Composting bindweed

Like many people, I have bindweed on my allotment but I was told the other day that soaking the weed in water for s few days, kills it so that it can be safely composted with all the other material. I was told that this came from a lecture given, on gardening, to the local allotment holders â?? unfortunately, I wasnâ??t there otherwise I could have asked questions.

Has anyone heard of this or, better still, had any experience of doing it? If so, Iâ??d love to hear.

At the moment, I have to burn the bindweed, which, as weâ??re not allowed fires on the allotment, I have to take it home to burn it.

 

From some of the things I have picked up on here about bindweed I would continue to burn it.

 

Idea seems ok but it needs all the weeds in the bucket to have gone to mush. Recently added weeds may still be capable of regeneration.

 

I suppose ideally you will a) have enough other, safe, material to compost such that you don't need this and b) give the problem to someone else - e.g. the council!

Personally I just chuck everything in the compost bin and worry about "pulling" anything that is a weed next year.

If you can drown / cause it to rot, and thus not have a problem next year, so much the better :thumb:

 

From my personal experience of bindweed, I wouldn't compost it. I'm sure soaking it will kill it off, but I'd personally be a bit paranoid that I'd missed some seed heads or some roots hadn't properly died.

What I do with it is zap it with Round-Up in-situ and just leave it there to die and then rot where it is. If it is in a particular awkward place I will snap the top off a few days after zapping it, but leave a discreet marker to mark its location so I can find it again on my regular bindweed patrols.

If you burn plant material, the only carbon that is released into the atmosphere is the carbon it absorbed during growth. It also that no methane (a greenhouse gas about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide) will be produced as would be the case if it was allowed to rot with insufficient oxygen (as would happen if it was left to soak in water for a long period). Of course there is the environmental issue of using accelerants such as parafin based firelighters to get the fire going, but by and large I wouldn't be put off burning waste plant material and I do care for the environment. If the waste was to go to landfill, where it would rot without the presence of oxygen, it would produce methane. If it went to an incinerator it would need natural gas to burn it off, and in either case it would need to be transported in a wagon to its ultimate disposal. Of course there is the social issue as well as you mentioned. If there is a chance the smoke will blow onto your neighbour's fresh washing on the line, smoke out their garden party or drift into their bedroom windows, then it is not a good idea

 

I have a special sealed heap for perennial weeds, kept covered to exclude all light for about two years everything eventually composts.
Not sure about drowning weeds, I know couch survives a long time in water and creeping buttercup flourishes!
perennial weeds can be put in the green wheely bin with a clear conscience as the high temperatures reached by the large scale composting process kill everything

 

I'm with Clueless. I painstakingly untangle it, roll it up in a wee ball on the ground and dose it with round up. I never ever put weeds on the compost heap.. Are you allowed to burn in England? We are not allowed to burn anything outside here. I am sorry I give my weeds to the council. I think I am very generous as they don't give me anything:hehe:

 

Thanks for all the replies. I’m sorry I haven’t answered before but, when I posed the question, I ticked the box asking to be alerted if an answer was sent. I got the first answer, waited for others but got no alert.

Anyway, all of the allotments, around mine, have bindweed and it is a continual, hard fight to keep it to a reasonable level. I cut it down and dig it up whenever I can, which will, eventually, get rid of it (the old gardeners used to say, ‘never let it see a Monday’, which is what I’m doing) but it’s what to do with the large amount of bits at this time of the year, that needs an answer. We used to have rubbish bins, provided by the council for that very purpose but, to save money, these have now been taken away.

I thought the water treatment was worth exploring but was aware that I can’t keep putting bindweed in as it needs time to rot down. Well, in a few months time the problem will start to fade away as winter approaches so, as I have an unused dustbin on the allotment, I thought I could put any bindweed in there, as I come across it, and keep it covered with water, then, perhaps, in the late Autumn/early Winter, drop the sludge into the composter. I hadn’t thought of this but someone told me they’d seen it on a gardening programme.

I can hire a separate garden rubbish wheelie, at a cost of GBP50 per year but this is more expense and we wouldn’t need it for a large part of the year.

I just wondered whether anyone had any experience of using this method.

In answer to some questions – yes, Rhyleysgranny, we can burn rubbish – it, obviously, depends on what rubbish, how much, and on local by-laws. But we are not allowed to burn rubbish on my allotments, anymore, because houses have now been built all around it.

I try not to use round-up and chemicals like that – I do, but I try not to! Round-up is far best used on the growing weed rather than when it’s dying because the leaves need to absorb the poison. But I use it where it’s almost impossible to dig weeds up. I know what you mean about the councils!

Thanks again for your replies and apologies for not replying earlier.

 

"waited for others but got no alert"

They might be in your Spam folder? If so marking the sender-address as "Safe" should help in future.

 

Thanks Kristen,

In retropspect, I think what might have happened is that I didn't visit the website to view the first message but just read it, in my inbox. I believe if you don't go to the website, no further alerts are sent - or something like that.

In which case it's my fault! There are no emails in my junk folder so that seems most likely! Sorry, yet again!

John

 

Makes sense, although I'm not sure it works like that, but have a read of Subscribed Threads I'm not sure!

Here is a link to the FAQ in case useful:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/faq.php?faq=vb3_user_profile#faq_vb3_subscriptions

 

believe you are right with that. To avoid filling up your box - which may then alert a spam response you only get one alert (per thread) with most forums until you visit the site again

 

Thanks both Kristen and Hec,

I'll watch it in future!

 

its just so your mail box does fill up with msgs you've not responded to. not really spam, but just a curtosey.