Morning Glory Madness - Help!

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GrassonMain
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Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by GrassonMain » March 16th, 2020, 5:43 pm

So our yard has been overrun with morning glory vines and it seems that no matter what we do they still seem to come back with a vengeance. What can I do to keep these out of my yard without going "nuclear" on them with hardcore chemicals? curious if there were any less toxic solutions out there.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by TimmyG » March 16th, 2020, 9:24 pm

What do you consider "hardcore chemicals"? By posting in the organic forum, I think the answer is going to be to use your hands, which is what I did years ago after learning the hard way that morning glories were evil. But that was in a relatively limited space because I got on top of the situation quickly enough.

Is your issue in the lawn or in beds? Or just everywhere? I would think that mowing should be sufficient in a lawn.

Regardless of your control method, you'll probably be fighting the seed bank for a few years, as I did. Applying a pre-emerge could help with that, but I imagine that you would consider any pre-emerge herbicide off limits. As with any annual that reseeds, the best thing you can do is to keep the plants from spreading new seeds, which means keeping the vines from blooming. Just keep snapping the vines with your hands if you're having a hard time pulling out the roots. Don't let any vines bloom or seed. Do this for a few years and you'll be all set.

Disclosure: I do use various chemical herbicides, both pre-emergent and post-emergent. But I also know when to use my hands.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by bpgreen » March 17th, 2020, 12:53 am

Morning glory or wild morning glory (aka field bindweed)?

If the latter, there's a mite that kills it (slowly, I think). Some states may not allow it. If your state aspires it, you could give it a try.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by TimmyG » March 17th, 2020, 10:55 am

Yeesh, bindweed, now that's nasty stuff. I've been fighting that in a few places since we moved here six years ago. It grows and hides at the base of a few shrubs making it very difficult to access the roots for digging. You can't just pull; it snaps easily. After a few years of failing to set it back by cutting it back at the ground, I now let the vines grow some then very gently untangle the vines until I can lay them on the ground for a couple feet and then douse them in glyphosate. That seems to be working.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by andy10917 » March 17th, 2020, 11:28 am

+1. A combo of pre-emergent control (for seeds) and painting the plants/leaves with RU (especially early season when roots are drawing sugars from the leaves) often works if continued for a few years.


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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by bpgreen » March 17th, 2020, 3:28 pm

One thing that you should not do is till. Tilling just breaks the roots into small pieces, each of which can grow into a new plant.

It's actually possible to control it by hand pulling, but to do so successfully, you need to pull as soon as it sprouts. That way, you slowly deprive it of the ability to feed the roots and in a couple of decades it'll die. Unless you miss pulling and it gets big enough to start feeding the roots, in which case, you are starting all over.

In other words, practically speaking, it's not possible.

The only way I know to control bindweed without chemicals is with the mites. And there are caveats with that approach. For example, it can still take years, it won't work if you're irrigating with sprinklers, the mites might die over the winter.

Your best bet is really glyphosate. I've read where some people diluted it, let some plants grow larger and stuck them into a container with the diluted glyphosate. Since it was diluted, it took much longer to kill the plant and it drew more into the roots. At least that was the theory of the guy who wore about doing it. He also said he was shocked because when he did that, he saw plants die far from where he was submerging the leaves. Apparently, the roots go deep and spread a long distance (which also means that even if you're diligent, you can get some cropping up from your neighbor's lawn.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by andy10917 » March 17th, 2020, 9:42 pm

Ah !! My 8,500 (indexed) article library of labels, articles, tech specs, research, PDF's and websites finally turned up something !!

** Warning: My normal rule is that I don't post what I haven't personally tested and vetted, but I read the articles in their entirety, and they were in pretty much alignment. I haven't tested this. **

I submitted a full-text search for "Morning Glory Bindweed Selective Herbicide", and all of a sudden (20 minutes later), the thing starts popping up candidates - all of which contain one common keyword:

QUINCLORAC !!!


Imagege

I don't know why, but it's one of my go-to's, and I always forget about it.

Now, while I found that it works and is listed for both Morning Glory and Bindweed on many labels, it's even better when combined with 2,4-D and Dicamba.

Where the hell would you find that cocktail though? Ummm, yeah. It turns out that that is exactly what Ortho Weed-B-Gon WITH CRABGRASS CONTROL is. The "with Crabgrass Control" is the hint that it contains Quinclorac - the other WBG versions don't. It's very close to the effectiveness of RoundUp, but it's selective and won't hurt the lawn (don't use it in flower beds or gardens though!).

Please, Please, Please -- let me know whether this really works. it might take a couple applications, and I'd certainly expect you to apply a Pre-M to keep the seed bank in check, but Damn this sounds like one of the ones that has potential to make it to the permanent list of tough-weed solutions!!

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by TimmyG » March 18th, 2020, 12:15 am

Nice! Of course, we're still speculating until the OP decides to chime in and confirm what he/she is truly dealing with, at least with regard to this particular thread. And he/she wants an organic solution.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by andy10917 » March 18th, 2020, 7:51 am

Ummm, yup! I took "hardcore" and "nuclear" to be the "nonselective" RoundUp option, and never noticed that it had been posted in the Organic forum - I spend most of my time on ATY approving, organizing and handling new posts that sometimes it all becomes a one big pile to me. Apologies if I misinterpreted the OP.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by TimmyG » March 18th, 2020, 11:07 am

Fuhgettaboutit. Andy, what you posted will be invaluable for anyone wise enough to use search in the future. (Wishful thinking!) I think we've appropriately concluded that an organic approach is not wise if one is dealing with bindweed, in case that happens to be the OP's nemesis. Given that annual morning glories are easily controlled by frequent hand pulling (or mowing), I'd say that bindweed is a likely scenario.

If I had any bindweed in the lawn, I'd be the first to try a quinclorac concoction, But with mine being in the shrub beds, I'll stick to using glyphosate for the foreseeable future.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » March 19th, 2020, 1:13 am

I killed bind weed with one application of RoundUp. I am as organic as I can be with my yard and my historical yards since 2002, but some things just need killing. I had a yard a few years ago that had bind weed in the previous owner's veggie garden, 30 feet long and 15 feet wide (garden not the bind weed). It was trying to go back to nature, but the bind weed got there first. I did something I had heard on a radio show. I unwrapped 1 strand of bind weed and dipped it into a bud vase with RoundUp in it. I used the 42% concentrated version. I propped the bud vase up and left it there for the plant to soak up the juice. At first I checked it every day for about a week. Nothing. Then I forgot about it. Several weeks later I noticed I had dead bind weed about 15 feet across in that area. I had no idea there was that much of it, but it was all dead. So I never sprayed RU; I just dipped one strand of the plant into a the concentrate and it killed the entire plant. Thank you radio program.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » March 19th, 2020, 1:14 am

I killed bind weed with one application of RoundUp. I am as organic as I can be with my yard and my historical yards since 2002, but some things just need killing. I had a yard a few years ago that had bind weed in the previous owner's veggie garden, 30 feet long and 15 feet wide (garden not the bind weed). It was trying to go back to nature, but the bind weed got there first. I did something I had heard on a radio show. I unwrapped 1 strand of bind weed and dipped it into a bud vase with RoundUp in it. I used the 42% concentrated version. I propped the bud vase up and left it there for the plant to soak up the juice. At first I checked it every day for about a week. Nothing. Then I forgot about it. Several weeks later I noticed I had dead bind weed about 15 feet across in that area. I had no idea there was that much of it, but it was all dead. So I never sprayed RU; I just dipped one strand of the plant into a the concentrate and it killed the entire plant. Thank you radio program.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by andy10917 » March 19th, 2020, 1:49 pm

Fuhgettaboutit. Andy, what you posted will be invaluable for anyone wise enough to use search in the future.
Yeah, I may post it as a separate thread to make it more searchable. I'd also love to find someone with a Bindweed problem IN THE LAWN, and enough experience to do a good test of the regimen.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by TimmyG » March 19th, 2020, 3:22 pm

So this year it looks like I'll be sticking bindweed into a bud vase with glyphosate. Sounds fun. Just gotta make sure the bud vase is beyond secure, probably held up by cinder blocks. Don't want that tipping over!

And just to be clear: I've never let any of it mature enough to flower. I stay on top of it and am simply still dealing with the robust root stock that I inherited when I moved here six years ago. Ah, to be done with bindweed.

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Re: Morning Glory Madness - Help!

Post by bpgreen » March 20th, 2020, 12:23 am

TimmyG wrote:
March 19th, 2020, 3:22 pm
So this year it looks like I'll be sticking bindweed into a bud vase with glyphosate. Sounds fun. Just gotta make sure the bud vase is beyond secure, probably held up by cinder blocks. Don't want that tipping over!

And just to be clear: I've never let any of it mature enough to flower. I stay on top of it and am simply still dealing with the robust root stock that I inherited when I moved here six years ago. Ah, to be done with bindweed.
I can vouch for the fact that it can be beaten, I think I used glyphosate in jars for most of it. Once I got it mostly under control, I started pulling it as soon as I saw it. If you pull it right away, you can eventually starve it. I don't think I've seen any for a few years. And I don't think I started trying to really fight it until around 1998.

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