what on earth are these spaghetti weeds?!

[lottymadbird]

hi, not posted on gardening bit before but have an allotment and am mad about gardening, growing veg etc.

have been moving big pile of earth on to growing bit of allotment (inherited when i took it over so no idea where its come from) and there are tons and tons of roots which are obviously weeds. top growth non existent at this time of year so cant describe but the roots are white and very long and thickish (drinking straw thick) and some of them are curly like spaghetti.

they pull out fairly easy if in soft ground but do break off.

any ideas anyone?

you are DOOMED

this is bindweed I reckon

Get used the pulling up

I'm hesitating to say some kind of bindweed... the kind of stuff that does die down in winter but comes back with hellish avengeance in spring and through summer. Persistence, persistence, persistence...

That's my first thought....

Yes, I think so too. If so you need to dig all the roots out which takes forever and if and leaves and shoots dare live blast them with Roundup.

HC
x

oh my god, just googled bindweed and apparently it can go down 5 metres. er... think i have a busy spring/summer ahead of me as have spread the soil this contained ALL over my allotment and I am sure i didnt get all the roots out !

oh and spread horse manure all over the top too so it'll have some nice nutrition to keep it going ! why don't slugs eat weeds?!!!! [frowns intently]

I don't bother trying to eradicate bindweed, I just pull it up when and where it appears

There are lots of 'tricks' for trying to eliminate it but I gave up a long time ago because it was starting to give me nightmares. Now I just pull it up and leave it with my council garden recycling!

Our next door neighbour managed to get on top of hers by laying turf and religiously cutting the grass... but as you have an allotment I am guessing this won't be the case... Bindweed is a bind (sorry!) but with persistence and persistent growing/smothering of it, eventually it will sulk. Just keep an eye on seedlings as the bindweed grows, if it does start to grow up your plants, break the bindweed stems at ground level, give it a day or two to die and then you'll be able to unwind without doing too much damage to the plants it's grown up.

I empathise. We had bindweed in our old garden and it was a complete and utter PITA; we learned to live with it, rather than against it.

i feel i'm going to have fun with my runner beans this year !!!!

thanks for all the advice.