What can I do to stop bindweed (a wild morning glory)

I'm in newly established in southeast Idaho and trying to convert a 1/2 acre pasture to garden.  I'm having trouble with bind weed (which is a new challenge to me.  I am looking for organic or better solutions to dealing with the bindweed.

I've rototilled (twice at 90 degrees to each other) and that helped initially.

Currently my strategy is hoing it down every few days, figuring the roots will eventually run out of energy if I keep cutting it back.  Not sure how long that will take.  I read it can send roots down to 16 feet.  It's persistent.  I tried a heavy straw mulch.  It loved mulch!  I think it's due to the additional moisture that mulch leaves in the soil.

I'm also trying to water only where my plants are, hoping the hot dry days will discourage it.  Lack of water seems to slow down the bindweeed.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Mick Fisch wrote:I've rototilled (twice at 90 degrees to each other) and that helped initially.

I don't think the version of Invasive Morning Glory that I have is the one others call Bindweed, but their characteristics are similar. I don't recommend rototilling as that breaks up the roots and every 1" piece of root has the potential to grow a whole new plant!

 It's persistent.  I tried a heavy straw mulch.  It loved mulch!  I think it's due to the additional moisture that mulch leaves in the soil.

I've done heavy mulching with paper and wood chips. It doesn't stop it, but it encourages it to run along just under the paper, so when you go to check, you can pick up long runners, then reapply and it has made it work that much harder.

One other approach which doesn't qualify in my mind as better than organic, is a former owner of my land abandoned some used pond liner - the *heavy* rubber type! I put that down to encourage the runners to reach for the edges and it's a little quicker to use than the paper system. The down side is that it doesn't breath or biodegrade, so it's *critical* that it not be left down for too long. Leaves land on it, stuff grows on top and the next thing you know it's buried and causing long term problems! However, if I wanted to clear an area this year to plant annuals in next year, and I make sure to pick it up every couple of weeks and dig out whatever bindweed I can spot,  it's a compromise I'm prepared to use. There are *plenty* of horror stories out there of people putting down black plastic or black tarp material and ending up with a mess of microplastic bits that are next to impossible to clean up. The pond liner I'm talking about is much heavier and solar resistant than a tarp. MDPM is I think its acronym.

I don't even try to eradicate  it, I just try to knock it back.
I deal with it by snapping it off at ground level.
I don't try to pull it off other plants, that tends to hurt the host plant more than the bindweed.
Chickens can eradicate bindweed, but they do the same to every other annual plant in the area.
Even then, bindweed will grow in the "shadow" of perennial plants.

Edibility is inconclusive.

Raised beds and containers using untainted soil can be a solution.
Soil can be made weed seed free with enough heat.
Sifting the soil can all but eliminate roots.
Lots of work.

The only thing that worked for me long term was improving the soil. As the soil got better, the bindweed just disappeared on its own.

We've got a bindweed problem too. I have a trommel screen, and sifting is a "reasonable option", but I haven't resorted to it quite yet. Even still, the small segments of root will slip through a 1/4" screen on end...forget about seeds! This Spring, we did a rougher sort of dig-and-sift on a 10' x 20' patch using the backhoe, which kept some fairly long roots intact, which could be hand-picked. That was a four-hour-chore.

We've been beating it back by forking/digging it out of our planting beds/paths when we notice it and it won't be disruptive. Otherwise, removing the aerial growth, hopefully before flowering/setting seeds. ALL the bindweed goes somewhere other than the compost, or on the ground, usually in the trash. (we don't have chickens)

Building on your progress, and maintaining it is key; weed A, then weed A+B, then weed A,B,+C, etc... rather than weed A, then B, then C, then back to A...(chasing your tail!) When I say "weed" you could substitute mowing, tilling, spraying, whatever method you are using.

I have some growing out of a concrete wall... I've been cutting it off as it grows out of the wall for every time I see it for... three? four years? It's still coming. I guess this will be a good control experiment for how long it does take to expend energy it stores.

I also have a lot around the same area of the garden... mostly full of bindweed and some sort of nettle.

In the ground I found keeping on top of it prevents it from ruining other plants, but I haven't really eradicated it from any place yet.

As to the stuff I pull... The above ground portion I let it bake in the sun for a few months and then compost it.

The roots I have heard are quite persistent though. I used some to replace twine for tying up tomatoes and such in the garden and it eventually disintegrated in the sun.

We moved to our place in Colorado last year. It has bindweed on almost every square meter of the 3 acres that are not under concrete or house. So, I've learned a bit about bindweed. ;-) In the lawn-like or pasture-like areas it can be held somewhat in check by giving soil fertility (e.g. manure) and water, which leads to grass outcompeting bindweed. In the veg garden I just pull or break off stems that emerge in my beds (I spend a few minutes weeding several times every day). My hope is to keep it in check. With the level of infestation common on our place and our whole valley, eradication (or anything close) is impossible in my reasonable period of time. Its flowers are kind of pretty in the lawn!

One strategy I read, and that I use in our more marginal ground, is to let the plants emerge and start to flower before pulling or cutting them off. The idea is that the roots have expended a lot of energy to make vines and flowers and decapitating the plants at that point speeds the gradual weakening of the plant.

So, that’s what that pretty two-toned flower is!
For years, admiring the pretty little wildflower that grows along the ground on the sides of roads and sidewalks through yards, I’d always wondered if it would be nice to have some climbing on fencing along the perimeter of my place.
I’ve just watched a couple of videos on this plant to understand why maybe I don’t want to use it as a compliment to my fencing. It literally chokes out everything. Nope, not entertaining that thought any longer.

L. Johnson wrote:I've been cutting it off as it grows [...] every time I see it for... three? four years? It's still coming. I guess this will be a good control experiment for how long it does take to expend energy it stores.
...
In the ground I found keeping on top of it prevents it from ruining other plants, but I haven't really eradicated it from any place yet.

My experience is identical. I haven't let it flower, set seed, or climb on other plants for four years, but can't say it's any smaller than it was when I arrived four years ago.

Mick, I agree with Trace Oswald, the only real solution is improving the soil and patience. If you go after bindweed aggressively, then it will waste all your gardening time, lead to frustration, and ultimately fail. Time is already short, and you want to move forward with your goals instead of getting hung up on weed. Tilling the soil or hoeing will cause more bindweed because it loves disturbance. Your best bet is to use no-till, improve soil moisture through earth works, and spread a heavy amount of cover crops that can suppress and out compete the weed. Try to create a hedge of cover crops around your planting areas. Sunflower and Jerusalem artichoke work very well for this purpose, but you could also use wheat, rye, and clover. Buckwheat and vetch are vining groundcovers and will compete with bindweed in its own niche. Inside this perimeter you can hand pull the weeds to keep them down, and rake large clumps of it outside the perimeter. The runners tangle and catch in the tines easily. Raking it will give you giant bundles of green matter for your compost, mulching or feeding to animals. In that way bindweed is a plus, and much better than bare dry soil.

I have the same problem--it is just everywhere in my herb garden.  The more I pull, the more that comes up.  I tried heavy mulching and also sheet mulching around my plants, but it just comes up through the roots of the existing plants.  I have worked to improve the soil, but that does not seem to stop it.  I pull as much as I can out each year.  The good news is that it does make for some nice small basket materials!  

It may be a small consolation, but as a beginner looking into basketry I hear that bindweed may make a decent basket. 😅
This of course does nothing to eradicate it from our yards and gardens. The only things I can think of for that have been listed here (obstructing light from them with plastic, carpet, etc or sheet mulching with a ton of cardboard maybe and then adding a green mulch on top of that perhaps, to outcompete and further enrich the soil?).
However, if you have a lot of it anyway, and might have ever considered basketry as a hobby, then it might a good opportunity to give it a go. Haha.

Good luck!

The morning glory that I thought was so pretty when we bought this place has moved into next level hatred. I'm thinking of hiring an exorcist. I've tried burning it and that works for a minute but I would literally have to do it daily, and I do not want to burn my garden crops. I've loosed the goats on it, where it climbs the livestock fence in the front yard, but-once again-can't let them into the garden. I've painstakingly pulled it up from where it emerges to the end of the roots but more follows right behind it. It climbs across my cardboard layers from the edges, no matter how I try to stay on top of it.  It tries to choke my nettle patch, and I can't pull it without damaging the nettles (or my skin).  I tried putting down black plastic to cook it out but I can't stop it from climbing back in from across my neighbors' fence. It's my Lex Luthor, my Moriarty, my Khan Noonian Singh. UGGHHH!