Many years ago, a commentator on a BBC gardening programme said that the only way to get rid of bindweed is for you to deal with the surface layer and for a friend in Australia to deal with the roots !!
We have a couple of techniques for dealing with bindweed. First, trying to dig it out is futile. You can never get all the root fragments that regenerate. We have found that using chemicals works well if very carefully applied. We use a strong mix of Round-up liquid which we apply with a small foam paintbrush directly to the leaves of bindweed plants as they come up. This works well, minimizes the chemical application, the poison kills the roots, and does not endanger other plants. And is much easier on your back than trying to dig them out. You don't have to treat every leaf; my rule of thumb is 4-6 leaves per vine usually does the trick. You will miss plants; you usually have to go back 3-4 times in a growing season to get vines that you miss in earlier passes. A second technique is to garden with bindweed-unfriendly plants. Bindweed likes sun and loosely-spaced plants with stalks they can climb. Densely clustering plants, like our native black-eyed susans, monopolize their space and keep bindweed from getting a purchase. Our mums grow in dense clusters and do a pretty good job holding bindweed at bay. The big leaves of our hostas shade the ground and keep bindweed from growing. I've also noticed that bindweed doesn't overgrow our azaleas. We've found our cornflowers and bee balm, however, get overrun. So if you have problem with persistent bindweed infestations, think strategically about what you plant, where. Observe where the bindweed flourishes and where it does not, what plants seem to keep it at bay (think plants that shade the ground or form dense clusters) and which plants don't, and plant accordingly.
instead of a small plastic marker, use a longer cane to train it, the bindweed climbs the cane (direct the cane away from good plants) snip it off at the bottom every time it gets high enough so it spends all it's energy on vegative growth rather than sending it down to the roots, eventually it will weaken and die off, scortching with a blowlamp (or boiling water) instead of snapping off also helps weaken it faster as energy is used to try to repair it's self (cane method is also the best way to use chemicals applied with rubber gloves rather than spray if that's your choice) We get it intertwined on Honeysuckle that's trained over a large dome making chemicals difficult to use without killing the honeysuckle, birds nest in the honeysuckle and bring new bindweed seeds every couple of years, using the cane method solves it for us.
Sara Revesz I was having a problem with bindweed in my vegetable garden and now I have several raised garden beds and put down landscape fabric, haven’t seen one in two years
@@lighthousephoto7143 Boiling water is good for spot weed killing. My electric kettle boils minimum just under two cups. So one weed gets the left over. Seems to help on my garden path at no cost.
I have this bindweed in my front garden . For the last 3-4 years, spring through to summer , I am constantly pulling it off my shrubs and digging up the roots ; it has definitely got weaker and less of a problem now. I never let it get to the flowering stage , good luck everyone with your bindweed battle 🙂👍
@@DovidM yes! The flowers are easy to identify so git 'em before they mature and eliminate the seed pods even before they can appear. Glassback DIY also has a great method.
My neighbor let those thing grow up to the side of his house 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ I have to say it got a bit better after 3and half years. I find cover with the fabric is not a solution because after around 10 years they poke through the fabric. Not just the bindweed but also the dandelions and the blackberries. If you have have clay soil, you develop flood on a heavy rain.
If you just want to clear an area of all weeds, or want to remove it from between trees and shrubs where you can’t dig up. Best thing I’ve found is brushwood killer, brush it onto the leaves with a paintbrush and be careful not to get it into any plants you don’t want to kill. If you have some blue/purple food die, mix it into the weed killer so you can see which leaves you’ve treated… the more you get the more effective it will be. You’ll have to follow it up with another application or two after a few months just to be sure. But it works well for removing it from between other plants
Our Community Garden had 20' x 30' plot that we covered in heavy black plastic as a demonstration of weed control. After a year all weeds were gone... except bindweed. It had a huge network of roots just under the plastic. It was very healthy & happy. My guess is that it escaped & grew beyond the plastic. I enjoy your videos. Thank you.
I did the same under landscape fabric. The roots were happy to use it as a subway. I use agricultural vinegar pull up one side of the landscape fabric and spray the roots in the walkways and beds
Never use a spade to dig up the roots. It just cuts them and gives thousands more plants. Always use a garden fork and loosen the soil around the roots. Do not try to pull them out until the soil, is thoroughly loosened.
I use a spade, and dig very deep. Then I turn the clump around, and continue digging a square meter or so. Sometimes I put the clumps on some tarp while I clean the hole. Then I tackle the clumps, and put the soil back. In that way, when new weeds appear it's easy to just pull it out, because the roots are not so long, or deep. It works for me.
My father grew up in eastern Nebraska during the 1930’s and 40’s. He told me that bindweed was such a problem that they organized bindweed control districts, governmental organizations devoted to organizing efforts against this weed.
Had problems with it in the past. Despite lots of manual effort, in the end I resorted to a herbicide. Cleared it up completely. I found that knocking it back as soon as I saw it was the best strategy 👍
I live in Ireland and sad to say the problem is just as bad here! I used Glyco in two areas, I was very careful to avoid spray drift. Using the foam setting instead of spray, I held the nozzle within 10mm of the leaves to deposit the foam directly on them. However I got a nasty surprise, the two fully grown shrubs (under which the bind weed roots were growing)- partly died back - about 30% of each shrub was lost! I suspect the shrub's roots were in contact with the weed root and they absorbed the glyco. ??. Is that possible?
Put the collected vine, still attached to the roots underground, inside a clear plastic bag and spray the herbicide inside bag onto the foliage. This contains and concentrates the herbicide while ensuring it gets transported to the underground tuber structure.
What herbicide do you recommend using? I have this vine everywhere around my garden and by my rose bushes. While the flowers look lovely, it chokes out all my other plants. Need to get radical this year. Is there anything you would recommend that would not contaminate the soil with harmful chemicals as I need to kill the vine in my vegetable garden. Thank you!
I spend half my life digging this out of my garden. After having a new fence put in, it sprouted along the entire length of the fence, almost as though it had been pre-seeded with the weed, but in reality probably as the result of soil disturbance. It grows at an alarming rate and to a great depth!
I joke that we sold our first house to escape the bindweed. Twenty years and two properties later, it finally tracked me down. I found it in a new garden bed last summer, so I lifted all of the (thankfully small) shrubs and perennials, sprayed the bindweed with RoundUp (which I only use on the worst weeds), waited for it to reach the roots, then excavated the entire bed, digging deep and sifting the soil to find any roots. So far this year, I see no signs of the beast. Of course, it also popped up in two established beds, climbing up around some very desirable plants. I carefully unwound several feet and brushed on RoundUp and used newspaper to keep the painted vines from touching my babies. Again, so far, so good this year, but now I'm on a constant lookout for those distinctive leaves. I.Will.Not.Give.In.
I could never endorse the use of Round Up! I had a dog pass away at age 7 suddenly. We had an autopsy done and the dog was found to have excessive levels of glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Round Up. We have the most polluted waterways in the world thanks to chemicals, just count how many bottles of round up leave Home Depot in an hour, on any day of the week. I'll pull the bindweed manually when it first comes up and then torch it with a weed burner the rest of the year. We should all embrace organic gardening methods!
I'm right there with you! Our property was blessed with not only trash, but the bindweed kept company with Virginia creeper, cheet grass, foxtails, and the worst of all, whitetop. I have carpel tunnel from all of that!
@@jongray6159 I agree with you, and I've used it very sparingly and only as a last resort. I have dogs and horses, so I fence off any treated areas and then bag up the dead bindweed and roots.
Thank you for the information on the dreaded Bindweed and explaining that Bindweed has a completely different root system than the beautiful Morning Glory. Morning Glory being started by seed, is an annual flower whereas Bindweed is a perennial that pops up anywhere. I was shocked at how large your Bindweed had grown.
Thank you! I am overwhelmed with this vine and I have dug up many feet of roots, piles . Absolutely love your channel for all kinds of garden wisdom. Bindweed are tenacious.
Try a large milk carton with a side flap containing a concentrate of Glyphosate then cover it with a larger container to prevent it being diluted by rain and put a length of strong bind weed into the first container, over time it will take the poison to the main root and kill it hopefully takes time but works.
I only recently identified this as "Bindweed". For 10 years I've been personally calling it "Devilweed". The freaking stuff does not die. Interestingly, my infestation doesn't have the size you show in your video. Leaves vary in size between my thumbnail, and maybe larger to 1 to 1.5" long on larger outbreaks, but nothing even close to the size you show. But, that's the little flower, and the leaf shape and vining are the same. It gets into everything. Comes up through the middle of everything and just twines around it all. It gets into my Clematis and chokes that. I don't really like chemicals, but the year before last I took 3 months at the end of the year cleared the mulch out, and hit it with weed killer. What I was using actually worked (for once, it's shrugged off everything else I've tried), and for the last two to three months of the year hit every new sprout with weed killer trusting the advertising "kills to the root". The stuff started fading. New sprouts looked less healthy, weaker. I stopped with the chemicals because I didn't want to turn my garden bed into a chemical dump. Figured I finally got it. Nope. It's back, and robust as always. So, I've resigned myself to well mulched garden beds, and every time I get a vine climbing through that I pull it out at the dirt line, hopefully pulling up a bit of tap-root as well. Thanks for the video.
I agree with Marilyn, years ago I had nothing in my garden worth worrying about, so one day I got bolshy and decided to see how far the root went, I have a terraced house with a 20 foot long garden, 15 feet I followed it toward the house before it dived a good 6 feet under the main drain pipe it even branched under and over it, needless to say I don't like it and attack it every year trouble is, it comes in from the next doors garden now as well
The roots can go down 10 feet and the seeds can remain dormant for 50 years. I'm sure if we could find a way to use it for food, it would get diseases and die off.
Wow, thank you Marylin - never knew that. Please tell me, is it also futile to try and kill the blighters by persistently applying a systemic weedkiller?
There’s another TH-cam video on how to eat it! I’m also thrilled to see we have some golden tortoise beetles here, they only eat plants in that family and they are a very “fun” bug to learn about.
I've certainly used the 'bottomless' flowerpot method to spray but I have eradicated the weed very easily from my gardens with glyphosate doing the following: mark the spots where the bindweed is growing when it first appears - direct the bindweed shoots to climb the cane not the shrub - let them grow - about 2 to 3 ft. After this when the point of killing it comes I gently take the cane out and twist opposite to the way the bindweed grows and it falls off the bamboo cane in a nice long strip. Take your small glass jar or sealed plastic container and bury in the ground near the site of the bindweed so about 1/4 of the container is above soil level. Gently fold and push the long length of bindweed into the pot. Dilute your glyphosate to half the recommended amount and fill the jar gently with an old jug, cove the top gently with old slate of clay pot to prevent anything getting at it - or rain splash onto anything nearby. Leave a couple of weeks, plant drinks the weedkiller and dies. When removing the pots - I cut the dead pieces of weed round the pot to ensure the whole pot comes away without spilling anything - this can be safely poured onto the compost heap as now inert. Like all tough weeds (which I have the utmost respect for) it may regenerate partly but that can be expected. This method I have had 100% success with but it requires patience and persistence. I have hand dug as well before which is a lot more hit and miss, especially in established borders. My method with the jars and glyphosate works exceptionally well in established borders. I would say that 99% of all my weed removal is by hand - bindweed infestations are the 1%!
I’m glad you’ve had so much success with this method! Can you tell me how many years it took to get to ~100%? I’m on my second year using this dilution method but only the first year training my field bindweed up bamboo . The first year I waited too long and ended up pushing big arm fulls(!) of the stuff into gallon plastic milk containers before filling them with dilute glyphosate. It seems like progress was made though because there is no longer BW sprouting from my foundation and because this year I’m able to use smaller 32oz containers. Btw the ground is too hard so I skip the step of digging holes for the containers…
That stuff was all over the overgrown Vancouver area garden I took over. I eradicate it section by section with a thick layer of cardboard covered with wood chips or compost. Shoots that find their way out are mostly week and can be pulled out easily. After a few months, the bindweeds are mostly gone, and weeds - including bindweed roots - that try to establish tend to be easy to pull out from the loose mulch layer.
I did the same to my allotments, but just covered the whole thing with weed membrane. I pull out anything that pops up and it's getting very weak now. It can survive without sun for 2 years but after that it will eventually die off
I eradicated bind weed from my present garden. I dug it out using a fork and NOT a spade and certainly not a small garden trowel. The fork allowes the roots to be dug up without being broken and you must gently coax up a particular root sequence and not pull hard on it and break it below the ground as the broken off piece will quickly regrow from the cut off point. Complete eradication of bindweed is the only long term solution and can be done if you are single minded enough. Bindweed generally arrives in your garden as a 'Trojan Horse' piece of root in another plant, so you must be always eternally vigilant, particularly with plant gifts you get from infected gardens
My garden was rife with bindweed. Being inexperienced with it back then, I dug out as much as I could. But it remained, as you said, in small pieces. Every year it would start to appear between crops. I could gently tease it out, but with a week there would be more shoot. I took to a much more vigourous digging. Making sure I got right down to the harder woody rhizome, about a foot down. This didn't do my crops much good at the time, but now, after 7 years, I almost never see any evidence at all. If I doo, the growth is weak and easy to dig out carefully - as much of the root system as possible. Don't let it go. Certainly don't let it flower, I read the seeds are viable for 100's of years like the poppy. My garden had been a horse paddock, left for maybe 10 years. Just about every weed we can expect to see was here in abundance. None has been as persistent as bindweed. Thanks for sharing.
Sissy roots you have there! I've dug up some in my daughter-in-law ' s garden (it was her mother's rose garden so very special to her) the roots were about a foot down and 3/4" in diameter. I dug out all the soil I could without hurting roses and pulled out all the ones I couldn't dig and still it comes back. It's in the neighbour's driveway which runs along side it. I'm anti-chemical where ever possible and I broke down last summer and used the brand name product and it still came back! Thanks for this video, once the Covid is lessened, I will renew my efforts. I really appreciate that collar idea. I did try the weed barrier one year but as soon as I removed it to plant other in the 'new' soil, bind was back with a vengence, likely from the driveway. I think the only way I'm going eradicate it is thru chemicals. I've been dealing with Japanese knot weed in my own garden and it is easily knocked down for a while before I need to climb in and tackle it again. I've never been so ticked off at it that I felt the need to go chemical for this one but bind Weed is a whole other story
I had a border against a fence where I grew morning glory from seeds. In the years after it died off, I was plagued with bindweed along that 30 or so feet. I’m assuming that the morning glory seeded itself and created that nightmare. I’ve also experienced the same nightmare with goutweed, creeping Jenny and coltsfoot. I’ve been tempted to use roundup but have friends who used it quite liberally in their gardens and who are now, coincidentally or not, very sick. I also believe that weeds adapt and become more and more resistant to the weed killing chemicals. So, I won’t use the stuff myself, but I understand the desperation in those that do. Problem is, it’s a Pandora’s box. Now, I lay down cardboard quote thickly and cover with mulch. It’s not a permanent fix, but it’s a harmless control.
Roundup has been stringently restricted in many parts of Canada for years. It should be banned for use in food agriculture. It's a nightmare for the environment, and I have no doubt your neighbours' illnesses are related.
Thank you for the video and the comments everyone. I think I'm going to try to gather up the vines and stuff them into a clear plastic bag, bind up the base with a zip or wire tie.and spray Round Up in a small opening I'll make at the top of the bag, "massaging" the weedkiller into the leaves from outside the bag. I'll then tie the hole I've made in the bag. Attempting a sealed "contained" environment since containers filled with RoundUp seems too hazardous to me. I don't know if this will work, but I just got a quote today of 20, 000.00 to remove bindweed from a 20x3 foot garden that I paid thousands dollars earlier this summer to install. New plants and top soil which wasn't covered with mulch straight afterwards and the morning glory moved in and took over! Gardeners in my Vancouver area charge 100.00 an hour for two men, which means its almost 1000.00 a visit! I used to do it all the gardening myself, happily! Now I have to watch other people do it and pay through the nose for "the pleasure" ! Darn these old knees and hips! Wish me a speedy recovery so that I can get back to my young self!
I recently learned that field bindweed here in Utah, which may be different from this particular type as its leaves are very arrowhead-shaped, can grow vertical roots 50 feet deep, and each horizontal root also grows 50 deep at each section which are pretty close together. Essentially, it's indestructible and impervious to everything except consistent weed torch application. Other than that, cut, dig, (or pull if you must) every 3-4 days.
Remember to not let it flower as it produces many seeds. The battle may be seemingly over from repeated digging and root segment eradication, but If you let it flower and re-seed itself you’re back to square one. I blew my knee out digging this on my farm. It’s a monster.
It is a pain in the arse, but also theraputic to kill it. I grow mine up canes in spring, then in early summer I carefully untwine it, keeping the vine stem whole, and lay it flat in long strings on the ground; then I lightly bruise the leaves, take a paint brush and coat as many leaves as I can with glyphosate gel. Watching it over the next few weeks, slowly turning brown, and thinking of the poison coursing through the root system is so gratifying :) I've managed to nearly eradicate it over three years using this method. It is now confined to one corner of one flower bed only, and is currently dying of glyphosate :)
glyphosate gel is great for treating plants where you can't spray without hitting desireable plants even using barriers. I pull on heavy-duty rubber gloves, squirt the gel onto my gloved hands, & wipe it on the thistle/bindweed/etc. leaves from top to bottom. Wiped out a stand of thistle in a mahonia planting without losing any mahonia. Still working on the bindweed.
I use Glyphosate. This is a "translocating" herbicide: it is absorbed through the foliage and translocates into the root system. To avoid spray drift, the safest method is to apply it by hand. Make a strong mix, 50/50 with water, in a jar or pot .Add a squirt of detergent. This helps it stick to the bind weed leaves and makes it more viscous, so less likely to drip. Now put on rubber gloves, followed by cheap cotton e.g. decorators gloves over the rubber gloves. And now, to battle... Dip your fingers into the mixture to wet the cotton gloves, then carefully dab, smear or grip the bind weed leaves avoiding the host plants it is climbing through. Dab as much as you can of the foliage. In fact, this method works best when the weed is well into growth, or about to flower. After a few days, yellowing will occur, and it will die back over 2-3 weeks. Any vines still unaffected can be re-treated then. You will most likely need to repeat this treatment 2 or 3 times. If the host plants are low-growing, shove-in some tall canes or brushwood for the bindweed to climb up. You can then easily treat it without getting herbicide on the good guys underneath! If you accidentally apply the mix onto your host plant, just cut that bit off to prevent the herbicide being taken in. Another way I have used is to untangle the bindweed and lay it flat on the ground away from the host plant, then dab or squirt it with the mix. Of course, this is not so easy, especially if the vine is twining into a prickly rose! Best to wait, if you can bear it, until your host plant is well swamped, remember, the more leaves treated, the more root will die out. Good luck! Nick.
A problem I have encountered in a previous garden is that the sort of roots you show will link to a much thicker root, maybe 0.75 inches, that can run for several yards. I found that following these for as far as possible and removing them drammatically reduced the problem for the following year. There were still many occurences of bindweed, but as often as not the growth I removed would come out with its complete root.
I have chemical sensitivities, so no toxic chemicals for me. I have a propane weed killer. It works well, maybe all the 1st time, but bind weed and thistles both burn. You don't have to burn the whole plant, just a small part above the ground and long enough for the heat to follow the root into the ground. The root gets killed by the heat of the burning.
Great video, and very relatable. Out of desperation, I did begrudgingly try a couple glyphosate applications last year but to no avail. It might depend in part on the species of bindweed. The field bindweed (C. arvensis) here in Northern California has narrower and smaller leaves than the species in this video, which may inhibit glyphosate uptake. There’s also recent literature supporting the possibility of bindweed glyphosate resistance at a molecular level (Huang et al. 2019). Bottom line for me - the bindweed in my neighborhood is a stubborn perennial reality. It grows prostrate like a mat close to my veggies, AND up the veggie stalks. So chemical warfare is simply not worth here, though it may work for other folks. Needless to say, this year, I’m back to the painstaking “keep at it” approach you suggested first. Happy growing and thanks for the video!
Convolvulus, as we call it in New Zealand, was my worst nightmare when we lived in the suburbs. When I was eight months pregnant with my younger son, I dug an infested area of our garden to get the convolvulus out. It was about ten square metres, and I dug down about three or four feet, and thought I had got out every single fragment of root. After the baby was born, and I had time to go back to gardening, a few months later, that area was as infested as it had ever been: the convolvulus was thick, solid, and covering the tops of the little old peach trees and all the ground!!!
I'm in Northland. My neighbour never controlled his convolvulus.... there's a paper road between us but the convolvulus has crept right down the slope and is coming through my fence. I am pulling it nearly every day. Thinking about selling up!
I have 35 years experience in horticulture and promise you that I have the answer. It does involve the use of glyphosate but it is my view that the hostility to its use is largely misplaced and is the result of the product being used in ways not originally intended by the developers i.e. being sprayed on to food crops that have been genetically modified. The principal initial use of Roundup in the early 70s was to control couch grass. Bindweed is most susceptible, as are all perennial weeds, at the initial onset of flowering. Provide the bindweed something to grow on separate from your desired plants (I use branches pushed into the soil) and wait until the first flower buds appear. If you do not wish to kill any underlying plants or grass use an absorbent material to protect them (not plastic because of runoff). Spray all of the bindweed plant with 360 grammes/litre glyphosate diluted 1 part with 50 parts water. It must not rain for at least 12 hours afterwards, ideally 24 !!! Walk away, do nothing more other than say bye bye to the bindweed. Glyphosate is broken down by soil microbes and will not cause any problems at all with your soil I can guarantee.
I can attest anecdotally to glyphosate not lingering in the soil...that blasted bindweed will disappear for a few weeks and then come fighting back! My other plants are just fine as long as they are not directly sprayed. I will have to try giving the bindweed canes to grow on, it's currently trying to take over my back patio.
When using weed killer in an area close to other plants use a paintbrush to apply, no danger of overspray. For larger areas such as grass you want to get rid of a paint roller works well also. The bonus is you may never buy WK again one quart concentrate may last forever.
Unwanted cardboard works great as a weed barrier too. It’s a great way to reuse, reduce and recycle something that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Do remove the plastic tape and other fasteners. Another benefit is it will decompose back into the garden.
In the RHS garden at WIsley bindweed was growing in a border. The gardeners installed a structure of sticks for it to climb on, keeping it away from the specimens in the border. This would help them to keep from causing unwanted damage to the other plants when it came time to spray the weed.
Dry the roots to a desiccated state and then they are safe to add to the compost, they are a useful source of phosphate. been fighting bindweed for decades and tried all methods, you never win, you just stay boss.
Bindweed, myrtle spurge, sumac tree, and Canadian Thistle. Those 4 "welcomed" us to our home 10 years ago due to negligence (resulting in tremendous overgrowth) from previous owner. Eradicated all but the bindweed. Soon as we finally controlled and killed off the sumac (has a root system that works much like the bindweed), the bindweed moved right into that space. Same for the myrtle spurge, which is a monster here along the Wasatch Front foothills. Got rid that after an 8 yr fight (still will find one here and there along our hillside but we take 'em out immediately)... Only the bindweed remains... and still loves to put up a good fight by spreading itself all over after just a week... Fun times.
I'll try to keep this short but I got rid of all the bindweed in my garden with just one single application! It took a few hours but was well worth it. I bought some 360gl glysophate (it costs around £25 for 5 litres here in the Uk and should be diluted @ 25ml to I litre of water) I mixed around 1 cup of neat glyphosate with around half a cup of black ink and quarter cup of dishsoap. I then painted each bindweed leaf with one small stripe of the mixture ensuring none was spilt on the ground or touched any other plant. Well nothing happened for about 5 weeks and then almost overnight all the bindweed died. This was over three years ago and it hasn't grown back since!!!
@@user-ck9ei6re2x It certainly should work but really depends on how many leaves you're able to paint. Glyphosate works by entering the plant through the leaves and killing the roots so if you have a large plant with only a few accessible leaves then it might not be as effective as being in a position to paint more or all of the leaves. All I'd say is give it a try as you have nothing to lose!
Glyphosate is considered safe and is used by both home gardeners and commercial farmers worldwide. Not sure why you consider it a poison but a small amount used is my garden is hardly going to poison the ecosystem is it 😉.
@@anthonyb8600 safe for who? Not for birds, bees or the environment (or humans over time)The point is lots of people use it "just in their garden" but also used widely in farming and it's creeping into all of our food.
I'm in the same climate zone as you in W Washington and I agree with everything you presented here. The greatest problem I have with the chemical approach is that you are never really sure that you have applied it 100% correctly. If you are a serious gardener you are always trying to analyse why some plants are thriving and others aren't, so by introducing a chemical agent you have complicated your ability to diagnose garden issues for years into the future. The comments here are wonderful and I heartily agree with all those who say the key is diligent weeding regardless of which other approach you use. And try to be philosophical, bindweed is more annoying than lethal, it is easy enough to pull the vines like you say.
Thanks for your thoughts. I've also been impressed at the thoughtfulness of the commenters here. My (selling) season is winding down now, so I'll be catching up on my hand-weeding in the coming two or three weeks.
Firstly, I'm totally envious of your beautiful soil! I'm in Southern California, and have a large area I've added to my yard that is about three feet deep with clay. I'd let the 'ground morning glories' grow because they were the only pretty thing there. I just realized it was actually bindweed. Ours has smaller leaves (oval, about an inch long), and the flowers are just over an inch across. Right now most of it has gone brown, and is easy to scrape up off the surface. Over the last few years I've done sheet mulching with cardboard, but not thicker than two inches. In the spring the bindweed grows up through and flowers. People have said shade discourages it, but the shady corner is the only place there are new green clumps of the stuff. It looks line I have a new battle on my hands. At least I got rid of the tumbleweeds. When I acquired the property it was covered in 6ft tall grass weeds and four prickly varieties of plantain type weeds, with a 6 inch layer of weed seeds at the bottom. Thanks for addressing this issue. I adore your fantastic roses!
This weed was in my front yard, and it is trying to creep into the back yard where my garden is. It probably came in on a dirty rototiller, which is one reason I don't rent rototillers. Wasn't my idea! Anyway, glyphosate has worked in the front yard so far, after using it a few years. I am working on getting out of the area on the side of the house. The stuff is pushing up the asphalt! I don't spray, I wear chemical resistant gloves and paint it on the plant, making sure it comes in good contact with the leaves. I hate using this product, but I hate bindweed even more. Everything else here I do is organic style. This is my dirty little secret. We also have a bad case of hoary cress in back, and it made its way into my precious Grotto, I am tackling that this summer. There will be a deep barrier in the soil, very serious plastic sheets with cardboard and carpet on top, and a judicious use of the dreaded glyphosate. Don't get me started on the Virginia creeper! And the "wild" roses! Neighbors who plant invasive species along their fence lines with other neighbors are jerks!
For budget reasons I prefer not to rely too much on chemicals for my garden, but bindweed definitely changed my feelings on that! Unfortunately it's growing on the other side of my fence in an apartment's patch of dirt so I'll probably never be rid of it.
Some of us have a PON1 (serum paraoxanase) deficiency and cannot metabolize organophosphate well and Roundup is not an option. If you must use it, I would recommend that you get a plastic bowl with a lid, cut a hole in it and then put some Roundup liquid in the bowl. Put the Bindwind vine into the bowl so that it absorbs the Roundup into the root. The energy descends best into the root during the late summer early fall. I used this method with vinegar after spending the summer tearing out the growing vine. The Roundup is more toxic and more effective but if you are not spraying it in your neighbors' air, it may be okay to use it in the summer but remember it will be more effective when the plant energy descends into the roots. BTW, I learned these techniques here on TH-cam but don't have the links.
I tried putting Roundup in a bowl and soaking the bindweed in it. I hate using Roundup too, and the bindweed is still there. Laughing at me, I am sure!
Whoops..wasn’t done explaining. Cut round hole on lid of container with slit to outside of lid to help get the vine in. Close tightly and leave all winter. Looks a bit funny with containers all over, but does seem to help!
Herbicides are like a black magic spell. Works fantastic and bounces back to you with a high price (mostly health problems). Weeding constantly is the only solution. You can try to weed first, fertilze (organic) little more than normal and than cover with this membrain. Cover the membrain more for aesthetic reasons with mulch. Look after the edges and weed. Weeding weeks the plants first, feeding stimulate the growth of the weed and covering blocks the necessary light source. The weed gets exhausted. Overlap the membrain when you cover the area 30 to 50 cm. Have patience. Sometimes it is good to look for some special needs of the weed. Sometimes it likes more acid soil, then sweeten the soil, depends on what your grow as a crop. And if you have no time to do this all, don’t let it seed, and weed as you can. Wish you luck. Or change your mind, grow bindweed as a crop, then the roses will take over as a weed. 🤣
I use a handheld wick applicator to kill stuff like bindweed. Since it's not a spray device and the quantity of weedkiller, generally glyphosphate, used is tiny there is little risk of damage to garden plants. All you do is wait for the wick to become damp and then wipe it along a couple of leaves of the offending plant. It's also very effective at controlling docks in grass and little or no damage is done to the surrounding grass if it's applied carefully.
My ex was a fencer and he had some extra privacy fence that is put up while a fence is being built.... we layed this down and discovered that it worked really well in killing the weeds. I have raised beds and i'm thinking of laying some privacy fence down in the pathways to keep things from getting out of hand. I have a big battle to deal with first though! It took over my garden last year and I didn't have time to manage it.
I’ve been fighting bindweed in my yard since 1992. At that point it was growing along my backyard ( boundary with neighbour behind) fence. I dug down 3 feet, along the whole width of my lot, and screened the soil, in attempt to get rid of the roots. Then I planted pyramid cedars, covered the ground around the base of the cedars with 6 mil black plastic, and covered the black plastic with rocks. The bindweed came back and is spreading up both lot side fences. I pull the vines, let them dry out, or “cook” them in clear, heavy plastic bags. I even tried roundup ( very reluctantly, being one who doesn’t like to use herbicides) . Like the infamous cat, the bindweed came back. Good luck, but I suspect you’re going to be weeding bindweed for many years.
Fraser Valley Rose Farm ::: A devil of a nuisance! It’s taken over my grapes & compost bins. That vinegar boiling method sounds like a satisfying method of discouragement... Let us pray!
I had 4 chickens a few years ago and by having a movable chicken pen with fence they are great against all weeds. I never saw any damage to establish plants like roses, but I had to be careful with the newly planted or small plants. The chickens were also great against slugs and snails, though I only ever saw one of the chickens eating slugs.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm "You dont have a snail problem but a duck shortage" Bill Mollison Likewise, you dont have a bindweed prblem, you have a goat shortage
Only way to truly get rid of this and other hazardous, invasive and dangerous weeds, unless your aim is to embark on a lifetime project of pulling them. This along with the horrible Mile-a-minute vine and Giant Hogweed are best candidates for a powerful weedkiller like Roundup which acts on a chemical pathway only found in plants. It only takes a small spray on the leaves to initiate the destruction of the plant since the active ingredient is transported though the entire noxious weed. Well presented video, thanks.
I use a sheet mulching technique, but it is more of a road bump. Nature always finds a way, but weeds like Bindweed are tenacious. Occasionally i do use chemical means, by digging down to the runners and "painting" the cut ends. I try not to spray, for all the usual reasons, but I also keep bees and we let chickens roam a few times a day.
Today, I attempted your 2nd way to remove bindweed. I found a brush on application poison that is coloured bright orange and spent a good hour painting on this poison. I have dug most of it up over the past 5 yrs and have almost eradicated it. I will update you in a few weeks to let you know the outcome. Great video btw. Jo ( New Zealand)
It's so strange how the "taking over" of a plant depends so much on where you live. I guess any plant will take over if the conditions are right for it. I'm in south west central PA, and we grow Bindweed on our front porch-on purpose-as a surrogate Morning Glory. It grows quietly here on the edges of the woods around last year's dried reeds, where it stays mostly choked-out by the other weeds. I have to admit that we think of Bindweed as a pleasure here, especially because it has no unpleasant side effects. So try to see the silver lining: consider what a discomfort an invasion of Poison Ivy or Stinging Nettles would be! Our problem weed here is a type of prickly Thistle, which, trust me, is much more of a chore to yank than a soft, flowery vine. That said, good luck with your battle, sir!
Thanks. You're so right! It's one reason why I always take the "invasive species" conversations with a grain or two of salt. What's troublesome even a few hours south of here seems to be quite tame in my garden.
I have a small bindweed problem. Since my garden area is not large, I use the chemicals you mentioned, but paint then on the leaves with a small brush. As soon as I see a plant, I treat it. I feel this gives a greatest chance of killing the roots . This year (so far) no bindweed spotted
Before watching the video, here's what I did: pull them out three years in a row, never allowing them to get beyond the flowering stage. Covered the soil with mulch a couple of times, just to drain energy from their roots. A similar approach has worked for slugs, ticks and other creatures I wanted to get rid of. One must be patient, but two to three years is often enough to break the cycle.
I had a feeling that this "pretty little vine" near my spent tulips and hyacinths was up to no good and decided I didn't want it in the bed I was about to plant. I dug down very deep too, probably at least a foot, wondering as I removed them, "What are all these white carrot-y things?" I researched afterwards that it was bindweed and I was SO HAPPY I took the time to go that deep BEFORE I planted the rest of that bed. The next bed over, my partner simply removed the green tops, tilled the soil a little and planted perennials. Now every perennial over there is choking out and it's a constant battle. I notice that shade from bushes and peonies does keep the weed down a lot. But here is my dilemma: Over in the bindy bed (lol) there are established plants that I can't just lift so that I can dig out this stuff. I dug around my prettiest rose bush, and saw the bindweed roots completely engulfing and living very happily among the woody rosebush roots. There is NO WAY I can spray the bindweed with a chemical, and I can't get at all the roots either. My only recourse is to literally every Saturday morning get on my hands and knees and pluck the little green leaves so the roots starve. That's the only thing I can think of that I can do. Does anybody have a sense if that will be successful? And am I to understand that I will have this to look forward to next year too? The articles I read on it say that the seeds last 30 years... I won't even be here on this earth that long!
I have this in my front garden and have had 5 episodes of it growing inside my house!! 2 separate plants are being removed as I write this 1 half way up my stairs the other in my front room on an internal wall.
Out here in the Desert SW, that is called Morning Glory, as Bindweed is much smaller with a very distinct leaf and a tiny flower....it creates a different kind of seed, one that is like the feathers of an airborne distributor, and it milks when it is cut!
I would say that this plant is the Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, rather than the Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis. Both are a nuisance, but the Hedge Bindweed is the one that spreads horizontally at such a rate.
I think the design of bindweed is to snap easily when pulled which always leaves roots behind. I have an area with stones which is particularly hard to weed and I've not yet gotten rid of it. By the way, our blooms are only about 1" in size. Yours are massive!
I have seen bindweed pull down very large glasshouses, we fought it in our previous garden for years and years, keep on it, blocking its light even with old newspaper or carpet can help. Newspapers? Now that’s a rarity now! 🤣
I haven't let it pull down a structure (yet), but when it grows over those red cedar trees, it leaves big bald patches from where it's blocked the light. The piles I'm pulling off are massive!
Wow, you're not kidding, it is my nemesis! I had it so bad in my rose border, I dug up 94 roses, and spade dug through a border 13m long, 2 m wide and 1m deep (yeah yeah, overcrowded roses, shh!) I only intended to dig down 1ft and remove all trace of bindweed roots, but they extended 1m down and in some places a bit deeper., but this year almost none - the tiny remnants are from broken pieces near the surface which I am staying on top of before they go deep. The garden looks the best it has ever been this year, and so many worms. Mind you, with that amount of aeration and loosening of heavy clay it's no wonder.
sc3pt1c4L you are talking to me! I have 29 rose plants in a space 11 ft x 2 ft. In a small area of this bed I have been battling bindweed since we moved to the property 10 years ago. I am 78 and I planted these. Now I have problems with my back so find it difficult to spend time digging. Most of my roses are English roses so thorns come with the territory ( I live in the U.K.). When I try digging to remove the roots I end up with thorns sticking into me at every turn. I have given up and will just pull as far as I can go. I am tempted to try vinegar but fear that it may affect the roots of my roses.
@@redcurrant2023 We can't help our addictions! In a choice of squeeze them in or go without...make room! You can use a small paintbrush to 'paint' weedkiller onto the leaves. It goes into the roots and does a good job. I would have done this if my patch wasn't 2m wide - I cannot reach the middle/back of the border without crushing the perennial plants in between the roses (yeah yeah, more plants squeezed in). If you are close to me I'd happily do it for you, I'm in the Manchester area of UK.
sc3pt1c4L Thank you for your offer. I am in Hertfordshire but I think I will take your advice with the paintbrush. The lockdown has done wonders for my plants because I was able to give them my undivided attention. I understand all about addiction🤫. I have been sticking perennials everywhere telling myself ‘this way I won’t have to plant every year’ ....but I am just trying to fool myself. I have decided to dig up all my spring bulbs in September....tulips, hyacinths snowdrops and daffodils....pass them through a sieve to remove the soil, then replant a bit away from the edge of the borders to prevent the unsightly mess after they have done their duty next year. Wish me luck. At my age I have decided to isolate for the rest of the year because I am rather enjoying it.
@@redcurrant2023 I should do the same with my bulbs, best show ever this year with those too, but I have over 10'000 so not a chance! Oh you have much better weather down there...I'm envious. Mind you, I wouldnt mind some rain. Driest I ever remember it this season. Good luck!
I'm currently battling bindweed on my new allotment. I'm using an organic no dig method of gardening, and mulching is definitely something that works if you can cover enough ground! But if there are any holes, the little buggers will find their way through! 😂😂 The leaves do not like being sprayed with vinegar so that can help control the plant too although it will not kill the root.
I put down sheep belly wool on top of the compost in the no dig allotment. First I removed bindweed the way Charles Dowding recommends. Every six inches there was a bindweed, so you can imagine what removing these was like. Then afterwards when the bindweed grows back, it threads itself through the wool. I pull up the wool and the bindweed tears at the soil level or a bit below. The bindweed in the wool dies. Of course I'm anticipating repeat procedures but it looks pretty good right now with only a few of the originals coming through. I also find that wool is the best mulch for keeping moisture in the soil. I have used different mulches in the past and thought this year I would do an experiment. A good layer of wool prevents the annual weeds from growing. Plus since the wool contains both urine and fecal matter (smells like a barn), when it rains the goodies get washed into the soil. The wool turns clean.
Wow, That thing is really an abrasive little plant!. This spring I planted about a dozen "Party Dress" Morning Glory vines around my yard and at this point they're doing fine; they're beautiful!🌺 But now, Im concerned since you mention Binweed is related to MG, I hope I don't end up regretting my decision 🤔 and adding it to my long list of yard battles.
Marcy Castillo ..... hopefully not although it may depend on where you live , we’re in the UK and I plant MG the electric blue colour that runs riot in Greece but over here it doesn’t manage to over winter by its root system, if I’m lucky I may find a few seeds that have sprouted if we’ve had a milder winter.
@@marieeab01 Thank you for your feedback, I find it interesting how different a plant can behave depending on its global location 🙂....It gets really hot here in Austin Tx and we get mostly mild winters....I am jealous of the snowy winters in the UK ❄❄❄
Gardening for or decades. Not as much but still an issue in our dry southern Alberta garden. Yup, yanking it out. But early as soon as I see any emerging. Also, if any ‘major‘ weed issue, I find it’s nearly always better to Reno the section. Not as much work as it seems and I can do it quickly. Dig up Herbaceous perennials except for clematis and Leave hardwood vines and shrubs. Lay landscape cloth, replant perennials, a couple inches of cedar mulch. If desired..the landscape cloth can be pulled out the next year. Key is not to be fussy with landscape cloth. No need to cut it precisely or get rid of folds or fasten it down. The mulch holds it down and looks pretty classy.
When I dug the bind weed out it disturbed the rose roots and I got suckers for years. This year tried digging very shallow (2cm) with a really sharp kitchen knife. Very quick and effortless, tidy up. No suckers, but needs to be repeated a few times, but my rose beds are MUCH tidier this year....
the key i have found to solving the bindweed problem in my orchard is that i walk all over doing all the chores and always have a weed pick with me and as i find it where i am, i take it out with as much of root as i can. my issue is always on the perimeter of the property because bindweed is rampant in the area. it does not take much effort and it is now just automatic... i see and take it out without even thinking about it. i have not seen bindweed as big as yours in a long time... the largest one i yanked this year was about a foot long. when i first started though... yeah... the first year was a lot of work. after that... just get in the habit of spotting them and yanking them. as i have improved the soil, more and more of the roots come out as i have a really loose soil now so that helps. i would not use chemicals as this is not a problem you will solve for good. chances are that bindweed is all over your area so even when you eliminate the plants from your land, wind and animals will bring new plant to you. so if you use chemicals you will do so for ever. if you are willing to do that, you have more severe issues that are far more important than bindweed.
Thank you I see it's a worldwide problem , I live near Cambridge, England . My garden is ruined by Bindweed , we locally call it Bell vine , but it's getting better each year with vigilance of digging out the roots . Good luck
I tend to peel it carefully from whatever plant it has got on and coil it up on the ground. Then I spray it. It seems to be effective and it reduces the risk of affecting other plants.
Yes, remove the roots and never (!!!!) put in compost. I once dug out some bindweed, which previous owners had cultivated as a pretty vine to decorate their patio, and let it dry out three days in the very hot summer sun, then put the dried, crispy remnants into my compost and it still came to life! I had to re-weed the composter! Never again!
This looks like what I call a love vine because it clings to all of my plants and it will choke them out. I fight this weed all over my yard except in the grassy areas. It seems like I have controlled it better this year I do use thick boxers and land scape fabric. I haven’t used any thing like round up yet I just keep pulling it up and dispose of it with old grass clippings and yard waste and the city picks it up. I would never put it in my compost pile
Thanks Ruby. Yes, it keeps out of my lawn - and it may be my next tactic around the margins of my property: to "skirt" the trees and shrubs on the fence line, mow low and overseed. I suspect I'll still see wicked emergence around the fenceposts, but it would be a step in the right direction.
Find where it starts if you can. Dig below the long parallel root stems and keep working to take out the root system as you go along. Divorce wanted plant specimens if you can. If you reach the end you have won a coconut.
Thank you for these tips, I will be trying the digging method first. I have moved into a rental where the garden has been at least 50% taken over with this plague. It has even killed a hardy and established native tree that would have once attracted birds.
It's such a great shame this plant is so invasive in the garden. The flowers are magnificent, and the leaves are attractive as well. But the real horror is their root system.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm Yes. The Heavenly blue for example, is a dream to have growing nicely on a trellis in the garden. Unfortunately, these plants tend to be very sensitive to cold weather. Preferring mediterranean like temperatures. While here in the UK....Well, it tends to be cold, windy, wet and miserable for most of the early part of the year.
Beside pulling and digging all summer, there is another “trick” to try that has helped keep my bindweed somewhat manageable. In the fall, leave 6-8 inches on a vine and immerse cut end (leaves especially) in small container filled with weed killer. I use cottage cheese or butter containers
As a gardener, I took over a garden with about 20sq metres of plastic sheeting. The last gardener put it down for over two yrs, then I come along. I told the customer it was a waste of time. "No plant can live without light and water for three yrs" she said. OK I said and we dug out the plastic sheeting. Three weeks later the bind weed started coming up. This plant, like many other weeds, are from the prehistoric times. I did kill over about 4 months with glyphosate. It never come again.
I have hedge bindweed (the name we in the UK use for the white flowered variety in the video) growing at the side of my house on a 15ft strip of flowerbed and turf between the house and the road. Mercifully it is contained to this area so far and I have taken some extreme ongoing measures so far in the war. I have dug down to the level of the chalk under our soil and excavated all the soil into big dumpy bags to then filter into another dumpy bag so as not to leave any shard of root behind. They snap so easily you can’t rely on just digging around to find them all. Once the bed has been excavated I will put down cardboard on the bottom (in case of any pesky roots that got into the chalk layer) and coming up around the sides to ground level to stop any roots growing in from the side where I haven’t excavated the grass strip. Once all the filtered soil is back in (I put the rest in rubble bags and take it to the rubble and hardcore section of the dump), I will be vigilant as I expect some to have survived in the grass and there are likely to be seeds in the soil I can’t filter out, so plan there is to either spray with chemicals or pull up any leaves as soon as they appear to deprive it of energy - I may use that garden cane method discussed elsewhere in the comments as I like the sound of that as well as the mixing of the chemical with black ink and soap. This has got to be a war I can win…
You can install membrane at the boundary edge vertically into the soil to a depth of about 45cm to act as a barrier against weeds coming in, and as this is not affecting rain water it can be a strip of pvc sheet rather than woven fabric which will hold back the weeds much longer. Long term, landscape fabric can make your weed problem worse as the roots grow through it and then it just gets in the way of clearing the soil
Those thick rubber mats kill all weeds if you leave them on long enough. We used them where we were going to build a hoop house the next year-they were on the sod & weeds from summer until late Spring, close to a year. Didn’t have any weeds for that whole year, but eventually bindweed came back. I didn’t know what it was, or probably could have caught it sooner.
Once you suffocate it with rubber mats, perhaps a combination of thick straw mulch/cardboard, etc, might be able to prevent it from coming back. We seem to have controlled thistle in one area of our garden for the 1st time since moving here (it’s worse than bindweed because it HURTS!), just need to keep after it.
Bindweed in our garden was starting to get out of control in one season. I dug out all the plants in one area and then dug and sifted down about 18”. I got at least half a bin full of root (it stinks too.) Now I do a daily inspection because even if you have left 1” of root it will start growing again. I leave a spade nearby and if I see any sign then dig and remove. You have to be more tenacious than the plant.
Keep the bindweed knocked down throughout the season using all these techniques (never let them flower if possible; 3 seeds per flower & the current data says seeds last up to 60 yrs in the soil), but know that the general consensus is to really go after field bindweed chemically in the fall. Why? Because as the weed starts drawing energy/nutrients from the leaves back into the roots, spraying in the fall will concentrate the weed killer chemicals in the roots, incteasing your chances of finally killing off the roots. As w/ most weedkillers, make sure to have plenty of leaf matter for the chemical to stick to, & if granular, be sure the leaves are damp so the granules stick.
I did that for 9 months. A lot of it died but you could still see yellow stems of the bindweed. I sprayed it will a herbicide in it's weakened state and got more of it. I dug a lot up after that to weaken it even more. It is back though from the neighbours a year later.
Such a tough weed! We joke that the earth is held together by a massive tangled root ball of the stuff! Pulling it seems to only “make it angry.” Smothering it seems to only make it grow in matted white sections. (I’ve done this and it continued to grow, mats of it, just white) until it found an edge- any distance away possible. Chemicals didn’t work either. Tried them all when I was younger. Now I just pull. I even brushed some on. They leached from the roots and killed the grass. The bindweed died a foot or so down and just re-grew. 😖
Oh-ma-gosh! This stuff is the bane of my gardening existence. Both from the vines and the million sprouts. Mine is much smaller leaves and flowers and will grow in areas that never even get watered. I live in Central WA state so pretty arid. I've heard that the roots can extend 25 ft down. The only good thing is that it produces so much leaf matter for mulching!
As someone who had his garden overrun with this stuff before I realized what was happening, I can verify that the ONLY way to deal with it is herbicide, and even at that it takes several applications.
Sorry to say, but I'm glad I'm not alone!!! I've been battling my infestation of this plant for 28 years..the runners go for 9 metres along the front of my house!!! I have it in the back garden too...it's a demon!
Thanks for this. I've got a small area of garden which seems to sprout this stuff regardless of what i do. It's being turned into a decorative gravel area to help with drainage, so hopefully that combined with a barrier and a dose of WK will see most of it off.
Hi Jason, having showed us a rose and shrub which was overcome with bindweed you then didn't show how to eradicate/reduce the bindweed in that situation. I had a bed of hydrangeas of about 25 plants that were smothered by bindweed each summer and you couldn't get to where the bindweed plants were growing. In the end I resorted to lifting all the hydrangeas, allowing the bindweed to grow on its on and applied 2/3 applications of glyphosate. It did the trick. I don't want to use pesticides , but when needs must.
I have a small bindweed plant in a container, it has white, purple/violet and pink flowers. I have a twine-wrapped post in the middle of the pot and I wrap it around that.
My Granddad used to mix some strong weed killer with old engine oil and paint the leaves of the bindweed. That worked but you have to be careful to avoid the other plants.
We also have a problem with bindweed. We found out early on that Bindweed loved the raised beds in our vegetable garden. If you dig down on the inside of the boards which form the frame of the raised beds you will find big bundles of the white roots running all along the boards. It reminded me of the bundles of electrical cables you see in industrial installations. We got rid of the raised beds. Now when we dig over the whole area we pick out as much of the roots as possible. In this way we can keep it under control but not eradicate it. We still have a problem with permanently planted areas especially soft fruit like raspberries, Red Currents and so on.
Always finds a way through the fabric. I only found a significant reduction where very heavy pine mulch was laid. Not sure if it's the components on the pine or the heaviness of the mulch. At least 4 inches.
Thanks Rebecca. We've been able to reduce our bindweed by about 90% this year but with a lots of attention: anytime we see a small shoot make an appearance, we have to drop everything and remove it right away.
Thank you! This was really helpful!! Never saw or heard of this until 4-years ago, when it showed up in my front yard!!!! Now it’s also in my backyard!! I will definitely start spraying it ASAP!!!!!!
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Many years ago, a commentator on a BBC gardening programme said that the only way to get rid of bindweed is for you to deal with the surface layer and for a friend in Australia to deal with the roots !!
Lol. I like that!
LOL! That sounds about right. And add Bermuda Grass to that as well.
@@SpanishEclectic yes, omg, killing that is a nightmare lol
We have a couple of techniques for dealing with bindweed. First, trying to dig it out is futile. You can never get all the root fragments that regenerate. We have found that using chemicals works well if very carefully applied. We use a strong mix of Round-up liquid which we apply with a small foam paintbrush directly to the leaves of bindweed plants as they come up. This works well, minimizes the chemical application, the poison kills the roots, and does not endanger other plants. And is much easier on your back than trying to dig them out. You don't have to treat every leaf; my rule of thumb is 4-6 leaves per vine usually does the trick. You will miss plants; you usually have to go back 3-4 times in a growing season to get vines that you miss in earlier passes.
A second technique is to garden with bindweed-unfriendly plants. Bindweed likes sun and loosely-spaced plants with stalks they can climb. Densely clustering plants, like our native black-eyed susans, monopolize their space and keep bindweed from getting a purchase. Our mums grow in dense clusters and do a pretty good job holding bindweed at bay. The big leaves of our hostas shade the ground and keep bindweed from growing. I've also noticed that bindweed doesn't overgrow our azaleas. We've found our cornflowers and bee balm, however, get overrun. So if you have problem with persistent bindweed infestations, think strategically about what you plant, where. Observe where the bindweed flourishes and where it does not, what plants seem to keep it at bay (think plants that shade the ground or form dense clusters) and which plants don't, and plant accordingly.
instead of a small plastic marker, use a longer cane to train it, the bindweed climbs the cane (direct the cane away from good plants) snip it off at the bottom every time it gets high enough so it spends all it's energy on vegative growth rather than sending it down to the roots, eventually it will weaken and die off, scortching with a blowlamp (or boiling water) instead of snapping off also helps weaken it faster as energy is used to try to repair it's self (cane method is also the best way to use chemicals applied with rubber gloves rather than spray if that's your choice) We get it intertwined on Honeysuckle that's trained over a large dome making chemicals difficult to use without killing the honeysuckle, birds nest in the honeysuckle and bring new bindweed seeds every couple of years, using the cane method solves it for us.
Glassback DIY l sure appreciate this solution. I have worked futilely to clear a particular area for years.
Sara Revesz I was having a problem with bindweed in my vegetable garden and now I have several raised garden beds and put down landscape fabric, haven’t seen one in two years
Dang. Boiling water is actually a brilliant idea. ❤
@@lighthousephoto7143I went to comment the same thing, absolutely brilliant
@@lighthousephoto7143 Boiling water is good for spot weed killing. My electric kettle boils minimum just under two cups. So one weed gets the left over. Seems to help on my garden path at no cost.
I have this bindweed in my front garden . For the last 3-4 years, spring through to summer , I am constantly pulling it off my shrubs and digging up the roots ; it has definitely got weaker and less of a problem now. I never let it get to the flowering stage , good luck everyone with your bindweed battle 🙂👍
Thanks. I'm seriously looking forward to getting to this stage.
For ornamentals, I agree that this is the best approach. Grab it when you see it, and don’t allow it to flower. It becomes weaker with time.
@@DovidM yes! The flowers are easy to identify so git 'em before they mature and eliminate the seed pods even before they can appear. Glassback DIY also has a great method.
My neighbor let those thing grow up to the side of his house 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ I have to say it got a bit better after 3and half years. I find cover with the fabric is not a solution because after around 10 years they poke through the fabric. Not just the bindweed but also the dandelions and the blackberries. If you have have clay soil, you develop flood on a heavy rain.
If you just want to clear an area of all weeds, or want to remove it from between trees and shrubs where you can’t dig up. Best thing I’ve found is brushwood killer, brush it onto the leaves with a paintbrush and be careful not to get it into any plants you don’t want to kill. If you have some blue/purple food die, mix it into the weed killer so you can see which leaves you’ve treated… the more you get the more effective it will be. You’ll have to follow it up with another application or two after a few months just to be sure. But it works well for removing it from between other plants
Our Community Garden had 20' x 30' plot that we covered in heavy black plastic as a demonstration of weed control. After a year all weeds were gone... except bindweed. It had a huge network of roots just under the plastic. It was very healthy & happy. My guess is that it escaped & grew beyond the plastic.
I enjoy your videos. Thank you.
I did the same under landscape fabric. The roots were happy to use it as a subway. I use agricultural vinegar pull up one side of the landscape fabric and spray the roots in the walkways and beds
Never use a spade to dig up the roots. It just cuts them and gives thousands more plants. Always use a garden fork and loosen the soil around the roots. Do not try to pull them out until the soil, is thoroughly loosened.
My thoughts too 🙂
I agree…vigilance and a good garden fork!!!!
My brain says, no matter how or what one uses, it breaks, and can re-grow🤔.
I use a spade, and dig very deep. Then I turn the clump around, and continue digging a square meter or so. Sometimes I put the clumps on some tarp while I clean the hole. Then I tackle the clumps, and put the soil back. In that way, when new weeds appear it's easy to just pull it out, because the roots are not so long, or deep. It works for me.
That is how I do it where it is possible. But once it grows too tight to a plant I just pull and pull....
My father grew up in eastern Nebraska during the 1930’s and 40’s. He told me that bindweed was such a problem that they organized bindweed control districts, governmental organizations devoted to organizing efforts against this weed.
Had problems with it in the past. Despite lots of manual effort, in the end I resorted to a herbicide. Cleared it up completely. I found that knocking it back as soon as I saw it was the best strategy 👍
did you use it when it had enough leaves to be sprayed as shoots came up in spring? I saw most advise says to spray herbecide when its in flower
I live in Ireland and sad to say the problem is just as bad here! I used Glyco in two areas, I was very careful to avoid spray drift. Using the foam setting instead of spray, I held the nozzle within 10mm of the leaves to deposit the foam directly on them. However I got a nasty surprise, the two fully grown shrubs (under which the bind weed roots were growing)- partly died back - about 30% of each shrub was lost! I suspect the shrub's roots were in contact with the weed root and they absorbed the glyco. ??. Is that possible?
Put the collected vine, still attached to the roots underground, inside a clear plastic bag and spray the herbicide inside bag onto the foliage. This contains and concentrates the herbicide while ensuring it gets transported to the underground tuber structure.
What herbicide do you recommend using? I have this vine everywhere around my garden and by my rose bushes. While the flowers look lovely, it chokes out all my other plants. Need to get radical this year. Is there anything you would recommend that would not contaminate the soil with harmful chemicals as I need to kill the vine in my vegetable garden. Thank you!
I spend half my life digging this out of my garden. After having a new fence put in, it sprouted along the entire length of the fence, almost as though it had been pre-seeded with the weed, but in reality probably as the result of soil disturbance. It grows at an alarming rate and to a great depth!
I joke that we sold our first house to escape the bindweed. Twenty years and two properties later, it finally tracked me down. I found it in a new garden bed last summer, so I lifted all of the (thankfully small) shrubs and perennials, sprayed the bindweed with RoundUp (which I only use on the worst weeds), waited for it to reach the roots, then excavated the entire bed, digging deep and sifting the soil to find any roots. So far this year, I see no signs of the beast. Of course, it also popped up in two established beds, climbing up around some very desirable plants. I carefully unwound several feet and brushed on RoundUp and used newspaper to keep the painted vines from touching my babies. Again, so far, so good this year, but now I'm on a constant lookout for those distinctive leaves. I.Will.Not.Give.In.
Your vigilance is paying off!
I could never endorse the use of Round Up! I had a dog pass away at age 7 suddenly. We had an autopsy done and the dog was found to have excessive levels of glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Round Up. We have the most polluted waterways in the world thanks to chemicals, just count how many bottles of round up leave Home Depot in an hour, on any day of the week. I'll pull the bindweed manually when it first comes up and then torch it with a weed burner the rest of the year. We should all embrace organic gardening methods!
I'm right there with you! Our property was blessed with not only trash, but the bindweed kept company with Virginia creeper, cheet grass, foxtails, and the worst of all, whitetop. I have carpel tunnel from all of that!
That is NOT funny! I might be forced off my garden patch by bindweed...
@@jongray6159 I agree with you, and I've used it very sparingly and only as a last resort. I have dogs and horses, so I fence off any treated areas and then bag up the dead bindweed and roots.
Thank you for the information on the dreaded Bindweed and explaining that Bindweed has a completely different root system than the beautiful Morning Glory. Morning Glory being started by seed, is an annual flower whereas Bindweed is a perennial that pops up anywhere. I was shocked at how large your Bindweed had grown.
You should see mine. I am forced to use the isolate and spray method. It is under the massive rocks on my rockery!
Thank you! I am overwhelmed with this vine and I have dug up many feet of roots, piles . Absolutely love your channel for all kinds of garden wisdom. Bindweed are tenacious.
Try a large milk carton with a side flap containing a concentrate of Glyphosate then cover it with a larger container to prevent it being diluted by rain and put a length of strong bind weed into the first container, over time it will take the poison to the main root and kill it hopefully takes time but works.
I only recently identified this as "Bindweed". For 10 years I've been personally calling it "Devilweed". The freaking stuff does not die. Interestingly, my infestation doesn't have the size you show in your video. Leaves vary in size between my thumbnail, and maybe larger to 1 to 1.5" long on larger outbreaks, but nothing even close to the size you show. But, that's the little flower, and the leaf shape and vining are the same.
It gets into everything. Comes up through the middle of everything and just twines around it all. It gets into my Clematis and chokes that. I don't really like chemicals, but the year before last I took 3 months at the end of the year cleared the mulch out, and hit it with weed killer. What I was using actually worked (for once, it's shrugged off everything else I've tried), and for the last two to three months of the year hit every new sprout with weed killer trusting the advertising "kills to the root".
The stuff started fading. New sprouts looked less healthy, weaker. I stopped with the chemicals because I didn't want to turn my garden bed into a chemical dump. Figured I finally got it.
Nope. It's back, and robust as always.
So, I've resigned myself to well mulched garden beds, and every time I get a vine climbing through that I pull it out at the dirt line, hopefully pulling up a bit of tap-root as well.
Thanks for the video.
I was told the only way to get rid of it was to move.I now believe it!
😂😂😂😂😂
I agree with Marilyn, years ago I had nothing in my garden worth worrying about, so one day I got bolshy and decided to see how far the root went, I have a terraced house with a 20 foot long garden, 15 feet I followed it toward the house before it dived a good 6 feet under the main drain pipe it even branched under and over it, needless to say I don't like it and attack it every year trouble is, it comes in from the next doors garden now as well
The roots can go down 10 feet and the seeds can remain dormant for 50 years. I'm sure if we could find a way to use it for food, it would get diseases and die off.
Wow, thank you Marylin - never knew that. Please tell me, is it also futile to try and kill the blighters by persistently applying a systemic weedkiller?
LOL ! Marilyn ! IKR !
Yup! Lol!!! I'm so SICK of always pulling them!
Apparently horses find it a tasty treat.
There’s another TH-cam video on how to eat it! I’m also thrilled to see we have some golden tortoise beetles here, they only eat plants in that family and they are a very “fun” bug to learn about.
I've certainly used the 'bottomless' flowerpot method to spray but I have eradicated the weed very easily from my gardens with glyphosate doing the following: mark the spots where the bindweed is growing when it first appears - direct the bindweed shoots to climb the cane not the shrub - let them grow - about 2 to 3 ft. After this when the point of killing it comes I gently take the cane out and twist opposite to the way the bindweed grows and it falls off the bamboo cane in a nice long strip. Take your small glass jar or sealed plastic container and bury in the ground near the site of the bindweed so about 1/4 of the container is above soil level. Gently fold and push the long length of bindweed into the pot. Dilute your glyphosate to half the recommended amount and fill the jar gently with an old jug, cove the top gently with old slate of clay pot to prevent anything getting at it - or rain splash onto anything nearby. Leave a couple of weeks, plant drinks the weedkiller and dies. When removing the pots - I cut the dead pieces of weed round the pot to ensure the whole pot comes away without spilling anything - this can be safely poured onto the compost heap as now inert. Like all tough weeds (which I have the utmost respect for) it may regenerate partly but that can be expected. This method I have had 100% success with but it requires patience and persistence. I have hand dug as well before which is a lot more hit and miss, especially in established borders. My method with the jars and glyphosate works exceptionally well in established borders. I would say that 99% of all my weed removal is by hand - bindweed infestations are the 1%!
Thanks for sharing your method. I still have some tough patched left that I'll be trying to tackle this year.
I’m glad you’ve had so much success with this method! Can you tell me how many years it took to get to ~100%? I’m on my second year using this dilution method but only the first year training my field bindweed up bamboo . The first year I waited too long and ended up pushing big arm fulls(!) of the stuff into gallon plastic milk containers before filling them with dilute glyphosate. It seems like progress was made though because there is no longer BW sprouting from my foundation and because this year I’m able to use smaller 32oz containers. Btw the ground is too hard so I skip the step of digging holes for the containers…
That stuff was all over the overgrown Vancouver area garden I took over. I eradicate it section by section with a thick layer of cardboard covered with wood chips or compost. Shoots that find their way out are mostly week and can be pulled out easily. After a few months, the bindweeds are mostly gone, and weeds - including bindweed roots - that try to establish tend to be easy to pull out from the loose mulch layer.
Thanks Waldemar. Happy to know that the sheet mulch approach can work.
I did the same to my allotments, but just covered the whole thing with weed membrane. I pull out anything that pops up and it's getting very weak now. It can survive without sun for 2 years but after that it will eventually die off
Could I do this but leaving my shrubs or,would I have to dig out all my established phlox and shrubs? This is genius!
@@TomTomTomTom538 is the membrane plastic? If so it has bpa's , look them up.
I did the same and it's the only thing that has successfully worked
I eradicated bind weed from my present garden. I dug it out using a fork and NOT a spade and certainly not a small garden trowel. The fork allowes the roots to be dug up without being broken and you must gently coax up a particular root sequence and not pull hard on it and break it below the ground as the broken off piece will quickly regrow from the cut off point. Complete eradication of bindweed is the only long term solution and can be done if you are single minded enough. Bindweed generally arrives in your garden as a 'Trojan Horse' piece of root in another plant, so you must be always eternally vigilant, particularly with plant gifts you get from infected gardens
My garden was rife with bindweed. Being inexperienced with it back then, I dug out as much as I could. But it remained, as you said, in small pieces. Every year it would start to appear between crops. I could gently tease it out, but with a week there would be more shoot. I took to a much more vigourous digging. Making sure I got right down to the harder woody rhizome, about a foot down. This didn't do my crops much good at the time, but now, after 7 years, I almost never see any evidence at all. If I doo, the growth is weak and easy to dig out carefully - as much of the root system as possible.
Don't let it go. Certainly don't let it flower, I read the seeds are viable for 100's of years like the poppy.
My garden had been a horse paddock, left for maybe 10 years. Just about every weed we can expect to see was here in abundance. None has been as persistent as bindweed.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Nick. Good to know that raw muscle can do the job too
Sissy roots you have there! I've dug up some in my daughter-in-law ' s garden (it was her mother's rose garden so very special to her) the roots were about a foot down and 3/4" in diameter. I dug out all the soil I could without hurting roses and pulled out all the ones I couldn't dig and still it comes back. It's in the neighbour's driveway which runs along side it. I'm anti-chemical where ever possible and I broke down last summer and used the brand name product and it still came back! Thanks for this video, once the Covid is lessened, I will renew my efforts. I really appreciate that collar idea. I did try the weed barrier one year but as soon as I removed it to plant other in the 'new' soil, bind was back with a vengence, likely from the driveway. I think the only way I'm going eradicate it is thru chemicals. I've been dealing with Japanese knot weed in my own garden and it is easily knocked down for a while before I need to climb in and tackle it again. I've never been so ticked off at it that I felt the need to go chemical for this one but bind Weed is a whole other story
Ooof - bindweed and Knotweed too. Di you pick up some bad karma somewhere? Good luck, and thanks for sharing your experience.
I had a border against a fence where I grew morning glory from seeds. In the years after it died off, I was plagued with bindweed along that 30 or so feet. I’m assuming that the morning glory seeded itself and created that nightmare. I’ve also experienced the same nightmare with goutweed, creeping Jenny and coltsfoot. I’ve been tempted to use roundup but have friends who used it quite liberally in their gardens and who are now, coincidentally or not, very sick. I also believe that weeds adapt and become more and more resistant to the weed killing chemicals. So, I won’t use the stuff myself, but I understand the desperation in those that do. Problem is, it’s a Pandora’s box.
Now, I lay down cardboard quote thickly and cover with mulch. It’s not a permanent fix, but it’s a harmless control.
Roundup has been stringently restricted in many parts of Canada for years. It should be banned for use in food agriculture. It's a nightmare for the environment, and I have no doubt your neighbours' illnesses are related.
Thank you for the video and the comments everyone. I think I'm going to try to gather up the vines and stuff them into a clear plastic bag, bind up the base with a zip or wire tie.and spray Round Up in a small opening I'll make at the top of the bag, "massaging" the weedkiller into the leaves from outside the bag. I'll then tie the hole I've made in the bag. Attempting a sealed "contained" environment since containers filled with RoundUp seems too hazardous to me. I don't know if this will work, but I just got a quote today of 20, 000.00 to remove bindweed from a 20x3 foot garden that I paid thousands dollars earlier this summer to install. New plants and top soil which wasn't covered with mulch straight afterwards and the morning glory moved in and took over! Gardeners in my Vancouver area charge 100.00 an hour for two men, which means its almost 1000.00 a visit! I used to do it all the gardening myself, happily! Now I have to watch other people do it and pay through the nose for "the pleasure" ! Darn these old knees and hips! Wish me a speedy recovery so that I can get back to my young self!
Ouch all the way around (but especially the $1000/day, I have to say!)
Becareful with round up , my friends father got sick from that stuff, it causes cancer. Look this stuff up. God Bless
I recently learned that field bindweed here in Utah, which may be different from this particular type as its leaves are very arrowhead-shaped, can grow vertical roots 50 feet deep, and each horizontal root also grows 50 deep at each section which are pretty close together. Essentially, it's indestructible and impervious to everything except consistent weed torch application. Other than that, cut, dig, (or pull if you must) every 3-4 days.
I stuffed a few feet of the vine into a plastic bag and sprayed glycophosphate into the bag. Worked for bindweed and sort of for brambles.
Thanks Susan.
Susan, I do the same thing, not often, but it is the only thing that will kill bind weed and common grape vines.
Remember to not let it flower as it produces many seeds. The battle may be seemingly over from repeated digging and root segment eradication, but If you let it flower and re-seed itself you’re back to square one. I blew my knee out digging this on my farm. It’s a monster.
I read in one report that the seed can remain viable for 50 years!
Updated to 60 yrs, now. Yeah, it's awful.
It is a pain in the arse, but also theraputic to kill it. I grow mine up canes in spring, then in early summer I carefully untwine it, keeping the vine stem whole, and lay it flat in long strings on the ground; then I lightly bruise the leaves, take a paint brush and coat as many leaves as I can with glyphosate gel. Watching it over the next few weeks, slowly turning brown, and thinking of the poison coursing through the root system is so gratifying :)
I've managed to nearly eradicate it over three years using this method. It is now confined to one corner of one flower bed only, and is currently dying of glyphosate :)
What brand u use? I'd like to know. They are getting in my grass
glyphosate gel is great for treating plants where you can't spray without hitting desireable plants even using barriers. I pull on heavy-duty rubber gloves, squirt the gel onto my gloved hands, & wipe it on the thistle/bindweed/etc. leaves from top to bottom. Wiped out a stand of thistle in a mahonia planting without losing any mahonia. Still working on the bindweed.
@@jenann292 I use Roundup gel
@@jenann292 Roundup. This is the brandname for glyphosate in the UK.
@@anneperlmutter3775 That's a great idea - will try.
Hahaha - "It wants to take over the entire world"! Great videos ~ Thank you (from Michigan)!
I use Glyphosate. This is a "translocating" herbicide: it is absorbed through the foliage and translocates into the root system. To avoid spray drift, the safest method is to apply it by hand. Make a strong mix, 50/50 with water, in a jar or pot .Add a squirt of detergent. This helps it stick to the bind weed leaves and makes it more viscous, so less likely to drip.
Now put on rubber gloves, followed by cheap cotton e.g. decorators gloves over the rubber gloves. And now, to battle...
Dip your fingers into the mixture to wet the cotton gloves, then carefully dab, smear or grip the bind weed leaves avoiding the host plants it is climbing through. Dab as much as you can of the foliage. In fact, this method works best when the weed is well into growth, or about to flower. After a few days, yellowing will occur, and it will die back over 2-3 weeks. Any vines still unaffected can be re-treated then.
You will most likely need to repeat this treatment 2 or 3 times.
If the host plants are low-growing, shove-in some tall canes or brushwood for the bindweed to climb up. You can then easily treat it without getting herbicide on the good guys underneath!
If you accidentally apply the mix onto your host plant, just cut that bit off to prevent the herbicide being taken in.
Another way I have used is to untangle the bindweed and lay it flat on the ground away from the host plant, then dab or squirt it with the mix. Of course, this is not so easy, especially if the vine is twining into a prickly rose!
Best to wait, if you can bear it, until your host plant is well swamped, remember, the more leaves treated, the more root will die out.
Good luck!
Nick.
A problem I have encountered in a previous garden is that the sort of roots you show will link to a much thicker root, maybe 0.75 inches, that can run for several yards. I found that following these for as far as possible and removing them drammatically reduced the problem for the following year. There were still many occurences of bindweed, but as often as not the growth I removed would come out with its complete root.
I have chemical sensitivities, so no toxic chemicals for me. I have a propane weed killer. It works well, maybe all the 1st time, but bind weed and thistles both burn. You don't have to burn the whole plant, just a small part above the ground and long enough for the heat to follow the root into the ground. The root gets killed by the heat of the burning.
Great video, and very relatable. Out of desperation, I did begrudgingly try a couple glyphosate applications last year but to no avail. It might depend in part on the species of bindweed. The field bindweed (C. arvensis) here in Northern California has narrower and smaller leaves than the species in this video, which may inhibit glyphosate uptake. There’s also recent literature supporting the possibility of bindweed glyphosate resistance at a molecular level (Huang et al. 2019).
Bottom line for me - the bindweed in my neighborhood is a stubborn perennial reality. It grows prostrate like a mat close to my veggies, AND up the veggie stalks. So chemical warfare is simply not worth here, though it may work for other folks.
Needless to say, this year, I’m back to the painstaking “keep at it” approach you suggested first. Happy growing and thanks for the video!
Thanks Duncan. I wish you success in your approach. Thanks for all the info.
I find better success with a combination of both glyphosate and 24d. Both at full strength rate in one mix.
Convolvulus, as we call it in New Zealand, was my worst nightmare when we lived in the suburbs. When I was eight months pregnant with my younger son, I dug an infested area of our garden to get the convolvulus out. It was about ten square metres, and I dug down about three or four feet, and thought I had got out every single fragment of root. After the baby was born, and I had time to go back to gardening, a few months later, that area was as infested as it had ever been: the convolvulus was thick, solid, and covering the tops of the little old peach trees and all the ground!!!
Thanks Janette. That's sounds like a heck of a digging job for a rather unhappy outcome (I mean the weeds, not the baby just to clarify)
So sorry. Sounds awful. Congratulations on newborn
I had a year in New Zealand as exchange student. Wood north island
I'm in Northland. My neighbour never controlled his convolvulus.... there's a paper road between us but the convolvulus has crept right down the slope and is coming through my fence. I am pulling it nearly every day. Thinking about selling up!
I have 35 years experience in horticulture and promise you that I have the answer. It does involve the use of glyphosate but it is my view that the hostility to its use is largely misplaced and is the result of the product being used in ways not originally intended by the developers i.e. being sprayed on to food crops that have been genetically modified. The principal initial use of Roundup in the early 70s was to control couch grass.
Bindweed is most susceptible, as are all perennial weeds, at the initial onset of flowering. Provide the bindweed something to grow on separate from your desired plants (I use branches pushed into the soil) and wait until the first flower buds appear. If you do not wish to kill any underlying plants or grass use an absorbent material to protect them (not plastic because of runoff). Spray all of the bindweed plant with 360 grammes/litre glyphosate diluted 1 part with 50 parts water. It must not rain for at least 12 hours afterwards, ideally 24 !!! Walk away, do nothing more other than say bye bye to the bindweed. Glyphosate is broken down by soil microbes and will not cause any problems at all with your soil I can guarantee.
Unfortunately the use of glyphosate for “cosmetic” reasons is illegal here in Ontario.
I can attest anecdotally to glyphosate not lingering in the soil...that blasted bindweed will disappear for a few weeks and then come fighting back! My other plants are just fine as long as they are not directly sprayed. I will have to try giving the bindweed canes to grow on, it's currently trying to take over my back patio.
You are correct! Our garden is full of bindweed and really only constant 'weeding' halts its inexorable invasion!
When using weed killer in an area close to other plants use a paintbrush to apply, no danger of overspray. For larger areas such as grass you want to get rid of a paint roller works well also. The bonus is you may never buy WK again one quart concentrate may last forever.
Unwanted cardboard works great as a weed barrier too. It’s a great way to reuse, reduce and recycle something that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Do remove the plastic tape and other fasteners.
Another benefit is it will decompose back into the garden.
Thanks Stepanie. Good tip
I tried that.. it worked for a minute..
Cardboard blocking light does nothing at all for bindweed. it will just travels metres away underground
In the RHS garden at WIsley bindweed was growing in a border. The gardeners installed a structure of sticks for it to climb on, keeping it away from the specimens in the border. This would help them to keep from causing unwanted damage to the other plants when it came time to spray the weed.
Dry the roots to a desiccated state and then they are safe to add to the compost, they are a useful source of phosphate. been fighting bindweed for decades and tried all methods, you never win, you just stay boss.
Thanks. Right now it's the boss of me, but I hope to reverse the roles.
Bindweed, myrtle spurge, sumac tree, and Canadian Thistle. Those 4 "welcomed" us to our home 10 years ago due to negligence (resulting in tremendous overgrowth) from previous owner. Eradicated all but the bindweed. Soon as we finally controlled and killed off the sumac (has a root system that works much like the bindweed), the bindweed moved right into that space. Same for the myrtle spurge, which is a monster here along the Wasatch Front foothills. Got rid that after an 8 yr fight (still will find one here and there along our hillside but we take 'em out immediately)... Only the bindweed remains... and still loves to put up a good fight by spreading itself all over after just a week... Fun times.
I'll try to keep this short but I got rid of all the bindweed in my garden with just one single application! It took a few hours but was well worth it. I bought some 360gl glysophate (it costs around £25 for 5 litres here in the Uk and should be diluted @ 25ml to I litre of water) I mixed around 1 cup of neat glyphosate with around half a cup of black ink and quarter cup of dishsoap. I then painted each bindweed leaf with one small stripe of the mixture ensuring none was spilt on the ground or touched any other plant. Well nothing happened for about 5 weeks and then almost overnight all the bindweed died. This was over three years ago and it hasn't grown back since!!!
@@user-ck9ei6re2x It certainly should work but really depends on how many leaves you're able to paint. Glyphosate works by entering the plant through the leaves and killing the roots so if you have a large plant with only a few accessible leaves then it might not be as effective as being in a position to paint more or all of the leaves. All I'd say is give it a try as you have nothing to lose!
This is awesome! I am genuinely so happy for you and congratulations on your success!
please stop using poison in your gardens
Glyphosate is considered safe and is used by both home gardeners and commercial farmers worldwide. Not sure why you consider it a poison but a small amount used is my garden is hardly going to poison the ecosystem is it 😉.
@@anthonyb8600 safe for who? Not for birds, bees or the environment (or humans over time)The point is lots of people use it "just in their garden" but also used widely in farming and it's creeping into all of our food.
I'm in the same climate zone as you in W Washington and I agree with everything you presented here. The greatest problem I have with the chemical approach is that you are never really sure that you have applied it 100% correctly. If you are a serious gardener you are always trying to analyse why some plants are thriving and others aren't, so by introducing a chemical agent you have complicated your ability to diagnose garden issues for years into the future.
The comments here are wonderful and I heartily agree with all those who say the key is diligent weeding regardless of which other approach you use. And try to be philosophical, bindweed is more annoying than lethal, it is easy enough to pull the vines like you say.
Thanks for your thoughts. I've also been impressed at the thoughtfulness of the commenters here. My (selling) season is winding down now, so I'll be catching up on my hand-weeding in the coming two or three weeks.
Firstly, I'm totally envious of your beautiful soil! I'm in Southern California, and have a large area I've added to my yard that is about three feet deep with clay. I'd let the 'ground morning glories' grow because they were the only pretty thing there. I just realized it was actually bindweed. Ours has smaller leaves (oval, about an inch long), and the flowers are just over an inch across. Right now most of it has gone brown, and is easy to scrape up off the surface. Over the last few years I've done sheet mulching with cardboard, but not thicker than two inches. In the spring the bindweed grows up through and flowers. People have said shade discourages it, but the shady corner is the only place there are new green clumps of the stuff. It looks line I have a new battle on my hands. At least I got rid of the tumbleweeds. When I acquired the property it was covered in 6ft tall grass weeds and four prickly varieties of plantain type weeds, with a 6 inch layer of weed seeds at the bottom. Thanks for addressing this issue. I adore your fantastic roses!
This weed was in my front yard, and it is trying to creep into the back yard where my garden is. It probably came in on a dirty rototiller, which is one reason I don't rent rototillers. Wasn't my idea! Anyway, glyphosate has worked in the front yard so far, after using it a few years. I am working on getting out of the area on the side of the house. The stuff is pushing up the asphalt! I don't spray, I wear chemical resistant gloves and paint it on the plant, making sure it comes in good contact with the leaves.
I hate using this product, but I hate bindweed even more. Everything else here I do is organic style. This is my dirty little secret.
We also have a bad case of hoary cress in back, and it made its way into my precious Grotto, I am tackling that this summer. There will be a deep barrier in the soil, very serious plastic sheets with cardboard and carpet on top, and a judicious use of the dreaded glyphosate. Don't get me started on the Virginia creeper! And the "wild" roses! Neighbors who plant invasive species along their fence lines with other neighbors are jerks!
For budget reasons I prefer not to rely too much on chemicals for my garden, but bindweed definitely changed my feelings on that! Unfortunately it's growing on the other side of my fence in an apartment's patch of dirt so I'll probably never be rid of it.
Some of us have a PON1 (serum paraoxanase) deficiency and cannot metabolize organophosphate well and Roundup is not an option. If you must use it, I would recommend that you get a plastic bowl with a lid, cut a hole in it and then put some Roundup liquid in the bowl. Put the Bindwind vine into the bowl so that it absorbs the Roundup into the root. The energy descends best into the root during the late summer early fall. I used this method with vinegar after spending the summer tearing out the growing vine. The Roundup is more toxic and more effective but if you are not spraying it in your neighbors' air, it may be okay to use it in the summer but remember it will be more effective when the plant energy descends into the roots. BTW, I learned these techniques here on TH-cam but don't have the links.
Thanks Don. I didn't know about PON1 deficiency! Thanks also for your tips
I tried putting Roundup in a bowl and soaking the bindweed in it. I hate using Roundup too, and the bindweed is still there. Laughing at me, I am sure!
@@kalayne6713 Yes, my Carolina Snail Seed vine lepped it up like a kitten laps up milk, and then asked for more!!
Whoops..wasn’t done explaining. Cut round hole on lid of container with slit to outside of lid to help get the vine in. Close tightly and leave all winter. Looks a bit funny with containers all over, but does seem to help!
Herbicides are like a black magic spell. Works fantastic and bounces back to you with a high price (mostly health problems). Weeding constantly is the only solution. You can try to weed first, fertilze (organic) little more than normal and than cover with this membrain. Cover the membrain more for aesthetic reasons with mulch. Look after the edges and weed. Weeding weeks the plants first, feeding stimulate the growth of the weed and covering blocks the necessary light source. The weed gets exhausted. Overlap the membrain when you cover the area 30 to 50 cm. Have patience. Sometimes it is good to look for some special needs of the weed. Sometimes it likes more acid soil, then sweeten the soil, depends on what your grow as a crop. And if you have no time to do this all, don’t let it seed, and weed as you can. Wish you luck. Or change your mind, grow bindweed as a crop, then the roses will take over as a weed. 🤣
Thanks for the advice Robert. Patience is what I need (and have in short supply)
I love this plant. It's night-blooming flowers are the most fragrant flowers I have ever smelled.
Different plant.
I use a handheld wick applicator to kill stuff like bindweed. Since it's not a spray device and the quantity of weedkiller, generally glyphosphate, used is tiny there is little risk of damage to garden plants. All you do is wait for the wick to become damp and then wipe it along a couple of leaves of the offending plant. It's also very effective at controlling docks in grass and little or no damage is done to the surrounding grass if it's applied carefully.
My ex was a fencer and he had some extra privacy fence that is put up while a fence is being built.... we layed this down and discovered that it worked really well in killing the weeds. I have raised beds and i'm thinking of laying some privacy fence down in the pathways to keep things from getting out of hand. I have a big battle to deal with first though! It took over my garden last year and I didn't have time to manage it.
I’ve been fighting bindweed in my yard since 1992. At that point it was growing along my backyard ( boundary with neighbour behind) fence. I dug down 3 feet, along the whole width of my lot, and screened the soil, in attempt to get rid of the roots. Then I planted pyramid cedars, covered the ground around the base of the cedars with 6 mil black plastic, and covered the black plastic with rocks. The bindweed came back and is spreading up both lot side fences. I pull the vines, let them dry out, or “cook” them in clear, heavy plastic bags. I even tried roundup ( very reluctantly, being one who doesn’t like to use herbicides) . Like the infamous cat, the bindweed came back. Good luck, but I suspect you’re going to be weeding bindweed for many years.
Hi Douglas. You're probably right - at this point, I might settle for a draw: not allowing it to get so rampant as to actually damage other plants.
Fraser Valley Rose Farm ::: A devil of a nuisance! It’s taken over my grapes & compost bins. That vinegar boiling method sounds like a satisfying method of discouragement... Let us pray!
I had 4 chickens a few years ago and by having a movable chicken pen with fence they are great against all weeds. I never saw any damage to establish plants like roses, but I had to be careful with the newly planted or small plants. The chickens were also great against slugs and snails, though I only ever saw one of the chickens eating slugs.
Thanks Peter. My ducks are wonderful vs. slugs, but for weeds, I may need to try the chicken tractor thing
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm "You dont have a snail problem but a duck shortage" Bill Mollison
Likewise, you dont have a bindweed prblem, you have a goat shortage
My chickens don't eat the weeds. They're too busy eating bugs.
Only way to truly get rid of this and other hazardous, invasive and dangerous weeds, unless your aim is to embark on a lifetime project of pulling them. This along with the horrible Mile-a-minute vine and Giant Hogweed are best candidates for a powerful weedkiller like Roundup which acts on a chemical pathway only found in plants. It only takes a small spray on the leaves to initiate the destruction of the plant since the active ingredient is transported though the entire noxious weed. Well presented video, thanks.
I use a sheet mulching technique, but it is more of a road bump. Nature always finds a way, but weeds like Bindweed are tenacious. Occasionally i do use chemical means, by digging down to the runners and "painting" the cut ends. I try not to spray, for all the usual reasons, but I also keep bees and we let chickens roam a few times a day.
thanks! I was wondering about painting. We have chickens next door and don't want to injure them. To know I can paint is a good option.
Today, I attempted your 2nd way to remove bindweed.
I found a brush on application poison that is coloured bright orange and spent a good hour painting on this poison.
I have dug most of it up over the past 5 yrs and have almost eradicated it.
I will update you in a few weeks to let you know the outcome.
Great video btw.
Jo ( New Zealand)
It's so strange how the "taking over" of a plant depends so much on where you live. I guess any plant will take over if the conditions are right for it. I'm in south west central PA, and we grow Bindweed on our front porch-on purpose-as a surrogate Morning Glory. It grows quietly here on the edges of the woods around last year's dried reeds, where it stays mostly choked-out by the other weeds.
I have to admit that we think of Bindweed as a pleasure here, especially because it has no unpleasant side effects. So try to see the silver lining: consider what a discomfort an invasion of Poison Ivy or Stinging Nettles would be! Our problem weed here is a type of prickly Thistle, which, trust me, is much more of a chore to yank than a soft, flowery vine. That said, good luck with your battle, sir!
Thanks. You're so right! It's one reason why I always take the "invasive species" conversations with a grain or two of salt. What's troublesome even a few hours south of here seems to be quite tame in my garden.
I have a small bindweed problem. Since my garden area is not large, I use the chemicals you mentioned, but paint then on the leaves with a small brush. As soon as I see a plant, I treat it. I feel this gives a greatest chance of killing the roots . This year (so far) no bindweed spotted
Before watching the video, here's what I did: pull them out three years in a row, never allowing them to get beyond the flowering stage. Covered the soil with mulch a couple of times, just to drain energy from their roots. A similar approach has worked for slugs, ticks and other creatures I wanted to get rid of. One must be patient, but two to three years is often enough to break the cycle.
the Bindweeds are absolutly beautiful flowers!👏💯🤗💜🌎😷
I had a feeling that this "pretty little vine" near my spent tulips and hyacinths was up to no good and decided I didn't want it in the bed I was about to plant. I dug down very deep too, probably at least a foot, wondering as I removed them, "What are all these white carrot-y things?" I researched afterwards that it was bindweed and I was SO HAPPY I took the time to go that deep BEFORE I planted the rest of that bed. The next bed over, my partner simply removed the green tops, tilled the soil a little and planted perennials. Now every perennial over there is choking out and it's a constant battle. I notice that shade from bushes and peonies does keep the weed down a lot.
But here is my dilemma: Over in the bindy bed (lol) there are established plants that I can't just lift so that I can dig out this stuff. I dug around my prettiest rose bush, and saw the bindweed roots completely engulfing and living very happily among the woody rosebush roots. There is NO WAY I can spray the bindweed with a chemical, and I can't get at all the roots either.
My only recourse is to literally every Saturday morning get on my hands and knees and pluck the little green leaves so the roots starve. That's the only thing I can think of that I can do. Does anybody have a sense if that will be successful? And am I to understand that I will have this to look forward to next year too?
The articles I read on it say that the seeds last 30 years... I won't even be here on this earth that long!
I have this in my front garden and have had 5 episodes of it growing inside my house!! 2 separate plants are being removed as I write this 1 half way up my stairs the other in my front room on an internal wall.
Out here in the Desert SW, that is called Morning Glory, as Bindweed is much smaller with a very distinct leaf and a tiny flower....it creates a different kind of seed, one that is like the feathers of an airborne distributor, and it milks when it is cut!
I would say that this plant is the Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, rather than the Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis.
Both are a nuisance, but the Hedge Bindweed is the one that spreads horizontally at such a rate.
I think the design of bindweed is to snap easily when pulled which always leaves roots behind. I have an area with stones which is particularly hard to weed and I've not yet gotten rid of it. By the way, our blooms are only about 1" in size. Yours are massive!
Well I may as well grow them right! Thanks Barbara
I think there is more than one type of bindweed. The classic big white and "field" bindweed which has smaller pink flowers. I've got both!
@@angelpoys this is the one field bindweed.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm 🤣
I have seen bindweed pull down very large glasshouses, we fought it in our previous garden for years and years, keep on it, blocking its light even with old newspaper or carpet can help. Newspapers? Now that’s a rarity now! 🤣
I haven't let it pull down a structure (yet), but when it grows over those red cedar trees, it leaves big bald patches from where it's blocked the light. The piles I'm pulling off are massive!
Wow, you're not kidding, it is my nemesis! I had it so bad in my rose border, I dug up 94 roses, and spade dug through a border 13m long, 2 m wide and 1m deep (yeah yeah, overcrowded roses, shh!) I only intended to dig down 1ft and remove all trace of bindweed roots, but they extended 1m down and in some places a bit deeper., but this year almost none - the tiny remnants are from broken pieces near the surface which I am staying on top of before they go deep. The garden looks the best it has ever been this year, and so many worms. Mind you, with that amount of aeration and loosening of heavy clay it's no wonder.
good for you👍
sc3pt1c4L you are talking to me! I have 29 rose plants in a space 11 ft x 2 ft. In a small area of this bed I have been battling bindweed since we moved to the property 10 years ago. I am 78 and I planted these. Now I have problems with my back so find it difficult to spend time digging. Most of my roses are English roses so thorns come with the territory ( I live in the U.K.). When I try digging to remove the roots I end up with thorns sticking into me at every turn. I have given up and will just pull as far as I can go. I am tempted to try vinegar but fear that it may affect the roots of my roses.
@@redcurrant2023 We can't help our addictions! In a choice of squeeze them in or go without...make room! You can use a small paintbrush to 'paint' weedkiller onto the leaves. It goes into the roots and does a good job. I would have done this if my patch wasn't 2m wide - I cannot reach the middle/back of the border without crushing the perennial plants in between the roses (yeah yeah, more plants squeezed in). If you are close to me I'd happily do it for you, I'm in the Manchester area of UK.
sc3pt1c4L Thank you for your offer. I am in Hertfordshire but I think I will take your advice with the paintbrush. The lockdown has done wonders for my plants because I was able to give them my undivided attention. I understand all about addiction🤫. I have been sticking perennials everywhere telling myself ‘this way I won’t have to plant every year’ ....but I am just trying to fool myself. I have decided to dig up all my spring bulbs in September....tulips, hyacinths snowdrops and daffodils....pass them through a sieve to remove the soil, then replant a bit away from the edge of the borders to prevent the unsightly mess after they have done their duty next year. Wish me luck. At my age I have decided to isolate for the rest of the year because I am rather enjoying it.
@@redcurrant2023 I should do the same with my bulbs, best show ever this year with those too, but I have over 10'000 so not a chance! Oh you have much better weather down there...I'm envious. Mind you, I wouldnt mind some rain. Driest I ever remember it this season. Good luck!
I'm currently battling bindweed on my new allotment. I'm using an organic no dig method of gardening, and mulching is definitely something that works if you can cover enough ground! But if there are any holes, the little buggers will find their way through! 😂😂 The leaves do not like being sprayed with vinegar so that can help control the plant too although it will not kill the root.
I put down sheep belly wool on top of the compost in the no dig allotment. First I removed bindweed the way Charles Dowding recommends. Every six inches there was a bindweed, so you can imagine what removing these was like. Then afterwards when the bindweed grows back, it threads itself through the wool. I pull up the wool and the bindweed
tears at the soil level or a bit below. The bindweed in the wool dies. Of course I'm anticipating repeat procedures but it looks pretty
good right now with only a few of the originals coming through. I also find that wool is the best mulch for keeping moisture in the soil. I have used different mulches in the past and thought this year I would do an experiment. A good layer of wool prevents the annual weeds from growing. Plus since the wool contains both urine and fecal matter (smells like a barn), when it rains the goodies get
washed into the soil. The wool turns clean.
Wow, That thing is really an abrasive little plant!. This spring I planted about a dozen "Party Dress" Morning Glory vines around my yard and at this point they're doing fine; they're beautiful!🌺 But now, Im concerned since you mention Binweed is related to MG, I hope I don't end up regretting my decision 🤔 and adding it to my long list of yard battles.
Marcy Castillo ..... hopefully not although it may depend on where you live , we’re in the UK and I plant MG the electric blue colour that runs riot in Greece but over here it doesn’t manage to over winter by its root system, if I’m lucky I may find a few seeds that have sprouted if we’ve had a milder winter.
@@marieeab01 Thank you for your feedback, I find it interesting how different a plant can behave depending on its global location 🙂....It gets really hot here in Austin Tx and we get mostly mild winters....I am jealous of the snowy winters in the UK ❄❄❄
Gardening for or decades. Not as much but still an issue in our dry southern Alberta garden.
Yup, yanking it out. But early as soon as I see any emerging. Also, if any ‘major‘ weed issue, I find it’s nearly always better to Reno the section. Not as much work as it seems and I can do it quickly. Dig up Herbaceous perennials except for clematis and Leave hardwood vines and shrubs. Lay landscape cloth, replant perennials, a couple inches of cedar mulch. If desired..the landscape cloth can be pulled out the next year. Key is not to be fussy with landscape cloth. No need to cut it precisely or get rid of folds or fasten it down. The mulch holds it down and looks pretty classy.
Thanks Tom.
When I dug the bind weed out it disturbed the rose roots and I got suckers for years. This year tried digging very shallow (2cm) with a really sharp kitchen knife. Very quick and effortless, tidy up. No suckers, but needs to be repeated a few times, but my rose beds are MUCH tidier this year....
Thanks!
the key i have found to solving the bindweed problem in my orchard is that i walk all over doing all the chores and always have a weed pick with me and as i find it where i am, i take it out with as much of root as i can. my issue is always on the perimeter of the property because bindweed is rampant in the area. it does not take much effort and it is now just automatic... i see and take it out without even thinking about it. i have not seen bindweed as big as yours in a long time... the largest one i yanked this year was about a foot long. when i first started though... yeah... the first year was a lot of work. after that... just get in the habit of spotting them and yanking them. as i have improved the soil, more and more of the roots come out as i have a really loose soil now so that helps. i would not use chemicals as this is not a problem you will solve for good. chances are that bindweed is all over your area so even when you eliminate the plants from your land, wind and animals will bring new plant to you. so if you use chemicals you will do so for ever. if you are willing to do that, you have more severe issues that are far more important than bindweed.
Thank you I see it's a worldwide problem , I live near Cambridge, England . My garden is ruined by Bindweed , we locally call it Bell vine , but it's getting better each year with vigilance of digging out the roots . Good luck
Thank you. Very clear dialogue and very nice photography. We have a bindweed problem in our community garden here in Omaha.
I tend to peel it carefully from whatever plant it has got on and coil it up on the ground. Then I spray it. It seems to be effective and it reduces the risk of affecting other plants.
You nailed it in all departments....thank you for the upload mate !
Yes, remove the roots and never (!!!!) put in compost. I once dug out some bindweed, which previous owners had cultivated as a pretty vine to decorate their patio, and let it dry out three days in the very hot summer sun, then put the dried, crispy remnants into my compost and it still came to life! I had to re-weed the composter! Never again!
Thanks for the reminder. Someone just asked this - what if I left them out to dry first? I'm rethinking my answer
I found many small leaves in my compost today after letting them sundry last year. Now but have them in three places instead of two.
This looks like what I call a love vine because it clings to all of my plants and it will choke them out. I fight this weed all over my yard except in the grassy areas. It seems like I have controlled it better this year I do use thick boxers and land scape fabric. I haven’t used any thing like round up yet I just keep pulling it up and dispose of it with old grass clippings and yard waste and the city picks it up. I would never put it in my compost pile
Thanks Ruby. Yes, it keeps out of my lawn - and it may be my next tactic around the margins of my property: to "skirt" the trees and shrubs on the fence line, mow low and overseed. I suspect I'll still see wicked emergence around the fenceposts, but it would be a step in the right direction.
Find where it starts if you can. Dig below the long parallel root stems and keep working to take out the root system as you go along. Divorce wanted plant specimens if you can. If you reach the end you have won a coconut.
Thank you for these tips, I will be trying the digging method first. I have moved into a rental where the garden has been at least 50% taken over with this plague. It has even killed a hardy and established native tree that would have once attracted birds.
It's such a great shame this plant is so invasive in the garden. The flowers are magnificent, and the leaves are attractive as well. But the real horror is their root system.
Totally. A well behaved morning glory (especially the colored ones) would be a welcome addition to a drab corner of the garden.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm Yes. The Heavenly blue for example, is a dream to have growing nicely on a trellis in the garden. Unfortunately, these plants tend to be very sensitive to cold weather. Preferring mediterranean like temperatures. While here in the UK....Well, it tends to be cold, windy, wet and miserable for most of the early part of the year.
Beside pulling and digging all summer, there is another “trick” to try that has helped keep my bindweed somewhat manageable. In the fall, leave 6-8 inches on a vine and immerse cut end (leaves especially) in small container filled with weed killer. I use cottage cheese or butter containers
My husband's grandfather smoked. He used tobacco & water in this way.
As a gardener, I took over a garden with about 20sq metres of plastic sheeting. The last gardener put it down for over two yrs, then I come along. I told the customer it was a waste of time. "No plant can live without light and water for three yrs" she said. OK I said and we dug out the plastic sheeting. Three weeks later the bind weed started coming up. This plant, like many other weeds, are from the prehistoric times. I did kill over about 4 months with glyphosate. It never come again.
I have hedge bindweed (the name we in the UK use for the white flowered variety in the video) growing at the side of my house on a 15ft strip of flowerbed and turf between the house and the road. Mercifully it is contained to this area so far and I have taken some extreme ongoing measures so far in the war. I have dug down to the level of the chalk under our soil and excavated all the soil into big dumpy bags to then filter into another dumpy bag so as not to leave any shard of root behind. They snap so easily you can’t rely on just digging around to find them all. Once the bed has been excavated I will put down cardboard on the bottom (in case of any pesky roots that got into the chalk layer) and coming up around the sides to ground level to stop any roots growing in from the side where I haven’t excavated the grass strip. Once all the filtered soil is back in (I put the rest in rubble bags and take it to the rubble and hardcore section of the dump), I will be vigilant as I expect some to have survived in the grass and there are likely to be seeds in the soil I can’t filter out, so plan there is to either spray with chemicals or pull up any leaves as soon as they appear to deprive it of energy - I may use that garden cane method discussed elsewhere in the comments as I like the sound of that as well as the mixing of the chemical with black ink and soap. This has got to be a war I can win…
I sure hope so. I'm not sure which herbicides you might use in the UK, but I hear that 2,4-D is pretty effective on bindweed.
You can install membrane at the boundary edge vertically into the soil to a depth of about 45cm to act as a barrier against weeds coming in, and as this is not affecting rain water it can be a strip of pvc sheet rather than woven fabric which will hold back the weeds much longer. Long term, landscape fabric can make your weed problem worse as the roots grow through it and then it just gets in the way of clearing the soil
Thanks for the advice Robert. I have some thick rubber cattle mats I may use in a difficult spot.
I'd really like to know what kind of membrane you'd recommend, please.
Those thick rubber mats kill all weeds if you leave them on long enough. We used them where we were going to build a hoop house the next year-they were on the sod & weeds from summer until late Spring, close to a year. Didn’t have any weeds for that whole year, but eventually bindweed came back. I didn’t know what it was, or probably could have caught it sooner.
Once you suffocate it with rubber mats, perhaps a combination of thick straw mulch/cardboard, etc, might be able to prevent it from coming back. We seem to have controlled thistle in one area of our garden for the 1st time since moving here (it’s worse than bindweed because it HURTS!), just need to keep after it.
Bindweed in our garden was starting to get out of control in one season. I dug out all the plants in one area and then dug and sifted down about 18”. I got at least half a bin full of root (it stinks too.) Now I do a daily inspection because even if you have left 1” of root it will start growing again. I leave a spade nearby and if I see any sign then dig and remove. You have to be more tenacious than the plant.
Thanks. I admire your tenacity
I'm doing the same lol
Keep the bindweed knocked down throughout the season using all these techniques (never let them flower if possible; 3 seeds per flower & the current data says seeds last up to 60 yrs in the soil), but know that the general consensus is to really go after field bindweed chemically in the fall. Why? Because as the weed starts drawing energy/nutrients from the leaves back into the roots, spraying in the fall will concentrate the weed killer chemicals in the roots, incteasing your chances of finally killing off the roots. As w/ most weedkillers, make sure to have plenty of leaf matter for the chemical to stick to, & if granular, be sure the leaves are damp so the granules stick.
That is what a local farmer told me - weed killer is not very effective when the plant is growing vigorously so wait until the fall.
I just covered my back yard in landscape fabric to fight this invasive bind weed.
Ouch - that sounds like a real battle. I hope it helps!
I did that for 9 months. A lot of it died but you could still see yellow stems of the bindweed. I sprayed it will a herbicide in it's weakened state and got more of it. I dug a lot up after that to weaken it even more. It is back though from the neighbours a year later.
@@edithreardon6042 Yes, I am seeing it will return from my neighbors too, they do not care if they have it or not.
Such a tough weed! We joke that the earth is held together by a massive tangled root ball of the stuff!
Pulling it seems to only “make it angry.” Smothering it seems to only make it grow in matted white sections. (I’ve done this and it continued to grow, mats of it, just white) until it found an edge- any distance away possible. Chemicals didn’t work either. Tried them all when I was younger. Now I just pull. I even brushed some on. They leached from the roots and killed the grass. The bindweed died a foot or so down and just re-grew. 😖
Thanks - I guess I'm in this for the long haul!
Oh-ma-gosh! This stuff is the bane of my gardening existence. Both from the vines and the million sprouts. Mine is much smaller leaves and flowers and will grow in areas that never even get watered. I live in Central WA state so pretty arid. I've heard that the roots can extend 25 ft down. The only good thing is that it produces so much leaf matter for mulching!
Weeds 😫 lots of work no easy answer. Thanks for sharing your challenge 👍❤️😊
Boiling water also kills them off it can be a bit repetitive keep going outside and putting boiling water over it but it does work
As someone who had his garden overrun with this stuff before I realized what was happening, I can verify that the ONLY way to deal with it is herbicide, and even at that it takes several applications.
Not if you are growing veg and want to not ill, do some research it is highly toxic to humans and animals.
Can you please tell me which herbicide you used and if it’s possible to ever grow anything in that bed again in the future? Thanks.
Sorry to say, but I'm glad I'm not alone!!! I've been battling my infestation of this plant for 28 years..the runners go for 9 metres along the front of my house!!! I have it in the back garden too...it's a demon!
It’s felt good to read about everyone’s struggles with this monster and not feel alone in my obsessive battle.
Thank you so much. We have this and it chokes and literally binds the plants.
Thanks for this. I've got a small area of garden which seems to sprout this stuff regardless of what i do. It's being turned into a decorative gravel area to help with drainage, so hopefully that combined with a barrier and a dose of WK will see most of it off.
Hi Jason, having showed us a rose and shrub which was overcome with bindweed you then didn't show how to eradicate/reduce the bindweed in that situation. I had a bed of hydrangeas of about 25 plants that were smothered by bindweed each summer and you couldn't get to where the bindweed plants were growing. In the end I resorted to lifting all the hydrangeas, allowing the bindweed to grow on its on and applied 2/3 applications of glyphosate. It did the trick. I don't want to use pesticides , but when needs must.
I have a small bindweed plant in a container, it has white, purple/violet and pink flowers. I have a twine-wrapped post in the middle of the pot and I wrap it around that.
My Granddad used to mix some strong weed killer with old engine oil and paint the leaves of the bindweed. That worked but you have to be careful to avoid the other plants.
We also have a problem with bindweed. We found out early on that Bindweed loved the raised beds in our vegetable garden. If you dig down on the inside of the boards which form the frame of the raised beds you will find big bundles of the white roots running all along the boards. It reminded me of the bundles of electrical cables you see in industrial installations. We got rid of the raised beds. Now when we dig over the whole area we pick out as much of the roots as possible. In this way we can keep it under control but not eradicate it. We still have a problem with permanently planted areas especially soft fruit like raspberries, Red Currents and so on.
Thanks - the roots really do seem to hug the barriers don't they?
Always finds a way through the fabric. I only found a significant reduction where very heavy pine mulch was laid. Not sure if it's the components on the pine or the heaviness of the mulch. At least 4 inches.
Thanks Rebecca. We've been able to reduce our bindweed by about 90% this year but with a lots of attention: anytime we see a small shoot make an appearance, we have to drop everything and remove it right away.
Thank you! This was really helpful!! Never saw or heard of this until 4-years ago, when it showed up in my front yard!!!! Now it’s also in my backyard!!
I will definitely start spraying it ASAP!!!!!!