Allotment + bind weed

[EalingLucy]

I’ve been given a half of an allotment plot (well, about a sixth actually - current resident has loads of stuff she needs to move to the other side). It’s very overgrown with bind weed - took me a whole day to clear a small bed of the most obvious roots, and tbh I think it’s probs still quite full of it. It’s certainly surrounded by it at all sides at the moment, and I need clear a massive load more to make maybe 3 more smallish beds.

I was given the plot as the person that used to have this half passed away, and the allotment society waited eight months for the council to give them new names but apparently this is too much admin! So I feel very lucky to have been given it but at the same time know that it’s likely I’ll be offered a plot of my own next year given there are four empty and they can’t fill them (madness I know). I do need to show I’m serious tho.

a couple of questions:

1. Will I be able to grow veg successfully in a plot so infested with bind weed? I have removed a lot from the bed itself, but I know there is still loads. Any tips on how to remove?
2. Do you think it’s worth putting loads of labour in if I might only have the plot for a year? How much do I need to clear the bindweed in a bed before I can grow stuff there?
3. How much labour should I put into clearing the surrounding area? There is a huge area around the plot which is also covered in bramble and bindweed which I have started to clear, but it feels a bit unfair that it’s me having to do it given it’s a communal area / still shared with the neighbour? For instance the whole fence is covered in bindweed. Or should I shut up and be grateful?

any suggestions on easy veg they will be able to grow alongside bindweed roots (I will of course pull them up as I find them) gratefully received too!

I have a plot with something similar to bindweed (hoary cress).
We have grown to accept it, every time we dig we take roots out, and if it's in with veg we just pull out what we can see- it's a war of attrition and we just grow anyway whatever we want.
If you think you have the plot for a year then clear what space you want to use and put cardboard or black plastic on the rest.
We are about to plant onions and broad beans to go over winter and perhaps some green manure although it might be getting too late.
Common areas- when we were new we did the minimum (kept paths on edge of plot mown) but when we have time we do more. A cold winter day when it's too wet to dig but you want to be outside is when to chop back bramble.
Good luck.

You can grow stuff with bindweed in the bed. You just remove it by hand as when you can. Once stuff is in the bed, you won't be able to dig.

It's not the worst weed imo and quite satisfying to remove. I still have some on my plot after 10 years but it's not a huge problem.

This is all hugely reassuring. Thank you.

Look up no dig gardening. I don't mind bind weed. You can grow it up a bamboo stick and then pull it up, it stops it wrapping around plants.

My allotment is also infested - seven years in I’m still pulling the stuff up, so even if you move you’ll probably have it.

My advice would be to pull it up little but often then it doesn’t have time to run away with itself. My plot was neglected a bit this year due to work and I went last week to find it had practically suffocated my raspberries. Dig it out gently, teasing the roots out, and lay it on a path to dry and die before taking it home and putting it in the dustbin or burning it off you can.

If you have never had an allotment infested with bind weed then you'd not know that doing no dig on top of bindweed sends it crazy with energy.

OP - I had an allotment infested with bind weed and couch grass for a decade. I dug it, I cardboarded it, I smothered it with wood chip, I did everything I could to stop it and it will never stop.

So my advice to people is that if you cannot block it off at root level from other plots [which is unlikely that you will be able to do this winter ready for next year], is to cut it all down and invest in some weed fabric, and then grow in containers for your first year. Once the weed fabric has started to kill off the bindweed, then you might stand a chance of digging it out section by section, and trying to block off new roots from coming in from the sides and then you can plant up that section. By then you might get a new plot anyway in which case you can just take the containers with you.

By then you will know just how bad it is under the soil, and still get some decent crops.

The other issue with perennial weeds of course is the slugs that live under them. Which will eat anything you put out.

In the end with mine, I levelled it after the decade of trying to manage it, bought proper weed fabric and invested in a load of pallet collars and topsoil. And just grow in them. And I had the best few years on it before I gave it up when I moved to France.

This is one time where I'd plan a judicious use of glyphosate. But do this with the new spring growth. Train the bindweed up a few sticks, then shove the growth into a plastic bag and spray into the bag.
I took over a similar plot. I covered as much as I could over winter with cardboard, that really helped to weaken the new spring growth. I cleared one bed of all the bindweed roots i could find, and planted into that. Then started on the other beds gradually, taking the time to tease out as much whole root as possible. Planting into each bit as I cleared it. Then hacking down around the periphery and digging out roots just a bit at every visit.
In your case I'd ask the committee for help with the boundary weeds.

If you’ve left the roots on a path in the sun to die, once they’re truly dead you can put them in your compost bin and they won’t magically return to life. If you take the easy option and put them in your black bin waste, there’s no need to dry them off first.

For an easy option try seeding some cover crop now in the cleared sections. One use of them, besides improving ground quality, is to squeeze out weeds. Depending on your location there's still just about time even if it's a bit late.

This is my plots nemesis. The person who had it before me at the height of covid had tried organic gardening and put the bindweed roots into every compost bin on the plot. The horror!
Spent two years so far trying to dig the brutes out and have now got agreement from the committee that I can use something nasty. I cheer myself up in the knowledge that at least it is not horsetail. That stuff has roots that reach al the way down to hades. At least you can see bindweed roots and if you keep hoeing the seedlings quickly die. My only tip is to clear a patch and then keep it as clear as you can each time you go.

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate the input! Seems there are a few different opinions but I’ll do what I can with plot 1 that I’ve ‘cleared’ and keep on top of anything come out of the soil, and try and slowly clear the rest. I may ask the plot if they can help me clear the surrounds as it’s a LOT. If in a couple of years the bindweed isn’t under control I will aak to use weed killer. I may also experiment with doing one plot with the pallet collar ideas - will ask the plot holder whether she is happy to think of this as a permanent arrangement before I do that as imagine it could get quite expensive? And excuse my ignorance but I just get a normal palette and use the collars on that, right?

I had some success with lighting a fire and spreading the hot ash around. Roots are mostly shallow and don't like extreme heat.

No dig worked w my terrible bindweed infestation.

This is a fantastic idea! They are having a massive bonfire so perhaps I can suggest a smaller one on my plot with some of the wood?!

Hi @EalingLucy I have the same problem in my plot, the bindweed roots were unsuccessfully burned by the previous plotholder, and are now everywhere. It's very frustrating. I've found the only thing that works is very thorough digging, and removing every last bit of root. Then take it off the plot to throw away.

I wonder whether some of the suggestions here are based on removing two different types of bindweed. I have a little of the shallow rooted ground spreading one with pink flowers, this might be dealt with by fire/ash. But the deep rooted one with white flowers is the main problem on my plot, as these roots go down at least 12 inches and usually more. I've decided that the previously 'wild' area at the back of my plot will have to be dug over for potatoes this year, so that I can try to keep on top of it.

Wishing you luck!

IME bindweed thrives where there is space for it to do so.

I had couch grass and no bind weed. I rid myself of the couch grass and the bindweed thrived in its place. In the bed where I liberally scattered annual flower seeds as a summer cover, there was virtually none at all when I took the flowers up again. Ditto my dahlia bed which is packed with dahlias = virtually no bindweed growing.

I am now slowly ridding myself of the bindweed in the emptier spots.

Bit by bit, I gently ease up any I find, with as much root as possible.

I leave mine on the pathways to die off in the sun.

TBH, although it is a never ending job, it's not an especially hard one once you've done the first run through. It's just little and (very!) often.