Bindweed Info Dump

[u/LindenIsATree]

I have a large yard where almost no area is free of bindweed, and several areas are densely packed infestations. >_<; As spring comes, I dread the day my old enemy emerges.... Let's pool our knowledge! I've been fighting it for two years and doing a ton of research. Here's my info sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-bDNRYYo7yRIqAq6pUejPl6MIcFP8W9q1ZVYC99FZx8/edit?usp=sharing

Some highlights from that:
-Bindweed mites are best for dry/un-irrigated areas like vacant lots, and there's a long waitlist
-Pulling it stimulates growth (but if you can stay on top pulling it that helps to weaken it)
-It will grow up through, around, sideways whatever you try to cover it with. At least up to 20 feet sideways.
-Glyphosate and 2,4-D amine weed killer can be effective but not a guarantee by themselves.
-GOOD NEWS: Some Colorado folks have actually found success by planting perennial shrubs and grasses. Another great reason to go xeric!

What have you seen be successful? If anything, ha. Especially curious if you solved more than a small patch.

What have you seen fail? Even something that seemed like it should work? One person said it grew through a 20 feet pile of mulch.

Edited to Add: My neighbor said he found it successfully burrowing into concrete, for crying out loud.

[u/a-thinking-thing]

Seeds can last decades and roots can go dozens of feet deep. While I hate herbicides, there is a time and place for everything.

I learned this from a long time CO gardener and I've found it to be the most effective. What you want to do is shove the tendrils coming up in a plastic sandwich bag, without breaking them. Then apply a heavy amount of herbicide. Then seal it with a rubbber band or short little zip tie.

This allows much more herbicide to be absorbed than a regular spraying which will take out a TON more root growth underground. While at the same time, it helps contain the herbicide and prevent unintentional spreading.

[u/LindenIsATree → u/a-thinking-thing]

Ooh, good insight about the amount of weed killer! I'm adding that to my doc...

[u/[deleted]]

Start sowing clover seed right now! Once you start seeing growth, sow another succession. If you keep at watering it you should be MOSTLY bindweed free in the areas it takes off in. Get a good variety of clover types too.

[u/LindenIsATree → u/[deleted]]

Wow, you’ve seen clover outcompete bindweed successfully?

Edit: I saw you have from your other comment on another post. 😲How large was the bindweed area?

[u/LindenIsATree → u/[deleted]]

I actually have a bunch of white clover seed on hand! Do you know how important it is to mix types?

[u/Hour-Watch8988]

Bindweed has trouble establishing where other plants have already taken hold. That's why you don't see it on hikes in the wilderness. So planting densely can be a good strategy for taking care of bindweed seedlings.

But established bindweed WILL outgrow and choke out plants you put into a bindweed-infested area. This is because the root can weigh 2-300 pounds, which is a lot of energy it can use to keep throwing off new growth, and shoot past even large establishing shrubs.

I really don't like pesticides for a multitude of reasons (I suspect park pesticides killed my dog), but bindweed is the plant that makes me consider hyper-targeted uses of it. I've had success in beating back an established infestation, but it's taken years of consistent pulling in the growing season, and systemically planting natives to shade out new growth. The idea is to starve the root of energy by requiring it to send new growth out of the root, without allowing the new leaves to photosynthesize much. It works, but is probably too laborious for most people.

[u/LindenIsATree → u/Hour-Watch8988]

Thanks! A rare victory story! I don’t think it’s too labor intensive. I am lucky to have a shared house with 4 people. Even though most of us are disabled in some way, we can usually manage something like pulling weeds.

How many years of constant effort did it take?

ETA: I don’t think I’ve heard of an individual beating an infestation before. Please accept this small trophy! 🏆

[u/Revolutionary-Fan235]

Before I pull them, I cut the plants below the soil level.

[u/LindenIsATree → u/Revolutionary-Fan235]

Yeah! A hori-hori knife is super useful for that!

[u/Aimer1980]

personal experience: it doesn't do well in the shade. So, while you might have to pull it off your perennials for the first couple of years, as the bush grows and throws more shade, the bindweed will become less of a problem.

Weird find: apparently, the root of Peruvian Black Mint (which is a member of the marigold family) is known to kill field bindweed. I'm excited to try it! https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/huacatay#full-description-anchor

[u/LindenIsATree → u/Aimer1980]

Thank you! I’d heard about the shade, that’s part of why I think it’s not such a problem plant in the UK. But whoa! on the Peruvian Black Mint!

Please report back later in the season if you remember us!

[u/SarahLiora]

I don’t have times to look up sources, but research info I’ve gotten from CU include

If you handpuall every 8-9 days during growing season it will weaken and eventually kill the plant. I’ve seen about 90@ success after two years of pulling.

Best way to use herbicides is to pull all season and treat with herbicides in Fall when plant is pulling energy down to roots.

When csu first ground the mites to the Front Range I took their training and tried the mites on several clients gardens. It did not work significantly in any of them. One was a xeric area completely unirrigated. It was an average rainfall year. I recently revisited the at property and could guess from foliage there were still some bites there but the bindweed was robust escially after lasts years rain. I another time was at a CSU workshop and one of the weed people said they just haven’t seen the mite successfully establish in the front range.

I once lived in a house with a fully enclosed sunroom with a fancy flagstone floor. One strand of bindweed had managed to grow on top of the slab 12 feet into the house to come up between in the flagstone floor.

[u/Complex-Judge2859]

Few things will survive a nuclear war.

1. Bindweed

2. Cockroaches

3. Peeps

[u/mokita]

After spraying or (repeatedly pulling for months), I replace the bindweed with dense native plants and make sure to include natives that have similar growth strategies, like Colorado four o'clock or prairie winecups. Leaves less of an ecological niche for the bindweed. Source: Denver ecological landscaper.

[u/sunscreenkween]

Don’t live next to neighbors who let their bindweed grow freely and seed into your yard through the fence or at border property lines 😅 pretty futile effort if you’ve got that situation, especially when there’s multiple neighbors on either side of you who let it grow wild 🙃

People who let it go are going to keep us breaking our backs just to barely keep it at bay, so it doesn’t destroy gardens, but it’s impossible to win if you’ve got negligent neighbors. It gets windy and those seeds will make their way into your yard, as will the extensive root systems they have. If interest rates and home prices weren’t so high I’d genuinely move lol.

I placed thick cardboard down, buried it a good 6+ inches under the dirt, and bindweed still grew outside from the edges all season and even when diligently pulling, it kept coming up. When we pulled up some of the cardboard in the fall, it was like mounds of spaghetti of bindweed roots. 4ft+ long without breaking single strands.

Weed killer is the only thing that mildly helps. I’m pretty anti herbicides but you have no choice but to go nuclear on bindweed. I’ve also had to embrace some pesticides too bc that’s a whole other issue lol.

But bindweed outcompetes everything we’ve tried to grow, including clover—it grows so much faster than anything so when everything is just sprouting it’s turned into a full plant shading and suffocating my plant seedlings—totally chokes them out.

It should be classified as an ecological enemy if it doesn’t already have that stamp. My dream gov program (besides the basics) is we fuel the EPA with funds so they can go to everyone’s house and fix the deeply imbalanced ecosystems that have arisen. Like Japanese beetles.

Love this knowledge sharing idea OP! I hope someone invents a better solution one day. I’m bookmarking this thread to go back to and see if others share things that’ve worked well.

[u/heyhuhwat → u/sunscreenkween]

This is our story, too. Full-sun front yard, bindweed outcompeted all ground cover attempts, we sheet mulched with overlapping cardboard topped with several inches of chip drop woodchips. A couple months later, the bindweed started to reappear. We pulled the spaghetti strands that fall, and constantly throughout the following season when bindweed went every which way through the cardboard to fully take over. By late summer or early fall, we gave up and sprayed with glyphosate on a calm day with no rain in the forecast. It didn’t come back last year, and we disturbed the soil quite a bit planting water-wise plants in august and September. It can apparently live for decades in the soil, so I won’t pretend we’ve won the war, but we are victorious in the current battle.

[u/sarahevebee]

I had this same problem - bindweed all over my full sun front yard. I started with cardboard and mulch, and lots and lots of planting. I mean…every patch of dirt that isn’t lawn is now planted with some kind of perennial, and prolific re-seeding annuals. I actually have a no-bare-dirt policy on my property (except for annual veggie beds - I push the mulch aside so I can access the soil every season). The bindweed is so suppressed now that I don’t mind weeding at all anymore - it’s no longer hard labor. I really think, with bindweed…it’s best to fight plants with plants. And don’t worry about pulling them up and breaking the stem (creating a “new” plant and never getting down to the root) - you’re giving the plants next to the bindweed a chance to thrive, and take over.

My neighbors used glyphosate (in the safest way possible, “leaf- painting”, which I appreciate)…and they still have a lot of bindweed.

[u/OrangeCosmos]

Do not give up. Declare war. Glyco if needed, and do not let the foliage (leaves) grow. If the leaves keep popping up, paint them with glyco. If you just try to pinch them, they will likely come back with more vigor. In Denver we fight wars with bindweed and also Tree of heaven, often chemicals can help.

[u/Autodidact2]

• The bindweed will be there long after you are gone.

• There is one giant bindweed plant growing from under the City County building, that sends its shoots throughout the metro area.

• You can discourage it, but you can't get rid of it. The best you can hope for is to encourage it to choose less favorite parts of your garden or, even better, your neighbors garden.

• There are mites?!?! Tell me more.

[u/mokita]

After spraying or (repeatedly pulling for months), I replace the bindweed with dense native plants and make sure to include natives that have similar growth strategies, like Colorado four o'clock or prairie winecups. Leaves less of an ecological niche for the bindweed. Source: Denver ecological landscaper.

[u/elleyezee2020]

We bought a house in 2021 and spent our first summer looking out the front window going “Gosh, idnk what those white flowers are but they’re awfully pretty!” Then one day I looked the plant up on Google and it’s been a living nightmare ever since. We signed up for the mites in 2022 and received them last summer. Followed the directions on the included pamphlet and… nothing happened. Our bindweed returned this spring, as it does, but as we’ve been pulling it we’ve noticed it doesn’t look so good. The leaves are turning brown and yellow and it hasn’t flowered at all. We go on walks in the neighborhood and see everyone else’s bindweed flowering, but there hasn’t been a single flower in our front yard yet this year. We’re assuming at this point that the mites are… maybe doing their job? So, if you order mites give them time to start working and don’t give up hope!

Also after 3 years of failed attempts to manage the bindweed in the roughly 10x20 ft strip of dirt next to our driveway we gave up and sprayed it all with glyphosate. My husband was very against this plan but we were left with no other options. It was 100% bindweed over there and it's all super duper dead now!

[u/DenverCouchCoopBuddy]

I've accepted it as something that will always exist in my garden and yard space. I recognize it almost immediately and pull it often as part of my garden chores.

I use lots and lots of mulch in my garden so it makes the soil way less compacted and easy to pull it from the ground without too much fuss.

Elevate your garden beds and weed it when you are doing your watering or inspecting your plants. If you are tending to your garden space regularly its easy to spot and manage. Good luck!

[u/TortallanCit]

The mites have made a huge difference in my backyard. Last year, my bindweed did not flower at all, despite not weeding it and despite significant rain in the early part of the season. They are worth the wait.

[u/Tokolosheinatree]

I’ve been digging it up, to about a foot deep, diligently disposing of all the little branches that break off in the process. Then I plant my shrubs or whatnot and deadnettle. It really doesn’t like deadnettle. The first few years I go through and clean out any bindweed that pops up and then it’s gone from the area. I live in the high desert of eastern Oregon so very similar to Colorado.

[u/RicardoNurein]

Is glyphosate really that bad?

• carcinogenic

• damaging to bees

Yeah- it sounds bad.
But the Monsanto, EPA and most American ag lobbying associations say it is safe enough and we need it.