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Post by diane on Sept 23, 2012 21:22:58 GMT -5
I have an allotment garden with bindweed. My neighbours also have it. We've been digging it out every time we see it for about five years. It always comes back but hasn't spread much. Then I went on a couple of trips to enjoy spring flowers in the Southern Hemisphere, leaving late in August and coming back sometime in October or November. During my times away, no one was digging out the bindweed. By the time I came back, none was visible, but it must have been very busy. This year I have an incredible amount. I did a lot of reading online about this plague. We are not allowed to use herbicides, but apparently they don't do much to solve the bindweed problem. The best suggestion was to cover it for three years. I have an experiment in progress. I dug out the roots as deep as I could go. One area I am continuing to dig everytime I see a bit of bindweed emerge. One strip I covered with landscape cloth, covered it with purchased soil, and planted salads and greens. Their roots go down through the cloth, and they're doing great. The strip next to it I covered with black plastic. I will show in the next message what has happened in the month since I did it. (I can't figure out how to do two photos in one message) Attachments:
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Post by diane on Sept 23, 2012 21:28:43 GMT -5
Today I noticed that the black plastic was bumped up in various areas so I removed it and found a mass of green bindweed. Obviously my black plastic doesn't block any light. This part of the experiment has made things worse. The bindweed has been happily expanding its roots, and since it was moist under the plastic, it has grown more than if it had been out in the open. I will try some peat moss bags - they are made of much thicker plastic, and perhaps that will block the light. Meantime, a neighbour is using thick layers of wet newspaper. Attachments:
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Post by robertb on Sept 26, 2012 12:37:01 GMT -5
Bindweed is a horror to get rid of. You need thickish black plastic which will last. The other way is digging. Carry on as you are, digging it every chance you get. You will get on top of it in time. I cleared it out of the garden when I was a kid by repeatedly painting the leaves with copper sulphate.
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Post by steev on Sept 26, 2012 13:00:58 GMT -5
Bindweed is one weed that I drop whatever I'm doing to pull out all I see, whenever it rears its head. I seem to be ahead of it, but I don't imagine I can rest on my laurels. It's like rust: it never sleeps.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 26, 2012 16:14:48 GMT -5
I'm with Steev on this one. I have never seen it die under clear plastic or black plastic, nope, not in 20 years. Digging, Digging again.
And never ever try to till it in.
Many years ago my landlord repeatedly round-up sprayed it. When he passed away, it came back...
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Post by steev on Sept 26, 2012 21:50:15 GMT -5
I'll bet it was laughing when it did. Proof of life from outer space!
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