Bindweed war

Three years ago I posted about <a href="https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ttalk&th=1734887">my battle with a patch of bindweed</a>. I thought I'd give an update.

The herbicide I used, Weed-B-Gone Crabgrass Control (2,4-D plus quinclorac) knocked it back but didn't eliminate it. Last year I quit using the herbicide and switched to aggressively pulling out new plants as soon as I see them. Once or twice a week I comb the area for new shoots, pull them up and throw them in the trash. I usually get a fistful. If nothing else, it's easier than spraying and there's no waiting for the plants to die. Supposedly if you pull out all the shoots, the roots will run out of energy from lack of photosynthesis and die. They sure haven't died yet.

One thing I've noticed is that bindweed can't compete with HEALTHY grass. The patch was originally a bunch of wood chips, but as the chips rot and the grass moves in, the bindweed has a harder time. It only grows in bare spots where there's little or no grass. On the other hand, I found a patch in the city near where I used to work. It has infested a patch of grass that's been neglected by whoever owns the property, and the bindweed has no problem competing with the grass there.

A real annoying thing about this stuff is its ability to transplant itself. I'm pretty sure my mower is at least partly responsible, but I find it cropping up in odd places around the yard, particularly around trees. My zero turn mower has a tendency to churn up the ground around trees, and I think the tires pick up bits of bindweed from the patch and replant them elsewhere. I'm now careful to pull all the bindweed up before I mow the infested area.

I'm fairly happy with the progress I've made, but I'm beginning to think this battle will never be over.

Don't know for sure, but was told years ago that you can't transplant field bindweed. If this is true you shouldn't worry about spreading it with your mower, etc. I've been fighting bindweed all my life and believe the only way to control it is with chemicals. Lots of no-till farmers are controlling/eradicating bindweed because they spray so often and the bindweed never gets a chance to reseed. Bindweed spreads underground as I constantly fight it trying to spread into my fields from fence rows and roadsides. Just treated with 2,4-D/Tordan mix plants that had encroached into the edge of my field from the road side. Occasionally I find a plant or two in the middle of the field, which I believe is spread there by seed from a machine or carried by birds. I can usually kill this out with one or two chemical treatments.

I had Bindweed on 80 acres of rented land, it was a battle but i won with the help Dicamba. I had to spray it in the fall about 4 years in a row.

A never ending battle, it will give you something to look forwards to. Got lucky and only had a tiny patch of it. Just kept pulling it out. The seeds last for YEARS and every now and then another shows / grows up. Just keep pulling.

Bindweed seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years.

I just looked it up. It is a close relative to morning glory which I had in just one field ten years ago. It died out after I sprayed it and gave the field a good boost with lime and fertilizer. I wish that my creeping charlie would give up so easily. Any Ag agronomist will tell you that the best defense against weeds is a strong stand of grass. The grass keeps the sun from the weed in the spring. Around the trees the grass is less strong due to shade so there are little openings for the weed. I'll bet that the neglected grass parcel that you mentioned had a dry period in the past that enabled the weed to get a good start.

> It is a close relative to morning glory which I had in just one field ten years ago. It died out after I sprayed it and gave the field a good boost with lime and fertilizer.

Did you have wild morning glory or bindweed? Although they look similar, morning glory is an annual and bindweed is perennial. Pretty much impossible to eradicate the latter with a single application of herbicide. I remember my dad treated a patch of it in a wheat field with something that sterilized the soil for several years, yet it still came back.

> Don't know for sure, but was told years ago that you can't transplant field bindweed. If this is true you shouldn't worry about spreading it with your mower, etc.

Hmm. As a kid growing up in Colorado, we were always deathly afraid of transplanting bindweed. We once did some earthmoving work in an irrigated field infested with bindweed. Before we moved our scrapers and dozers out of the field, we washed them off using a trash pump.

It sure seems like it's getting transplanted at our place; it pops up a hundred yards or more from the original patch, but only in areas that are mowed or immediately adjacent to mowed areas.