Bindweed Cost-Benefit Analysis

16 years ago

I was just wondering if anyone has seen any numbers on how much energy a bindweed can produce for its roots per leaf per day. I'm looking for that factor that will keep my rate of pulling greater than their ability to regrow.

Before taking a two-week trip, I was meticulous about getting every trace of bindweed pulled so it couldn't flower and go to seed while I was gone. Well, they were about at that point when I returned. There are two large patches in the lawn that seem to be spreading, and two sections of a flowerbed with a shrub that seem to overflow with them. Everywhere else is sort of sporadic, but those four spots are keeping me very busy.

Are they edible? How about a nice bindweed salad anyone? The way they keep coming up, I could probably live off of it all summer.

Great news! A quick search reveals that they are not poisonous and the root has many medicinal purposes (if what I have is Convolvulus Arvensis, according to Stephen Misfud and his sources - see link below) including properties that promote the discharge of bile from the system, increases the secretion and discharge of urine, the effect of loosening or opening the intestines - hence stimulating the evacuation of faeces and so relieving constipation, and stimulates evacuation of the bowels. A cold tea made from the leaves is also laxative and is used as a wash for spider bites or may be taken internally to reduce excessive menstrual flow.

How's that for too much information?

Here is a link that might be useful: Convolvulus Arvensis

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Comments (3)

Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
16 years ago
ItÂs another bindweed thread! Whee! ThisÂll bring everybody out of the woodwork!

Yep! ThatÂs the stuff alright, Cycler! Boy, they sure do have pretty flowers in Malta!

IÂll skip the salad! I donÂt care for any loosening, opening, or evacuating, thank you.

On one of the threads around here, somebody said the biggest tree/plant in the world is a grove of aspens. I think theyÂre wrong! I think all the bindweed in the world is really connected somehow underground, and itÂs all one BIG plant! One big, endless, eternal plant! You canÂt just live off of it for the summer, you can live off of it for your next 10 lifetimesÂat least if youÂre looking for loosening, opening, or evacuating you can!

HereÂs another bindweed information link. Noxious weed, Prohibited noxious weed, Regulated noxious weed, C list (noxious weed), Primary noxious weed, Prohibited noxious weed, Category 1 noxious weed, Class C noxious weed, Quarantine, Noxious weed, Noxious weed, Noxious weed.........................

Keep up the good fight,
Onward gardening soldier,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Convolvulus arvensis - USDA
david52 Zone 6
16 years ago
Lets get straight to the numbers here:

E = LSA x H2O ^.03 / ToyRB
where E = Energy (K-jouls), LSA = Leaf Surface area (sq cm), H2O^.03 = the amount of water you put on them (gal/min), and TRB = Thorns-on-your-Rose-Bushes.

For example, you have a big plant swap coming up, all kinds of people flying in on private jets and so on, and you want your roses to look stunning, so you water them heavily for a week before. You started with 3 bindweed leaves, surface area 3 cm2, 5 gal water, and the normal number of thorns per rose stem, 144. Crunch those numbers, and you see that on the morning of the big day, you'll need to expend 34,981,200 Kjouls, to clean that stuff out of your roses or be the laughing stock of the gardening world. Thats the energy equivalent of pulling, with your teeth, a semi loaded with hay up Wolf Creek Pass.
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aliceg8
16 years ago
You guys are hilarious! This bindweed thing is all new to me... and all over! I tore up some sod to expand a flower bed a few weeks ago, and with family visiting didn't do anything further with it. To my surprise it now has a thriving crop of bindweed. Maybe I could harvest it and sell it at the Farmer's Market as an herbal "restorative"?

Bindweed Cost-Benefit Analysis

Comments (3)

Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado

david52 Zone 6

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