How to get rid of bindweed?

Nile

Hello travel_freak

I'll move your thread to the 'Greenfingered' board.

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Regards

Nile

superdog_3

We have the same problem with bindweed. We have been battling it for years. The main problem is that ours is invading from our unpleasant next door neighbours garden (and, yes, it is our neighbour who is unpleasant)

Peartree

I have an horrendous, relentless and impervious to anything weed in my garden called horsetail which is the worst weed in the whole world (if anyone disagrees, they haven't got it!). I have had to use industrial strength landscaping fabric and mulch in every corner of my garden to overcome it and, eventually, it still punches through that - actually it punches through concrete. Compared to this, bindweed is an amateur and you are lucky this is your only problem! This is, I appreciate, irrelevant to your problem but I thought it might make you feel better to know someone else is worse off than you!

Sometimes it is not at all realistic to try and dig every fragment of root out - ie, life is too short. If you don't mind weedkiller go for glyphosate - brand name versions are v expensive but you can save a bit if you read the labels closely and go for an 'own brand', B&Q do one but you have to look for it. If you can get some good clumps of bindweed wound around garden stakes you can give it several really good doses which should kill a lot of the roots. If you have a bad area, think about really thick layers of landscaping fabric covered with a bark mulch. The cheaper landscaping fabric doesn't last and pierces easily, pay more for the heavy duty stuff or go for several layers of the cheaper version.

The bindweed will still pop up at the edges and through any planting holes - anywhere a bit of light gets through to it but will be much easier to murder with weedkiller.

Good luck and be thankful you haven't got the silicon coated, prehistoric monster I'm dealing with!

Peartree

PS Be wary about too much digging as well. Every time you break up the roots you're creating more little plants unless you get every last little sliver of root out.

clairefun

We had the same when we moved in 3 years ago, luckily we're mostly rid now. digging it us at first helps but of course too much 'bothering the soil' means thatnot only can you not easily start planting wanted plants in there, but that also you run the risk of cutting & splitting the roots, which as others have said, is how bindweed grows.

After our initial digging & root hunting, we now, on the few occasions it appears, we let it grow (sometimes adding a cane for it even) until it thinks it's got away with it. Then we paint or spray on the root-killing weedkiller and gradually it starts to die...mwah hah hah hah. It only comes up once or twice a year now...

good luck with it.

olly300

Two weeks ago I finally looked under a paving stone in one of my borders in my small garden.

Under it I found a hole about one and a half foot deep which contained a mass of thick white roots. I proceeded to pull the roots out and binned them. One root I couldn't pull out completely, so I chopped it and took the middle section out. I then replaced the paving stone.

Last weekend I went to do some weeding and noticed a thin stem of young bindweed coming out from under the paving stone as it hadn't been replaced completely. I pulled this off and put the paving stone down securely.

Is there anyway for me to poison this bindweed root? Or do I have to let it grow then poison it?

Farway

Try sodium chlorate in solution [crystals from Asda, Wilko etc] in the hole when you lift the slab

Or a brushwood killer

As it is a path you need not worry about killing anything else and residue in the soil, in fact you want residue in the soil to prent further growth

olly300

It is actually a hole in a flower bed where currently there are no plants. The hole is covered with a paving stone as my garden is quite open and the under 5's in the neighbourhood like looking at my flowers which I'm growing in pots because of the weeds.

I found this:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0603/bramble.asp

Lord_Gardener

If it's Bindweed, use a systemic herbicide (Glyphosate) - train it up a cane to allow the leaves to develop, then gently crush (to improve herbicide takeup) and apply herbicde.

dragonfly02

I have cleared our garden to put grass in but we have a huge amount of bindweed growing, I have taken LOADS out but it just keeps sprouting up everywhere.
I have read that bindweed cannot grow in grass which is great and an ideal solution would be to turf over the top and suffocate the little nasties but seed is much cheaper for me.
The only problem I can see is if i take out as much bindweed as i can then seed the area, the bindweed will grow as quickly as the seed and may still sprout through.

Any advice?

Sharifa_2

Bindweed DOES grow through grass unfortunately; I've known it travel 100 feet and come through cracked concrete in one season. There's no simple answer; just consistent clearing it away. It's a right pain, I know. I still have pockets of it that I've worked on for years and yet it comes back.