battling an infestation in one part of my yard.
Last summer, I tried spraying it,but it is back again.

Good to know.
I have practiced the vigilance part by pulling the vines out back to their emergent place, but although I knew the vine was breaking off and I wasn't getting the whole root, I never knew there was a rhizome under there.
And, sadly, I am one of the gardeners who thought my new house in a part of the country I had never lived simply came with this lovely "wildflower" until I realized what a brute it is. SO I probably have a decade to go before I'm rid of it. I haven't let a seed form for 3-4 years now, but I have never dug a single rhizome.




edited for spelling

Thanks for putting into words everyone's sentiment about this awful plant, Larry. I also keep pulling out what I can in hopes that the root gives up one day. The image of you stomping them into the cement is a fun one!

I like the burning idea.
Just cremate the s.o.b.!

I have been having a small battle with Bindweed myself. Luckily I knew long ago what a thug it is and so I've been vigilant to remove any sign of it as soon as I see it. But some grows just out of reach on the other side of my neighbor's fence. So I'm sure I will battle this thug forever.

But I am persistent. I have experience with thugs. When I moved to this property two years ago I discovered two other foes. The front bed was thick with Chameleon plant. No amount of spraying would get rid of it. Last summer I resorted to digging up the whole large bed, two feet down, and sifting all the dirt to remove every last bit of rhizome I could. Then I left the bed empty for the season so I could monitor any returns. Those I hit with a strong dose of round up. The bed is planted this year but I still find tiny babies of Chameleon plant here and there. These must be from left behind seed. They are easy to pull out and are not connected to any "mother". I suspect I will forever have to closely monitor the area and stay vigilant.

My second nemisis is Horsetail weed. I cried and cried when I found this all over at our new place, not only in the flower beds but also in the lawn. My grandmother has long battled this weed and I learned from her that if you try to dig it all out it makes it worse. I know that not only is there the part that comes up from the soil, but the mother deep in the earth. For this reason Roundup does not work because it does not go deep enough to kill the mother. It thrives in moist, lean, acidic soil with low oxygen. The first thing I did was remove all the wood mulch in the beds, since it thrives with moisture. Then, EVERY SINGLE DAY, I went around with a plastic bag and plucked every piece I could find. I was especially vigilant to find the spore bearing stems before they matured! I plucked A LOT! I was careful not to leave any broken pieces behind. (Some sources say not to pluck the stems because a new plant just forms. I plucked and improved the soil) Then as I planted the bed I made sure to enrich the soil with as much compost as I could. My beds have a great deal of clay so I also used perlite to help aerate the soil. I wanted to add peat but did not want to raise the acidity, so this year I added ProMix to the soil since it does have lime to balance the peat. The one thing I did not do was actively raise the pH because I had a mix of plants I was planting and wanted to keep the soil as neutral as possible. However, I am told that applying lime does help over time. That was last year. This year the problem is much more under control. There is only a bit coming up here and there. Again, any I see I just pluck and I continue to work to break down the clay and improve the soil. I found this article helpful http://www.maine.gov/agricultu...

This was in the flower beds. The lawn was a different story. I was impossible to clear it out. This year I tried an Ortho product that you spray on the lawn and it kills the weeds and not the lawn, can't remember the name but I was specifically looking for 2,4d. I did not expect it to work because it said it was for broadleaf weeds and horsetail is definitley not broadleaf. But to my surprise it worked like a charm. Horsetail disappeared. But I am no fool. I know the mother is still there and it will come back. Since I do not have the money to remove the lawn, change the soil, and replace the lawn I will do what I can. I will aerate and continue to use this weed killer again in the spring.

CarolineScott said:Thanks for the encouragement on bindweed.
I am battling an infestation in one part of my yard.
Last summer, I tried spraying it,but it is back again.

Most herbicides, including Roundup, are ineffective against bindweed. At most, they cause browning of the leaves, but don't kill the rhizomes and roots. Tordon (picloram) is perhaps the only herbicide that actually kills bindweed. But, the decision to use Tordon shouldn't be made lightly. It is both highly persistent (typically takes YEARS to break down) and mobile in soil, two rather undesirable characteristics in any pesticide.

I have not tried this myself but I have it from a reliable source (a local expert named Doug Oster) that IRON will kill weeds in a lawn and the grass doesn't mind it. Look it up.

I also am battling bind weed. A few years ago I completely redid a bed in the fall which I intended to use for iris seedlings in the spring. It was empty except for weeds including lots of bind weed. In October I sprayed it with a strong mix of concentrated round-up mixed with some 2-4-D. 3 weeks later I sprayed it again. Spring came and it did not come back. In the fall bindweed is pulling energy down into the roots and pulls the Round-up down killing the roots. Used in the summer it just burns off the top and doesn't kills the roots. I've also had it in some Junipers in a parking strip. I have pulled it several times each summer and each year there has been less.; Persistent pulling will eventually get it but it takes forever. A few years ago the city did a beautification project down town and took out a water fountain. It lay on the side of the road for several days and so I brought it home and put it in the garden with a bird bath bowl on top. I took the bowl off to wash it and found the bowl of the fountain full of white bind weed that had grown up the center of the fountain. It is persistent.

Thanks, all, for your great comments, suggestions, thumbs up and acorns! When battling stubborn weeds, it's always nice to know you're not alone.

Amen.

I have heard that same thing about using Roundup in the fall for bindweed. Reading this article reminds me that I am so very thankful that, among the weeds that I DO have to battle here, bindweed is not one of them! Fought that stuff every year where we lived in Oregon. And our goats just loved the stuff, so they were so very kind as to help spread it everywhere!

They SPREAD it rather than devouring it???

If they eat the seeds.......

Dear Larry, another great article! We get a lot of bindweed in the UK. Normally they use glyphosate mixed with washing up liquid to deal with it.
Although technically you should not use washing up liquids you can use to washing up liquid that is environmentally friendly. The same stuff you wash your dinner plates in. This sticks the glyphosate to the leaves of this terrible plant. Then to get rid of the seeds they flamethrower it, with gas flamethrowers. This of course makes the top seed bank inert!
You can do it by hoe or by putting boundaries in, much better our way.
Please see this as we have several species of bindweed in the UK. http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advices...
Regards from England.
Neil/

Woof -
Duh!!!!

Thanks for the comments, Neil. Good to hear from you!

Great warning, Larry.

Don't use herbicides/pesticides myself, so do it all manually.
Avoiding the problem and also identifying it and acting quickly are a real help.

Thanks much, Charlie. Sounds like you've managed the infestation quite well.