[b said:
Quote[/b] ]They take over my fence and herb garden and I've spent years trying to get rid of them.
Bad news, many morning glories are tolerant of glyphosate which is the active ingredient in Round Up. Millions and millions of people have been using this product and applying it at less than opportune times, in high winds, and not within the temperature range that enables the product to do its thang. Misuse of this product is and will continue to create plants that are genetically tolerant of glyphosate. Oh lucky us. Interestingly enough, I believe morning glories might have developed the tolerance trait naturally but this seems to be a big topic of debate. Bigger concerns are that research is indicative of a positive directional selection for tolerance to glyphosate. Plain English would be that when one continues to use glyphosate, morning glories that are tolerant of the chemial produce more seeds than those that will succumb. That means we get more of the plant that we were trying to kill only the offspring will be glyphosate tolerant. Aren't evolutionary genetics fun!
I wouldn't try to pull them up as that might exacerbate the problem of eliminating them. It's been my experience that even the smallest portion of a a live root will survive and make a new plant. This means I was pulling until I was blue in the face and wasn't getting it all. I also found that smothering these plants doesn't work either. Smothering seems to work on just about everything... except morning glories/bindweeds. The roots seem to live forever and travel quite the distance under the soil. Bummer because smothering is generally an extremely viable alternative to chemcials.
I've had some experience with wild morning glories (Convolvulus arvensis). I won and they lost. You might want to try gently pulling your morning glories off of the fence or the trellis or gather them from your lawn and lay them out on a tarp. I'd hit them with Banvel. The active ingredient in that is Dicamba. I have no idea where to purchase that as a quantity great enough to nuke my problem was given to me in a sponge bottle by a friend who has an applicators license. You want to apply this when they are in full bloom and then sit back and wait. If that doesn't work, wait a few weeks and hit it with Ignite. The active ingredient in that is glufosinate ammonium (sp?). I'm pretty sure that was purchased at Conserv on line. That ought to take care of the morning glories. After that, just watch for seedlings as they are much easier to get rid of then mature plants that have that labyrinth of roots under the ground.
Here is another suggestion of how to eliminate morning glories that has worked for those who are vehemently opposed to chemicals. If I get any more morning glories, this will be the route I will take as it makes an incredible amount of sense to me and I really prefer to avoid chemcials if at all possible-
Posted by: Laura B. (xxxxxxxxx@cs.com) on Sat, Aug 28, 99 at 19:16
"Getting rid of morning glory is an uphill battle as you may already know. My mother unsuccesfully fought itfor eight years before she got some real good advice two years ago.
If you leave one little piece of the root it will "Root" as nature unfortunately wants it to. So by pulling it you only make matters worse. Killing it off with pesticides doesn't work well as it is very resistant to it.
A master gardener here in Washington was able to help us understand why. It gets all its energy to survive the winter from its leaves. So this years leaves hold all the energy to survive and start producing leaves for next year. By removing the leaves to the plant as soon as they appear you will remove a link in the growth process. It takes patience and vigilance but can be done. Two years later my mother has completely eliminated all morning glory. I have passed this advice to anyone who needed it and it has proved sound over and over. The first summer is the hardest with the following spring much easier. The key is to get the leaves picked off. Don;t touch the roots as you'll only end up spreading the problem. Leaves are the key link in the plants growth now and later. Good luck and yes it will seem like your only going two steps forward to have to take one step back. It can be done and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Although with a neighbor having it rampant in his/her yard can almost guarantee a constant source of misery for you. I can't believe they even sell seeds for this noxious weed instores. Good luck!"
