Some of the best low impact exercise can be attained by gardening. Weed control is one of the gardening activities that helps get steps in and makes the garden look better too! One of these weeds is bindweed.
Field bindweed is difficult to control, especially for homeowners, but there are options.
Home Vegetable Gardens: Weed control requires taking the treated portion of the garden out of production for a time.
Glyphosate- Glyphosate is sold under a wide variety of names, the most common being Roundup. Take the garden out of production when treating.
- Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide that will kill whatever it hits but is inactivated when it contacts the soil.
- Glyphosate is most effective when applied to bindweed that is at or beyond full bloom. You can treat earlier but don’t skip the late summer to fall application.
- Do not apply to bindweed that is under moisture stress or not growing well.
Turf: Selective herbicides are available. A herbicide with the trade name of Drive (quinclorac) is now packaged in homeowner combination herbicides such as Fertilome Weed-Out with Q, Ortho Weed-B-Gon Max+ Crabgrass Control, Monterey Crab-E-Rad Plus and Bayer All-in-One Lawn Weed and Crabgrass Killer.
Shrub Beds: Use a spray of glyphosate between plants. Use a shield if spraying near plants to keep spray from contacting green plant material. Remember, glyphosate will hurt your shrubs if it contacts green tissue.
It is possible to control field bindweed by pulling, but you must be extremely persistent. A study found that bindweed produces enough energy to start strengthening the roots when it reached the six-leaf stage. So, if pulling, never allow plants to produce more than six leaves.