Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
whitecap2_gw

Grim Experiments

whitecap2
11 years ago

Bindweed, aka wild morning glory, has been driving me crazy this year. It's coming up everywhere, mainly in shaded and part sun areas. I've pulled up a ton of it, sometimes unearthing underground runners a good 20 ft. long. I always reach a point where the runners break off, though. It seems to me that all my efforts have just invigorated it. I bought some 45% glyphosate Roundup concentrate the other day (the regular stuff's only 2%), diluted it to 15%, and poured about 2.5 inches of it into several 12 oz. glass bottles. I cut the ends of several freshly uncovered underground runners, about 1/4th to 3/8th inches thick, scraped the bark for a couple of inches or so above the cut, and inserted them into the bottles. This proved easier than I had expected, because when you bend the runner and insert the end into the bottle, the stiffness of the vine tends to hold the bottle upright. I inserted two runners into one of the bottles day before yesterday afternoon, and was astonished to find the bottle empty, with only a bit of residue, yesterday morning. I refilled the bottle with another 2.5 inches of "juice" yesterday morning, and see that this morning only about half an inch remains. The results with the other two bottles aren't nearly as dramatic, but the fluid levels are definitely lower. I'm sure it will be a while before any results become apparent, but I had never imagined that these vines could be induced to ingest this much herbicide.

Comments (8)