You’re out enjoying your garden until you come across some pretty whitish-pink flowers. It a cheerful little garden addition, at first. But then you realize: you have bindweed in your garden.
Few weeds are as frustrating as morning glory, also known as bindweed. Once it makes its way to your garden, it’s pretty hard to get rid of.
Bindweed is a persistent nemesis for the gardener, flower farmer, homesteader and anyone with an outdoor space to manage. It grows fast, smothers and strangles other plants, and seems impossible to kill.
We are going to discuss what we can do to deter, prevent, and exterminate this pesty phenomenon.
What We’ll Discuss
What is Bindweed?
Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is also known as field bindweed, creeping Jenny, morning glory, devil’s guts, and possession vine.
It’s related to ornamental morning glory (Ipomoea indica), but while many people grow the ornamental morning glory as a beloved flower, morning glory weed is widely acknowledged as a pest.
Bindweed is a weedy species found throughout North America. Many states list it as invasive, and it can spread far and wide.
It was transported into the country via seed in the 1700s from Europe or Asia and is now found from coast to coast in every state and throughout Canada.
The twining perennial vines can grow up to six feet long. The roots can grow extremely deep, up to twice as deep as the length of the vine. If you pull the weed and leave even a bit of root, a new plant can pop up in its place.
When the flowers open, they look like upside-down bells or funnels before opening fully. The flower has white to pink tones and appear in spring through fall. They may appear singly or in clusters at the ends of the stems.
Bindweed leaves are typically arrowhead or heart-shaped, with pointed tips and smooth edges. The leaves are arranged alternately along the stem and can vary in size depending on environmental conditions.
It has a long rhizome that can grow up to 10 feet deep. The rest of the root system stays close to the soil and can usually be found within two feet.
Known for climbing or trailing, the vines can quickly overtake gardens, lawns, homesteads and agricultural fields. It loves disturbed soil and will quickly push out native plants by climbing up them and smothering them, or shading them out.
Hardy in USDA Growing Zones 2-10, it is found in every state but is rare in the South.
Don’t confuse it with hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium), which is a similar but slightly different weed.
How Bindweed Spreads
This weed is an expert in reseeding, spreading, and taking over. It creeps and crawls with the ability to regenerate epically fast.
Bindweed does not need the aid of pollinators to reproduce or animals to disperse it, but it uses them to its advantage if they are around. Even still, it’s well-equipped to spread with or without help. Let’s discuss root spread, first.
Roots
The root system penetrates deep into the soil and can re-grow from a mere fragment left behind. It produces underground horizontal rhizomes that spread outwards and down from the parent plant.
These rhizomes can sprout new shoots, giving rise to new plants, which is how they can reproduce asexually.
Bindweed roots can break apart into fragments when disturbed, such as during cultivation or pulling. These root fragments can develop into new bindweed plants if you leave them in the soil, dump them in your compost, or transfer them to other areas of your garden.
Now for the really bad news: the roots can survive dormant up to 50 years in the soil.
Stem Fragments
Similarly, bindweed is well equipped to regenerate from stem fragments. Just because a stem fragment doesn’t have roots, don’t think it doesn’t matter. If you pop pulled stems into your compost, you’ll end up spreading more plants all around the garden.
If a piece of bindweed stem is cut or broken off and comes into contact with the soil, it can root and form new plants.
Seeds
Bindweed’s seeds can last for well over a decade, so expelling it from your land is a tough challenge. The seed can lie dormant until the soil is worked or conditions favorable.
Seeds are small, black, and contained within a small round capsule. When these capsules dry out and split open, the seeds are released into the surrounding environment.
The seeds can disperse over long distances by wind, water, animals, or human activities. As seeds are lightweight they can easily travel with the assistance of external forces.
Germination rates are extremely high and successful, so there is a strong potential that new plants will sprout wherever they fall or uplift from.
Effects On The Garden
As a fast-growing pest plant, bindweed is high-impact and extremely intrusive.
Plants
Bindweed will compete with other plants for nutrients, water, and sunlight, leading to the reduced growth and yields of vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruits, and any other plant in its path.
Not only will in drain all the goodness from the soil, robbing all other plants, but it will smother and eventually strangle them. Bindweed is called this for that reason, as it will utilize trees, shrubs, annuals, and other plants in order to support itself.
The binding, smothering action means that the host plant will struggle for resources. Long term, it’ll be starved of nutrients, light, and air, which renders it open to other diseases or weakens it to the point of death.
In some areas where bindweed is particularly troublesome, like the western US, it can reduce crops by up to 60 percent!
Soil
The extensive root system of bindweed can deplete the soil of nutrients, making it less fertile for other plants. Plus, when you work to eliminate the weed, you might have to add chemicals or dig extensively.
As such, if you have bindweed, once you eradicate it, you’ll want to replenish the soil before planting again.
If the balance isn’t restored, the soil quality can deteriorate. Allowing diseases, erosion, pests, and more weeds to take hold, reducing plant growth and yields from subsequent plantings.
Environment
Bindweed threatens native species and ornamental plants alike. They appear in remote regions and urban parks, threatening the health of the local environment.
The nature of such prolific vines is it doesn’t stay at ground level. It can use tree branches, fences, and even other plants to grow vertically.
It can quickly jump your home boundary and invade your neighbor’s yard. And once you find it, chances ae you’l be dealing with it regularly.
Not only that, but this plant pest is mildly toxic to animals due to the alkaloids it contains. If you have livestock you’ll definitely need to get rid of this plant.
Solutions, Control, and Management
Getting to grips with bindweed is going to be challenging. Bindwind is resilient against many common herbicides and it’s particularly hard to dig up all the roots.
The best way to tackle it head-on is to combine some, if not all, of these steps.
Prevention
No-dig gardening is beneficial for preventing bindweed as it denies the weed the kind of disturbed soil that it prefers to take root in.
If there are any dormant seeds or root cuttings hiding in the soil, not disturbing it might prevent the seeds and cuttings from starting their growth cycle.
Due to this weed’s deep-rooted system and the longevity of dormant seeds, leaving the soil undisturbed prevents waking them up. If they reach the surface, they’re more likely to be stimulated to grow and reproduce.
Additionally, no-dig gardening promotes the growth of a healthy soil ecosystem with diverse microorganisms that can help suppress bindweed growth and support the growth of healthy natives.
The absence of soil disturbance provides a stable environment for beneficial soil organisms to thrive and outcompete the weed. A balanced and sustainable ecosystem can naturally reduce the presence of bindweed.
Of course, that’s impossible in the garden where we are planting crops, so let’s talk about control next.
Hand Pulling
Regular monitoring of your land, borders, and any corridors between properties and boundaries can give you an early warning that bindweed is coming.
If you catch it early and when young, you can manually pull the bindweed out. At this stage, it’s easier to lift out, and if you keep pulling it the second it pops back up, it will eventually starve the roots of nutrients and they will die.
The trick here is to consistently remove all the young shoots and roots, meaning daily, if necessary. After a while, it will run out of energy and stop growing.
Mulching with a deep layer of suitable mulch, such as bark, straw, manure, or a good organic compost, can interrupt the germination of seeds and root spread.
Mulching stops light, which is required to activate the plant, so it smothers it. Mulching also assists in promoting positive soil ecosystems that support good plants that will push back against weeds, such as bindweed.
That said, the plant can lie dormant for a long, long time. So you’ll need to keep that deep layer of mulch in place all year and replenish it as it breaks down.
Hand-pulling older plants that have become more established is likely to be a lengthy battle, and you will need to incorporate other controls, as well.
Deep tilling of the land using tools or removal of top soils that are infested with bindweed, won’t necessarily be a quick solution. Nor will it solve the infestation as roots and seeds can be deeper than those layers removed.
This action will leave the soil without the ability to support positive plant life and then more problems will grow.
Cutting
Although this method doesn’t remove the roots, if you do it often enough, it can deprive them of energy and kill them. Use a sharp hoe or weed trimmer to cut the bindweed at the base. In a larger area, you can mow the weeds using a mower.
You will need to do this frequently, cutting the plant down as it appears, in order to fully get control of the situation.
This may weaken the bindweed over time if done frequently.
Be mindful of how clippings or cuttings are disposed of. Don’t put them in the compost or you’ll just spread the problem around. If you plan to burn them, always adhere to your zone’s restrictions.
If you’re desperate, till your soil deeply and regularly every few weeks from spring through fall for up to five years. I know, this is an extreme method, but it’s effective if you really can’t get the situation under control any other way.
Bonus points if you cover the soil with a thick layer of cardboard or a tarp in between tilling.
Don’t Let Them Go to Seed
Whatever you do, don’t let those flowers close and form a seed. Pull the plants before they can flower and send out seeds.
Once the seeds form, birds will eat them and carry them hundreds of miles around, so one plant can result in infestations far and wide.
Chemical Control
Before we discuss herbicides, I strongly encourage you not to use broad, non-selective herbicide sprays. You will kill good plants and disturb the soil balance, and the bindweed will return stronger than before and take over the dead area.
Selective use of herbicides containing 2, 4 D or glyphosate can effectively control bindweed. Apply the herbicide directly onto the leaves, taking care not to hit any nearby plants or the ground.
Don’t apply on windy days, and consider laying cardboard down to protect nearby plants.
If you can’t spray directly onto the leaves without touching anything else, use a paintbrush to apply a herbicide onto the bindweed leaves.
This is a particularly useful method if the bindweed has started to smother and take over other plants or trees. Spraying these areas liberally will likely contaminate the plants you’re trying to save, while wiping directly will keep the herbicide where you need it.
Consider pre-emergent herbicides as a preventative measure in order to prevent seeds from germinating. This may be a measure to assist in battling chronic and repetitive infestations.
Something like Preen’s Extended Control Weed Preventer, available at Amazon 13.75 pound containers, is an effective option.
Persistence is the Name of the Game
Persistence is definitely the name of the game on all frontiers with bindweed. There is no magic wand.
All who encounter it in their garden should focus on consistently applying multiple methods to deter and destroy it, and plan on doing these repeatedly for months and even years.
