Make a tool for battling bindweed

Mark Baker

Bindweed is a thin climbing vine, similar to morning glory. It spreads in a thick mat across the ground and strangles every plant that it climbs. It spreads underground from rhizomes, and has very deep roots. It climbs up, over, and around the thickest mulch. Tilling between rows results in a tangled mess on the tiller tines. A shuffle hoe works, but in my hard clay soil, it takes a lot of downward pressure to get it to cut below the surface. I made a tool that works pretty well. I got a long handled three prong cultivator. I cut two pieces of metal a little wider that the width of the three tines and bolted them together so that the tines were clamped between them, with about an inch of the tines exposed past the metal pieces. I snapped a hacksaw blade in two, making one of the pieces a little longer than the two metal pieces. I threaded the hacksaw blade between the tines, serrated side down. When using the tool, I pull it toward me, like a rake. The exposed tips of the tines break the surface of the soil, letting the hacksaw blade touch the ground and scrape off the bindweed stems. It is a never ending battle, but at least I have a decent tool now.

LaurieLovesLearning

Excellent! We had that problem in our old garden. It was horrible. I know that farmers don't like the weed at all for the same reason.

Merin Porter

We have bindweed here, and I hate it. I think the roots go down to a ridiculous depth, like 20 feet. Currently I just pull it, but I have heard of bindweed mites and want to give them a try. Is this something anyone here has tried?

http://wci.colostate.edu/Assets/pdf/bindweed.mites.wci.pdf

annbeck62

Don't have it here as far as I know and by the sounds of it, I'm grateful. Curious though is bindweed medicinal? Many times plants that are highly invasive are.

Torey

Bindweed is not a common plant in my immediate area, thankfully. But I have seen it in surrounding habitats and it is more common to the south of me in the Okanagan Valley.

Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) does have medicinal properties. Diuretic, laxative, antibacterial, febrifuge, antispasmodic, vulnerary. Its also been shown to have angiogenesis and hepaprotective properties but need more studies. Its not a common plant in Western herbalism and a lot of the research seems to be from Europe or the Middle East. Maude Grieve mentions Bindweeds in A Modern Herbal but not this species. She lists uses for C. scammonia.

This is a link to Plants for a Future which has some interesting info, including a bit on using pumpkins to control and strangle out the bindweed.

https://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/weedsinfo/Convolvulus_arvensis.htm

Mark Baker

Thanks for the info about mites, Merin Porter. Thanks for the link torey. I might try the pumpkin idea, but with butternut squash, since it grows better here. The mites sound promising also.

Mark Baker

This is bindweed:

LaurieLovesLearning

I am thinking that growth period is fast approaching. The cartoon is too true.

Mark Baker

I made an improved version of the tool, using a heavier 4 prong cultivator and an ergonomic handle. I also made a short handled version for working while seated on a weeding bench. Cultivator and hacksaw blades came from True Value hardware, Angle iron and bolts are from Lowes. Ergonomic handle is from Amazon.

Mark Baker

If you are working in a larger garden or field, I found that a tractor drawn cultivator with sweeps installed in place of the tines does a very good job of tearing out bindweed between rows. Mine is this one: https://www.earthtools.com/implements-soilworking/toolbars-cultivators/