This vine weed started getting bad in our area in the last couple of years. Hit our place last year and spreading with great speed this summer. It seems to be almost immune to RoundUp. Burning it with propane torch is effective but terribly time consuming. I certainly hope it isn't a host plant for butterflies because we just can't stand this stuff all over our fences. Anyone know the name of it?
looks like bindweed
Thanks for the answer, seedpicker. Looking at photos, I'm sure that's what it is. DH uses a propane torch on it and it still comes back up. I don't like to use RoundUp but treated it and it turned only slightly pale and continued to grow.
They not only form a tuberous root, but form an entire network system of roots, so they can be quite persistent.
I'd imagine round-up(several treatments) or maybe evenseveral treatments of bramble killer would work to get the entire system of roots?
I think the torch is only killing the top growth, but from the way their roots form, they'll just keep resprouting, until you use something systemic.
Pretty weed, though! I've always loved seeing them bloom all along the highways here :0)
Did you mix a surfactant with the RoudUp before you sprayed? Deep rooted weeds are very difficult to eradicate. As seedpicker said, it's going to to take several applications and several seasons to get rid of it.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7462.html
No, didn't use surfactant but have some and will do that next time. This weed really concerns me as I've watched it a couple miles away on the fence around a hay field and every year the owner hires a man to spend a couple weeks or more cleaning the stuff off the fence. Very tedius work because it wraps very tightly around each fence post. I kept thinking, "Wonder why he doesn't use Round-Up and just kill the stuff permanently." Well... now I know it's because it wouldn't do any good. He'd have to nuke the whole 40 acres.
It started on our place after we brought in several tons of limestone and roadbase for a carport pad for our motorhome. Grows just as well inside the carport in the shade as it does out in the sun, too. Covered the side of the pad and know it would grow up into the RV if we left it parked too long. LOL. DH pulled it all up and within 2 weeks it was back as thick as before.
The Sharp-pod Morning Glory grows for hundreds of feet on pasture fences around here. In 2007, it put on a spectacular display, but it's just as invasive. It's one to admire from a distance. Not something you want growing in your property.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53063/
