Bindweed

Thanks Kristen ... your sum knowledge of what to do is still more than mone so it is useful.

Shiney ... I vagely remember something from my uni days, about a hundred years ago!, that Paraquat was banned and could only be obtained/used under licence.

 

Bindweed! Grrrrr. I have a persistent problem with it in one of my borders. Up till now I've concentrated on digging out and pulling up as much as I can find, but the darn stuff seems to be able to climb a fence or wrap itself around my shrubs more or less overnight. If I spray individual shoots very carefully with something like roundup, do you think I'm likely to kill off my plants as well?

 

Roundup / Glyphosate should only kill things who's leaves it has come into contact with.

One approach for bindweed-in-a-border is to grow it up a cane (plenty of leaves), then stuff the whole lot into a jam jar with some Glyphosate in it so that the plant can "drink" it through its leaves.

In theory that will go down into the roots and kill the whole of that root system. Although no doubt you will have more than one such root system.

Putting the leaves in a bag and spraying into the bag would be similar - although there would be less chemical absorbed, not sure if that will make a difference or not. Try some-and-some perhaps, and if the bag works as well that's easier than jam-jars filled with chemical which might get knocked over onto precious plants.

 

Holy mackerell, I read this just in the nick of time. I was just about to go and stick my arm in a large drum of paraquat just to see what would happen

 

If you look on Ebay or the web for 'glyphosate' you'll find it in varying strengths - some stronger than the 'Roundup' sold in garden centres. It works out cheaper in the long run to buy concentrated and dilute it according to need.

An alternative to the method suggested by Kristen for coating bindweed is to wear a pair of rubber gloves with a cotton pair on top (or hold a cotton rag), soak the cotton in glyphosate and wipe the leaves with your hand.