This vine is indestructible and is popping up everywhere. Thoughts? Cincinnati Ohio
by sephrah
This vine is indestructible and is popping up everywhere. Thoughts? Cincinnati Ohio
by sephrah
9 Comments
Looks like Bindweed
Looks like bindweed (*Convolvulus arvensis*), which is a very invasive member of the morning glory family. If you catch them young, their roots are easy to pull out, but older ones can have deep roots that go as deep as 20 ft. You have to get the entire root or it will come back. They overwinter easily and are quite prolific.
They also strangle out any plants that they wrap around. If you find them wrapped around a plant, cutting the base is an easy way to kill the vine part, to make it easier to remove it from the plant (give it a few days to die back and then unravel the dead part) but then you still want to dig out the root to prevent it from growing back.
If you are ok with using herbicides (glyphosate, quinclorac, 2,4-D) you can roll up the vines, stuff them into plastic bags, and spray just inside the bag. Prevents drift etc. the plant then takes up the herbicide and sends it to the root which is then killed. See: https://kslnewsradio.com/shows-podcasts/greenhouse/managing-bindweed-in-flowerbeds/2131340/
Every bit of rhizome will sprout a new plant so digging can just make more of them. And the root can be way deeper than you can dig manually. Also it can spread horizontally literally underneath a suburban roadway.
As others have said; Bindweed. I 100% understand everyone saying to try and get rid of it.
I do want to say some positive things about the poor bindweed though. It deserves the hate it gets, but it also has beautiful flowers that bees and butterflies are happy to enjoy. After they’ve fully flowered they create little seed pods that, when they naturally dry, kinda turn into very miniature like maracas. You can shake them and they’ll make sound. Amazing stuff 😀 .
Unfortunately it’s a really tough weed to get rid of. It strangles other plants if you let it.
I let it grow all the way at the back of my garden where I allow nature to kinda take its course. It’s really beautiful to see it in full bloom traveling like natures garland.
I bought a property with bindweed so embedded it grows up in the grass all over the yard, there’s no way to remove it all so at this point i just mow it along with the grass and pull it from my flower beds every spring. There’s no way to remove it at this point. I blame previous owners for not keeping it in check when it was still manageable.
Bindweed. Just build competition and break it off at the surface level(don’t break the roots/below soil), you’ll tire it out and check if you have Bindweed Moths native to your area — they help keep the plant in check
Morning glory. Pull it out, pour vinegar on the hole(s). Keep watch. Pull out new sprouts.
It’s the bane of my existence:(
I oddly had great luck with soaking the leaves & stems with water and powdering irresponsible amounts of weed killer on this Judas goat of a plant. All of them died quickly, hopefully it does not return…