Bindweed problems

Glyphosate is systemic, so it needs the plant to be in active growth to send it around (vague explanation - I'm a physicist not a plant scientist!). Yes, as @Stephen Southwest said, you could pull up each section - I've done it with bindweed from neighbours where I know I couldn't kill whole thing, as too much was happily growing on their side.

 

Thanks, CarolineL. I've got 4 flower beds/patches with plants growing in them and I've been round all of them once. Many of the bindweed roots were buried a foot deep. It took days of kneeling, crouching and trying not to damage the existing plants, which I still managed to do. It was tiring work– I have chronic fatigue so tire easily. I don't think I have much choice. I've ordered glyphosate, and tomorrow I paint the garden red, heaven help me.

 

There are 2 tricks to avoid too much work in this process:
-Don't worry about pulling up the roots - they will regrow, but will be weak - slower plants, smaller leaves, repeat the process a few times and they run out of carbohydrates and die
-Don't worry about untangling them from other plants, when disconnected from the roots they will wither and disappear quite quickly - there's no need to risk damaging other plants.

 

I was speaking to my sister about her tackling the bind weed in her garden at the moment as I was reading the above posts.
She unravels as much as possible of the bind weed stems without breaking them, moves them away from any precious plants, rolls the stems into a ball, puts the bundle of stems onto the ground and sprays them thoroughly until drenched then leaves them to die off, can take several weeks. That may be the time of year. Then she gathers the bundles of dead stems and disposes of them. She has never had any problem with weeds or plants growing in areas she has sprayed. She said she read somewhere, the best time to spray bindweed was when it is in flower but she has sprayed it at various times of the year and it always seems to work.

I use glyphosate primarily to kill off brambles growing over the bank from the surrounding fields, into my garden. I have also used it at different times of the year but find spraying in July is the best time, the brambles die off quite quickly, within 2-3 weeks but I leave them for a good month or two to give the glyphosate time to reach the roots. According to the blurb, glyphosate is absorbed by the leaves of plants and travels down into the roots. If it falls onto soil it becomes inert. I hope they are telling the truth! I have not had any problem with different weeds or plants growing in sprayed areas.
As for dilutions, read the instructions on the bottle. They come in a leaflet attached to it.
Repeat spraying will probably be needed, I doubt if a single treatment would last more than one year.
Japanese Knotweed is another matter, I understood the most effective treatment was to inject weedkiller into the hollow stems.

 

Thanks, @Stephen Southwest. Please bear with me, but I'd like to explore all options before using chemicals and I'd like clarify the different methods and their effects.

(Method 1) [Dig into the soil, remove the ultimate end point (root) and any spaghetti-like structures]
Effect: It won't return. I'm clear on this approach, but doing this last time meant uprooting so many of my desired plants that I'm hesitant to repeat it.

(Method 2) [Upturn just enough soil so you can see the whites of the root, crown down, yank the weed firmly, snapping the white root. This will not get to the ultimate end point.]
Effect: Doing this repeatedly will still weaken the plant until it eventually dies.

(Method 3) [Crouch down, trace each stem of bindweed to the soil and yank the visible part out of the soil. Don't dig into the soil.]
Effect: (??)
Q1: Will this weaken the plant until it eventually dies?

For methods 2 and 3, is there a rule of thumb here? Is it best to attack the weed shoots while they're small (enough to be pinched between fingers) or is it best to wait until they've grown to clench them as a bunch? Does it matter?

Thank you for your advice.

 

Thanks, @Goldenlily26. I suppose if one is going to use glyphosate, one needs to wait until there's enough of it to pull away to the side and spray it.

"If it falls onto soil it becomes inert. I hope they are telling the truth!"

I hope so, too!

 

I use method 3 for the odd bit that appears in my garden (having done method 1 approx 8 years ago). I don’t think it matters how big or small they are. In my experience it does seem to weaken over time, as we see very very few now and they aren’t strong vigorous growth when we do. It also means less soil disturbance, so good for soil health, and the broken stems go on the compost.

I plant very densely so am unlikely to spot the bindweed whilst it’s small. I very rarely bother to trace it back to ground level, I break the stem as low as I can get so sometimes this might be ground level sometimes (eg in a shrub or a less accessible space) it might be a metre above ground.

 

Thanks, @Butterfly6.

Now for the key question: how long does it take for them to die (using methods 2 or 3)? If one starts pulling them out as often as needed from the beginning of the growing season e.g. May to the end e.g. Oct, could they die in one season? Or are we looking (more realistically) at 4 seasons/years of this? Thanks, again.

 

I spent a whole summer repeatedly going through the borders and veg patch, trying to remove every piece I found. It certainly had a dramatic effect on the amount but I'm not sure you will ever totally eradicate it.

 

I’m not sure as we did method 1 first. I would have thought if you kept on top of it the first year you would have less the next and so on. As @KT53 says you will probably always get some, as there are probably seeds in the soil if it’s been allowed to flower at any point.

 

I'm expecting little or no bindweed in the 3rd year, when I've been repeatedly snapping it off.

 

Did you see Monty Don's item on bind weed last night? I think you may be wishing for a miracle after hearing what they did to get rid of bind weed in one of their beds. They used the "remove all plants, wash their roots and put to one side, dig out bind weed by hand, re plant" method and still have it in the bed. Soul destroying.
I think you can only make it an annual assault on the wretched stuff to keep it to a minimum.

 

Personally, I would just pull out the bits you can see as soon as you see them. That is my policy with all weeds. Yes, they come back, tenacious little wotsits, but it's just part of nature's rich pattern. Using chemical killers doesn't seem in the spirit of gardening somehow. It's to do with control, rather than nurturing.

IMVHO ... and granted my garden might look the teensiest bit chaotic for some tastes. But hey ... stuff growing is what we are aiming for, surely?

 

Alan Tichmarch agrees with you VA in the last article I read on how he gets rid of the blighters.

 

I've always liked Alan.