Ah, I'm grateful you didn't resurrect that 8 year old post on 'how do I control bindweed' and started afresh.

Here, its blooming now, so we're on it. Don't ever, ever, let it go to seed. There are several handfuls of the stuff lying beside each flower bed. Why do they like roses so much???? The thorns? With those, I just try to find where the vines go into the ground and pull there, and just leave all the stuff thats winding all over the place.

Once your lawn is established, it will get out of there. I think its the mowing, but I don't have any more problems there.

Outside the fence and along the borrow ditch, I will spray it now and again, a weak mixture of Roundup and 24-D will knock it silly for a season, anyway. Too strong, it just burns off the top, and it comes roaring back.

Yes, all the control ideas conceivable are in that bindweed thread - there will never be a need to add another.

I was wondering today if it was worth starting a thread on purslane management - I saw the very first purslane flower yesterday! Now, all necessary measures must be initiated to keep the weed from going to seed.

Purslane is a difficult little weed althoÂ, yes, I know it is easy to pull. In the annual flower garden it hasn't really succeeded in going to seed in 10+ years. So why oh WHY, do the seedlings show up at 20/square foot?!?!

The bronze color of the smallest plants make them very easy to miss. I sometimes take a small stick and push them underground rather than pulling them. (To some gardeners this tool may be called a "dibble" but for me, it's a stick. ;o) I have found that the easiest method for killing purslane is simply to bury it. The little 31cc tiller works fairly well. If you can use a shovel effectively, that works also.

Never think you can kill it by uprooting, upending, and leaving it in the sun. I did a simple experiment once - pulled a purslane plant and left it on a concrete block in the sunniest part of the flower garden. Three weeks later - yes, 3 WEEKS later, it was still alive and beginning to bloom. It was alive and going to seed on a concrete block!!

At least an uprooted bindweed will die in the sun.

digitS'

Bindweed reminds me of an old monster movie. Whenever the good people of Tokyo shot the monster, it just gained more power from their lasers and missiles until it grew so powerful there was nothing they could do! I think Godzilla came and killed it then... not sure if I remember that right. :-)

Here's an aspect of that "monstrous" nature of bindweed.
"Sheep, cattle, goats, hogs, and chickens will eat the leaves, stems, and may expose roots and crowns."

So, one may think that could be an eradication answer however I have frequently noticed that bindweed seed has come into my garden with manure applications . . . So, you see, they eat it and may even damage its chances in a particular location but then livestock spread the seed somewhere else.

It should be noted that "Consumption of bindweed foliage is also reported to cause gastric distress." So, here again bindweed is causing problems as humans are trying to limit it.

In the ornamentals, I spray it with Round-up so I leave it alone until it has made some growth and I make plans to return and spray it a 2nd time. I've even gone so far as to "paint" it with a paint brush dipped in Round-up.

In the veggie garden, I try to stop whatever I'm doing and pull it whenever seen. And I know that I'll be back again and again. T'ain't fun, McGee.

digitS'

I have bindweed creeping into my compost bin.

I have a couple days off next week. Much of that will be spent on weeds.

I often say that "gardening here is easy, just so long as you stick to the big three: bindweed, cheat grass, and thistle".

I read through the old bindweed posts, but I wasn't searching for a new solution, just wanted someone to commiserate with me.

Thanks for the whine!

has anyone tried using Preen to control it? Does it help?

Hi Newgardener,

Preen is a "preemergent" control product, which means it keeps seeds---any kind of seeds---from germinating, so it would help prevent more bindweed from starting to grow, but it wouldn't have any effect at all on established plants. If you decide to use it, be sure it isn't in an area where you plan to plant seeds--like in a veggie garden or somewhere where you might be planning to seed annuals.

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

New bindweed seedlings are really easy to pull and die quickly in the sun. Your task, as good gardeners, is 1st to not allow it to go to seed and 2nd, to keep it from interfering with the growth of a plant you value.

Control of bindweed in its 2nd year is another story entirely. It is deeply rooted and pulling the tops doesn't do much in the short-term for eliminating the weed. With attempts at physical eradication - persistence is the key. You must starve the roots of the sun's energy and the plant's ability to build tissue - weaken your enemy with 1,000 cuts. Or, go after it with a spading fork and great care to find all of the roots.

All this has been said (and so much more ;o) in that thread from May '00. I think I'll resist the temptation to plow thru that again.

digitS'

Preen may work to keep such plants from germinating. I was part of a wholesale attempt to use it to suppress mostly chickweed in a commercial greenhouse. This was years ago when pre-emergent herbicide first made its appearance.

It was a highly unsuccessful effort and put me off from reusing it in all these years since. I don't know where it's of use but chickweed seemed like a very appropriate target.

Has a nice name for marketing purposes.

d'S'

I use Preen alot in perennial beds and it has helped alot in controlling certain grasses, which are a worse weed for me than bindweed. But bindweed, being perennial and already established, not to mention able to crawl in underground from many feet away, isn't affected much by it.

Delurking (hi) to report that I just filled an entire trash can with bindweed (and this was only one bed; I have been lax this year). I could have filled another but heat stroke threatened. So I sprayed the rest with 20% vinegar and it has already turned a most gratifying brown. Hah!

All my plans for the 4th involve weeding.