Hard to control bindweed.....your only recourse is to keep pulling off the top growth or if possible cut it off at ground level, everytime you see it and you will eventually starve the root....but this will take seasons to do.....

Ian

I stupidly planted morning glory and now I have hundreds of seedlings a year. The best way is to take care of the seedlings before they get too big. If anything get rid off them before they flower, because that means more seeds. Lots of seeds...... and the cycle continues.

Frost will likely cut it back to ground level, but I doubt if it will kill the roots. If the laws and your HOA will permit, you can loosen as much of it as you can without breaking it, mix up a batch of Round Up or other herbicide in old coffee cans and carefully wind the bind weed into the herbicide mixture. Set the cans on the ground where they are secure and leave them alone for a few days. The bind weed with absorb the herbicide, distributing it throughout the plants to the root tips. The plants dipped into the herbicide will be killed. It appears as if you have MANY plants there. To kill them all, you'll need to repeat the treatment for every plant until they are all treated. You'll have seedling bind weed for YEARS.

Bind weed seed is in many bird seed mixes. Anyone maintaining a bird feeder is "planting" the weed. I've battled it in a client's garden for nearly a decade. It came from her danged bird feeder, which hasn't existed in nearly a decade. Keeping it cut off at ground level does little to sufficiently weaken it in this climate. It just lies under the soil until your back is turned, then...SURPRISE! It's a hateful thing. Kim

Just to chime in from another cold zone, you can't count on frost or frozen ground to make any dent in bindweed. It's a survivor like dandelions, and it laughs off the cold. If you can't maintain the cans of roundup like Kim recommends, you can use the "glove of death" method, where you put a cotton glove on your hand (with a thoroughly protective rubber one below it to protect you) and dip the glove in roundup to smooth all along the length of the bindweed to let it absorb. I'm squeamish about the glove method, so I use a sponge paintbrush dipped in Roundup. Bindweed and horseradish are the only reasons I have any Roundup at all, but it's the kind of weed that really won't be stopped without a weedkiller, and that'll probably take years.

Good job identifying and planning to tackle the bindweed on these very impressive roses! You want to get the weedkiller on growing surfaces with live leaves to take it up, but you can certainly pull off the extra growth from these lovely plants and do your dirty work underneath the roses where it's not visible. And make sure you're heavily armored against what looks like some nicely thorny roses.

Cynthia

"Glove of death", I love it, Cynthia! I've not thought of the glove treatment, but sponging and painting it on, I have. I know you, and probably most reading this will know, but it bears repeating, be EXTREMELY careful with any drips, brushes and spills with the herbicide. ANY green material you get it on will absorb it and it can easily kill those plants. Removing the canopy from the roses and doing all the work at the soil level is definitely safest and will look tremendously better as the herbicide does its job. Can you imagine the howls from the other residents about your "killing" their roses as the bindweed begins to die? Argh! Kim

I, too, love the "glove of death". Might be easier than the soaked rag/paper towel that I use. Do you use it full strength or diluted as per instructions for spraying?

TIA

SCG

Dbl post

SCG

This post was edited by SouthCountryGuy on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 16:05

I HATE that stuff!!! Trying to pull it is worthless because if you leave even the tiniest piece behind it starts all over again. The glove of death sound like a winner to me! I get nightshade coming through my neighbors hedge all the time and I've used the foam paint brush on that and it works pretty good. But that's truly of jungle of the stuff so the glove might work better without impacting the roses.

I hate bindweed with a vengence. It also draws into the garden those fierce yellowjackets which I am allergic to. Bah, humbug!!! :-/

This post was edited by dove_song on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 16:06

Hmm, I'm picturing a new GW horror film series with rose fanatics brandishing the glove of death and doing crazy stomping rituals on JBs and gophers. BWA-HA-HA - who said gardening is a tame hobby?

I'm with Seil that I thoroughly hate bindweed, and I'm convinced it'll outlive humanity and anything else living, along with the cockroaches. I use not just full-strength roundup, but full-strength tree and stump weedkiller, since I know the bindweed roots go deep and Roundup doesn't always make a dent in the growth. Now I have to convince my new neighbors to let me make inroads on the lovely crop of bindweed they have under their shaded bushes and lilacs on the other side of the fence. It's frustrating to kill these things on your own when they just work their way in again from next door.

And yes, to second Kim's wise caution, I keep my gloves of death in a zip lock bag in an entirely different location from any other gloves, and put large garden tubs (or perhaps in your case, a tarp) over plants nearby that I want to protect from any accidental contact with the weedkiller materials I'm using.

Cynthia

I, too, have bindweed badly infesting certain areas of my garden. But I am against the use of herbicides,since they are poison (Roundup included). It seems to me that if ,even using Roundup, it'll take YEARS of work to get rid of the wretched stuff,I might as well just go for Ian's method of just keep on pulling it up,so I won't have to stress about using a poison.. However,I want to try mulching it out , using a biodegradable type of landscape fabric,too...bart

Just picturing the M. Night Shyamalan movie "The Happening" when people were killed off by plants. lol We're all gonna get it for trying to get rid of this stuff lol