The beauty of round up is that you can use it to selectivly kill plants growing in a garden. Just paint it on the leaves and it will kill only the plants it touches. No need to empty the bed and kill everything.
And you can plant almost immediatly after using round up.
Linda C

those vines are everywhere and they have runners. it is impossible to paint all of them. those runners are overwhelming. i have a couple of plants i could protect by placing buckets over them. the whole bed is infested with this vine.

Would it be bind weed? If so....good luck! I have it in one of my beds....its' awful!...but I am not about to round up my whole garden....so I just keep pulling it....
Linda C

here's a description. the vines have potato like leaves. it blooms a white morning glory like flower. does this help?

Bind weed.....good luck!!!

I think you'll spend a ton of money & still have bindweed.

I would try to keep my plants in place first;
if the following doesn't work, then you can still remove the plants & repeat the process.

I would dig as much as possible *by hand* (tilling will force some bits of root further into the ground, & they'll grow) & then use lasagna as a weed-blanket/mulch:

lay down *a bunch* of layers of cardboard with *lots* of overlap, & cover with shredded leaves or other mulch.

Just to cover all your bases, you might also post on the Organic Gardening Forum.

My neighbor thinks bindweed is a perfectly good lawn plant. He never tries to eradicate it. His bindweed grows under my 1' deep fence foundation and pops up in my garden.

I have found round-up does not act fast enough to control it, and will not eradicate it. The best control I can get is a lawn weed killer (2, 4-D). It does not kill the entire plant, but it appears to kill what is above the surface, and sets it back enough that it does not pop up again for several weeks.

Chopping, tilling, pulling do no good. Tilling and chopping just spread it. Pulling it is less effective than 2,4-D, and just gets it out of sight for about a week.

Bindweed is classified a "noxious weed" where I live, and our county government has a division called the "weed department". They are responsible for treating those few weeds that we mere mortals can not eradicate.

They spray bindweed with Banvel, and sprinkle Tordon beads on it, but that does not work either. These guys have as secure a job as a dermatologist does (the victim never dies, the disease never goes away, and the government or insurance company pays for treatment forever).

Tom

As with all noxious perennial weeds, the more established it is, the harder it is to kill. Not to mention that it has probably seeded the area down for years once established, so seedlings will continue to appear. You may think you have been unsuccessful, but you may just be fighting the seed reservoir in the soil rather than a continued infestation. I'm just saying it can be a long term project, but you can win.

The key to killing a perennial weed like morning glory (bindweed) is to eliminate the massive energy reserves stored in the roots.

Roundup works well for me, but it may be luck, too. Let the plants get 6-10 inches of growth at least in the spring. Make sure they have moisture and aren't stressed. Stressed plants=poor results. Then spray thoroughly with a heavy rate of roundup, maybe a pint of the concentrated (approx. 50% active ingredient) to a gallon of water. Roundup says it has additives, but I find adding some improves the results. Add some surfactant, such as dish soap or laundry detergent, a teaspoon per gallon. Also add some nitrogen, either ammonium sulphate or liquid nitrogen. You can use some house plant fertilizer, with the highest nitrogen content and lowest P and K rates as you can find. Maybe a tablespoon of fertilizer per gallon. (The soap helps get the roundup through the waxy covering on the leaves and into the plant, the nitrogen helps encourage the plant to take the chemical in with the nitrogen and translocate it around). If the leaves burn within a day or two of spraying, then your surfactant or nitrogen rates were too high, ease off a bit the next time.

Don't till the ground or remove the plants after spraying until the vines are completely dry, at least 10 days to 2 weeks. Repeat the treatment every time the morning glory grows back. Normally, one treatment will hold the weed in check until mid to late summer.

Let the morning glory grow starting in mid to late August, then once relatively lush, treat again with the roundup a couple weeks before the normal first killing frost date. Spray again thoroughtly with the roundup. The plants are putting down winter root reserves at this time and a good fall treatment will cause them more damage then--the flow of nutrients in the plant is into the roots for winter storage, so you get more roundup moved into the roots, plus you seriously impair the root reserves stored and the winter helps to weaken and kill the plant. Treatments may take a couple years but the size of the infestation will decline notably after each treatment.

Banvel is also recommended for morning glory. Again, you have to use a high rate. If the label doesn't list a rate for morning glory, take the general weed control rate and triple or quadruple it. It is not so good in a garden setting as it will have some residual and damage any broadleaf plants you have growing nearby. Using surfactant and nitrogen with Banvel also improves the results. High rates of Banvel will burn the leaves on grass if you use it in a lawn, but the grass will grow out of it.

Finally, a combination of roundup plus Banvel or 2,4-D will usually improve control. One application will rarely eliminate the problem. It will normally take several treatments, sometimes several years.

Once the problem has been controlled, don't ignore any new arrivals from the neighbor or your problem will come back again rapidly.

Timing of when you spray is IMPORTANT with Round-up. When a plant is putting out lush new growth is the WRONG time. After they have emerged or resprouted wait about two weeks, at that point the plants will be putting food energy back down into the root system and the chemical wii be translocated to the root system. Woody plants may need several applications. The second one about two weeks after the first. Wait 4-6 weeks to ascertain if it will resprout and if some new sprouts appear wait until they are at least 8-12 inches high (or long) and respray. Field bindweed was easy for me to kill if I sprayed at the proper time. Poison Ivy was more difficult and several sprays were necessary to kill all of it. Spraying plants in the Fall is worthless unless you use Paraquat which mostly burns the foliage off. Remember, TIMING is the critical factor. Worked well on nutgrass too. Do NOT use on lawn areas as it will kill everything green.