Bindweed

Elizabeth Winstanley

Has anyone tried using a flamethrower on bindweed roots?  They grow all along our garden wall.  We have just had new fencing erected and are waiting to plant clematis, roses etc along it so are unlikely to affect other plants as the ground is bare.  Have tried usual weed killers but not much success and have killed off a couple of other plants in the process. All suggestions welcome.

punkdoc

I would have thought that it would be very unlikely to work.
Bindweed roots go on forever and the heat, that is needed to kill the roots, is unlikely to travel along the whole root.
I have had success with the paint on gel weedkillers, although you do need to repeat it regularly.

UpNorth

I believe I heard Monty say recently (we may have replayed one of last years..) that bindweed is really late to 'surface' and that's part of why it's a pain to get rid of. 

I too tried a gel without much success....must try harder.

Mostly i have just pulled it away to weaken it.

I think digging it up carefully is the answer but I've yet to put much effort into removing thoroughly.  

that said, I rather like it's flowers, it isn't damaging anything and is fairly dainty, so I think that's why i'm not trying too hard to remove it.

anyone else 'living with' bindweed?

Dovefromabove

I can just about live with the little pink stuff ... it's the big white hedge bindweed that is the problem ... in our last garden it was all over the garden and up to the upstairs windowsills by the time we moved in .... we sprayed with glyphosate ... left it six weeks to die off ... pulled it out and waited ... bits we'd missed grew again as we expected it to so we sprayed again .... left it six weeks and pulled it out then we dug the garden all over.  That was the summer over so we just prepared the garden to plant the following year to be on the safe side ......... once we were sure the bindweed wasn't reappearing we planted our garden and all was fine.

All the time we lived there we had a pot of glyphosate gel ready to hand to paint on the leaves of any marauding bindweed peeking under over or through the fence from next door.  

I'm not keen on using glyphosate, but in those circumstances I felt justified ... we were both working more than full-time ... we didn't have the time to spend hours weeding bindweed out of the garden every week. 

hogweed

When I cleared some of my garden last year I discovered an area with bindweed. I dug it over removing what I saw. That ground has been bare now for a year with no new planting. I have religiously gone over it during the growing season spraying/painting any bits that have appeared. I do intend to replant that area this year but I will wait until early summer just to make sure it has gone, then I will replant and put a thick coat of mulch down as well. Fingers crossed I have seen the last of it in that spot. It is a persistant weed but you have to show it that you are even more thrawn!

Allymc

I successfully tackled a few areas of bindweed a few years ago using weedkiller (one of the only times that I have resorted to chemicals). I collected the shoots / stems / green bits up and scrunched them into a sandwich bag, i then squirted the weedkiller into the plastic bag so no risk of spraying other plants it was growing in amongst. 

Elizabeth Winstanley

Thanks, it's worth a try.  I have tried painting weedkiller on the leaves before now, fairly successful but time consuming and that's when I must have dripped onto the other plants.  Trouble is I really love pulling the roots up but that only makes it worse as it leaves tiny bits in that resprout.

madpenguin

There is something quite theraputic about going over an area and digging out the bindweed!

Dovefromabove

madpenguin said:

There is something quite theraputic about going over an area and digging out the bindweed!

Not when you're doing it for the nth time there isn't 

Busy-Lizzie

I have found that repeated doses of glyphosate is the only thing that works, there is one that sprays out as a foam which doesn't drip too much. But there is part of my garden that I can't get rid of it, a bed with a stone wall behind it, which is planted with roses, shrubs and perennials, about 30 metres long. I don't want to spray it because of the planting, I can't dig it up because the roots go under the wall and I don't want to dig up all the plants, too big a job. I just pull up the bindweed as it appears to keep it more or less under control.

Asarum

Bindweed roots grow over winter!  Definitely one for the glyphosate.