Bindweed, anyone dug down deep?

Leif

I have both kinds of bindweed in my garden, hedge and field.

The hedge bindweed has long white roots that run typically 6" beneath the soil surface, and can spread many meters. But it is easy to dig up with a fork. Has anyone come across deep roots with hedge bindweed? Does it have tap roots? I haven't seen any, just shallow thick white roots, up to almost 1cm across. Unfortunately my neighbour does not remove the weed, so it comes across to my garden. Is there any point burying paving stones on edge as a barrier? I assume it would grow through the gaps. How far would it grow under grass? It has not spread into most of the garden, just the area near the neighbour's infested hedge.

The field bindweed is much worse. It does not seem to have long transverse roots, but each plant has a brown tap root, which goes down very deep. I've followed some down a meter, and they are still going. One specimen is 18" long, and 1cm thick, and the top was 1 foot below the surface, with fine shoots rising to the surface. I couldn't get it all out, so goodness knows how far down it goes. Has anyone followed roots down deeper? Do they get thicker? What are they doing? This might sound a daft question, but are they after water? Does anyone know how old the tap roots are? Clearly the important part of the plant is the tap root, not the above surface growth, as it stores energy from season to season. They seem to like clay, perhaps because it is nutrient rich and retains moisture.

I am digging the stuff out, and when new shoots appear from bits left in the soil, I'll dig them out. Sadly my neighbour does nothing about it. I am getting a bucket full of root per cubic meter of earth.

djohn2002uk

I was in the same position and in the end I gave up the constant digging and let it get plenty of leaves and sprayed it with Roundup a few times and haven't had any for 4 or 5 years now.

lavandergirl_2

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=241

Every piece of root left in the soil will grow into a new plant, and the roots can venture down as far as 5m. So you need to be really thorough as you dig it out, and remove every last bit wherever possible

Last year, sprayed glyphosate on the leaves and wraped the weed inside a ziplock bag. Very tedious but worth it. Haven't seen any bindweed this year.

Leif

Yes, I have sprayed too. I take the view that a two front attack will kill it, or significantly weaken it.

lavandergirl wrote: »

Every piece of root left in the soil will grow into a new plant, and the roots can venture down as far as 5m. So you need to be really thorough as you dig it out, and remove every last bit wherever possible

Last year, sprayed glyphosate on the leaves and wraped the weed inside a ziplock bag. Very tedious but worth it. Haven't seen any bindweed this year.

I know bits of root will grow, just like mint. A gardener employed by my late mother put bindweed root on her compost heap. Ahem.

I have tried spraying, but the rain makes it hard, and it does not kill it all, there is too much root. The hede bindweed seem easy to deal with, it is the field bindweed that is hard. The garden has never really been looked after in the 40 years since the house was built. So the field bindweed roots are well established. Hence the digging to get out most root within 1 or two feet of the surface. I will follow up with spraying and digging e.g. spray, leave for a week, then dig.

diable

The guy who does my garden from time to advised me to put a stick in the ground and to allow the bindweed to grow around that so that there are more leaves for spraying weed killer on to.

Farway

diable wrote: »

The guy who does my garden from time to advised me to put a stick in the ground and to allow the bindweed to grow around that so that there are more leaves for spraying weed killer on to.

Very similar advice on Radio Solent last week, except remove the cane once bindweed is up it, then as per lavandergirl, pop it all in big poly bag, still connected to roots, spray it and leave the Roundup to work

Leif

I heard someone cleared it by filling a jar with glyphosate, half burying it in the ground, then shoving long leafy stems of bindweed into the jar and leaving. The quantity of glyphosate probably helps. By the way roundup is glyphosate, but its cheaper to buy the generic.

Glyphosate certainly cleared the bindweed in the hedge, but not the garden, probably due to the large leaf area.

Jnelhams

You can be rid of it by allowing it to grow to about a foot long and pull it up after the rain when the ground is soft. Keep doing this and you will eventually exhaust the roots. If your soil is not very heavy then frequent digging and removing and destroying the roots by burning will help speed up the process.

Obviously spraying with glyphosate will be a simpler solution, but if you don't have the cash or want to avoid Chemicals this is about the best way of dealing with it.

harrys_nan

I really wish people would try and control this stuff, I have it coming into my garden from 3 sides and feel that i'm fighting a losing battle. I also have ivy coming as well :mad:

cyclonebri1

I had this issue earlier this year, conventional use of glyphosphate failed miserably.

I made a paste from a sachet of round up or similar, and simply painted it on all stem, they where about 12" high as that was the plan.

End result, no weed.

Recently I realised that the weedkillers available to householders where so week that they proved useless.

Sodium Chlorate was watered down 10 years ago and banned about 4 years since.

All that seems to be left is Glyphosate in it's various guises.

But, all the stuff the garden centres and even true nurseries flog is 80**/**

Go ebay, the proper stuff is there and is360**.**, 4.5 times as strong.

Sorry, cant recall the units, but it does work, about £13 /ltre;);););)

Leif

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I had this issue earlier this year, conventional use of glyphosphate failed miserably.

I buy concentrated glyphosate from the garden centre. Are you saying that even when used neat, it is naff?