Bind Weed

Hello All,

after finding out last week that I have bought a house with high maintanence lilac trees, can someone please put me out of my misery regarding how to tackle bind weed? If the replies come back that there is nothing I can do, then I just have to put the house back on the market, I moved to the countryside for a quieter life...

many thanks in advance.

Lesley

Easy-spray with a glyphosate based weed killer like Roundup-get it just on the leaves of anything you want to zap-it takes2/3 weeks to work so don't expect overnight results.

There is also a gel version you just rub on the leaves

It works

I had a 100ft garden full of bindweed. Best time to spray is when its in flower, so leave it to romp and then soak the b**tard on a windless day! Repeat as needed.

I dug all mine out over the years. I'm very pernickety about weeds and I don't trust weed killers to do as good a job as I can. Saying that, the roots go deep and are very brittle. One tiny bit will sprout a new plant. You have to be extremely careful to dig out as much as you can (I have extremely light soil on a clay base) and constantly pluck new shoots until the stuff stops returning. It's not easy though, it can travel a distance in no time!

If you are serious about gardening and protective of your plants, dig it out. If you just want the quick fix, poison it.

I had a problem with bindweed among my raspberries for several seasons and adopted the same approach as Figrat. Eventually I did get rid of it but it took a lot of painstaking hand-forking to get it out. I'm not opposed to using glyphosate but the stuff was so intertwined with the rasps that I was worried about killing them, and I found it quite satisfying to do the job by hand.

I will just add that Glyphosate become inactive on reaching the soil so can't leach through to kill other plants it works through the leaves-I appreciate that some are against using chemicals but if any roots are left behind when digging out the problem remains

It is all down to choice.

I have no bindweed to speak of but am vigilant as my parents' garden was infested. When I spotted a little bit in amongst wanted plants, I gave it a nice tall cane of its own and trained it up there for a while then covered the wanted plants and sprayed glyphosate just on the bindweed leaves. Obviously wouldn't work for a huge infestation but may help someone.

Much thanks for all your advice, I think for me it will be a two pronged approach; as I appear to have a summer full of snapping suckers from my lilac tree roots, then this summer I will go the weed killer root.  Then maybe towards the end of the year, move the plants I want to keep, I have no idea what I have inherrited yet...then dig out what roots appear to be left.  I like the cane idea FloBear, every day this past month I have been plucking, but if I allow it more space, then my attack will be more a more concentrated approach.

The garden has been neglected so I know it will be hard work!!

Lesley

When you arrange your garden in autumn, dig up any plants you wish to move or keep and wash off all the soil, repotting in new compost mixes to suit the plant. Otherwise, the bindweed may be hiding in amongst the roots.

Glad to be of help lesinni. Don't know where I heard it but all my best ideas are pinched ;- )

Taking up FloBear's suggestion, resist the temptation to zap the bindweed too early. Let it grow well up the cane. The roots of a well established plant can go down 10 metres in good soil conditions!! When you treat with glyphosate, it is drawn down into the root system by the plant, but the distance it travels depends on how much has been applied, so the more leafage you zap the better. Any root far enough down to have avoided the glyphosate will send up new shoots, and when they appear, do the same thing - leave them till you have a good surface area. After two or three applications the root will be exhausted. 

I have been trying to eradicate Bear's Breeches - it has a massive fleshy root system. This is my third year of regular zapping it, and at last it seems to have given up. Just a few small leaves have appeared, and they have been zapped today. 

All points noted - with thanks...now I get to stay..!

I have to say thank you all so much for wonderful advice, since the begining of May, Thursday has been my bindweed day!! All new shoots get staked, week old shoots high up the bamboo stake get uncoiled, placed into a small plastic bag and sprayed. The bag gets tied on and I spray inside the bag once more the following week also. I have to say it is having a huge effect.  One bed it appears to be almost eradicated, this bed it totally free from all plants, I know as soon as I start to dig it over and put some plants in there, I will shake up the roots, so I am taking my time.  I have two very full neglected beds that I am also working on, but because there are plants in these beds, the bindweed appears more prolific.  I have my routine down to a tee now.  It requires dedication, and if I miss just one plant I pay the price the following week.  My neigbours think I am crazy with little knotted plastic bags all over the garden.

Lesinnl, so glad to hear your bindweed cull is progressing well. Thursday is bindweed day made me smile. Perhaps it could be cake day as well - a reward for your persistence and vigilance :- )

just looking through these posts to see if there is a magic answer.  We have lived here for 10 years and I have been using the methods above (glysophate and sodium chlorate in the past, in freezer bag and tie all the leaves in) membrane and pulling roots which has really reduced it,  However this year we had a load of Leylanii removed and with the rain, that patch has gone mad.  As you can't but Sodium ch.  anymore a friend suggested caustic soda, but apparently this is a nuclear option , but does work-anybody know?