It will not compost, every little stalk will grow.
I have found great results using Hydrocotyle Weed Killer and Pulse. Kills it dead in it's tracks.
Hydrocotyle is a Grazon spray, good stuff and will do less soil damage than Amitrol.
Heather

Actually it's Jew. Luckily I had only a small patch, but I still get the odd plant. I kept pulling a bit out as I passed and used glyphosphate weedkiller, a bit above the recommended rate,and painted it on because of nearby plants. Takes time, but gets rid of it. I am now doing the same with invading couch.

While we are on the subject of eradication, has anyone had success getting rid of convolvulus (sp?) This started in a small corner of our extensive garden, but being organically minded, we tried to get rid of it manually. Now, it is rampant all over the place. (Silly us!!) I've tried Amitrol on the leaves, which are shrivelling, but wonder if this will travell to the roots enough to prevent it re-sprouting next year.

For both these rampant pests I had a great kill rate with a product called Buster. I always use a liquid fertiliser in the weed spray, it seems to fool the weeds into having a real good slurp of the stuff and then in few days time--all brown!! The initial kill is very effective as it is absorbed into the roots but it always pays to do a follow-up spray when you see fresh new growth.....
Sandra

I have found with both pests,and in this garden 13 years ago,all were rampant,the only sure way,is to pull them out,and just be vigilant at all times,and pull as one is silly enough to raise its head. Judie

thanks flytower-au for the rundown looks like Ill be here nibbling away for a while

just a passing question what do you do with the wandering jew greenery once pulled..composting is out as it just grows..I am currently try compoting it in black plastic bags...it breaks dow well enough but as yet Ive not opened the bag to see.

I tried composting in black plastic bags, with the bags securely closed to cut out light and left them in the sun for about four months. They did compost down but also produced masses of pale yellow shoots. In the end we gave in and took them to the dump. We have gone back to our previous regime - spraying large patches wiht Round UP and pulling small bits out and putting in bags to go to the dump. We are gradually clearing our property of it in this way.

We don't get much wandering jew down here. But I did live in Auckland for a while & it was rampant up there. I think my neighbours grew it as a hedge ;) What I used to do was manually remove it & then either seal it up in bags & throw away or, my more useful environmentally friendly method, was to bung it all in a barrel of water & cover it so it couldn't grow & let it rot down. Then re-use the liquid on the garden. I have been told chooks will eat it if they have access to the areas. Not sure how true this is.

Living in the Waitakere area of Auckland as I do, wandering jew was rampant/
My friends said spray, but being the stubborn person I am I would not.
We raked the back yard and loaded it onto tarps to take away, hired a truck and it was full.
then in my mind I had a grid of the back yard, and daily I would work out there not just pulling but going underneath it slightly, leaving no little broken pieces as they too grow. It took much longer, but I won and now, I only have to odd bit come up, but I always keep a check on it.

My neighbours, have it, I have poured salt along the fence line, it does not seem to like that and stops short of coming over to visit.

It can be done spray free, but hard work!!
Raine

It's considered P.C. to call it Wandering Willy, these days, but we all know what we mean!

The only successful way I've seen of getting rid of it - it's not a practical idea for "townies", but - was when we grazed six sheep in the yard! They ate every last bit, and in the rest of the time we were there it never grew again!

Maggie Barry this weekend said to dispose of it by burning, or burying at least a full metre below the surface. I can't see it being pleasant to burn, as it's a pretty moisture-filled plant. And I don't want a digging job, do you? So I guess that at the local landfill it'll get buried deep enough!

This pest was discussed on the Australian pests forum - one person said to leave it on concrete till it shrivelled up.

I run a gardening business - the only way I have eradicated it permanently is by using Hydrocotle weedkiller (Yates). The same active ingredient is found in Grazon but this is sold in 1 litre packs and is expensive so only worth considering if you have a massive problem. It's also more concentrated so use the recipe on the Yates bottle to calculate the Grazon dilution rate.

About Tradescantia fluminensis (aka wandering willy or whatever):

if you have low-to-the-ground dogs it can cause a contact dermatitis outbreak on their paws and undercarriage. A bath helps to ease the misery for them, and suitable cream from the vet.

The native snails love living in it - useful habitat and the birds don't seem to like fossicking in it.

It resents sunlight. Becomes stunted, yellow, miserable - and even dies out. It is also frost-tender. Provided it is 'disturbed' frequently, deep mulch of pine needles, shredded bark, conifer leaf litter all seem to inhibit it.

If you have an area of the garden where it is already rampant - you can make compost from it. It's beautiful. Really nice leaf mould quality, and things such as Hosta grow well in it. Obviously, you will not move the compost to any other place in the garden...

One chap I know put untreated sawdust over it thickly - then rolled it up once it had moved up. He also used to threaten it with Roundup. (In the olden days paraquat really dealt to it, but it only stayed in that weed-free state if there was no nearby source of reinfection.)

Another chap I know has it growing thickly on the roof of his garden shed. Bits fall off - into the next garden. Gloom. I find it very hard to smile at him sometimes.

Mowing it closely also helps to keep its ambitions in check. And total vigilance in key areas so it is suppressed/eradicated by faithful weeding.

About the plastic baggies: clear ones, in sunlight, turned often so all parts get scorched. It sneers at black plastic. Wot's a bit more shade to a deep gloom plant like this?!

goodness..It is awhile since I posted this here..and we still have a problem on the council land at the back of us ..it is increasing more difficult each year to keep this plant contained behind the boundry line...so we have begun serious approaches to eradicate it....so all yous have said is very valuable...I have put it in black plastic bags in the suna nd this has been wonderful when broken down as a mulch I have used for vegetable seedlings when going in...there is just so much of it ( about 30 metres) that spray is now the imediate option ...just to get it back form the boundry...we have created a a metre wide strip but the roots are still in there ugh

Erphy:

You have my total sympathy. In addition to the chap next door I have the regional council and a golf course as neighbours. Guess which part of the golf course is the weed dump...?!

I've found that if the T.f. has been growing for a long time then the roots seem to be thick in a band of duff it's created over the years. If you can strip that off - back to 'bare earth' then it's easier to 'keep a foot on its neck'. Another thing that helped, but may be a bit expensive, is a thickly gravelled path - especially if it heats up in the sun.

If you're going to spray, be very ruthless. Like, once a month, especially if it rains the way it's been doing for the last year or so. (Don't bother to get the dilute stuff from the garden centre or supermarket, shout yourself a big container's worth from the nearest rural supplies place.)

If all else fails, be an UNtidy Kiwi and dump your grass cuttings on top. The heat does it no good at all...heh, heh, heh!

'Eradication is a dream: control is possible.'

If you have decided to spray, use Amitrole rather than Roundup. Also use Sprayfix or some other wetting agent. Could you put a metal strip, about 250-300mm into the ground along the fence line. This works well to contain Bamboo. Wellington has had a whole week without rain, Wind but no rain.

We have just completed clearing 120m2 of overgrown, neglected, flourishing wandering jew in the corner of the section. It was the ideal environment under the large shading trees.
We rolled up smaller areas with rakes, loaded onto the trailer and off to a friends dry stock paddock. The young bulls loved it! Thinking back, it may have been easier to bring a young beast back to the site and let him go at it (smile). Instead of maintenance spraying with chemicals (not keen here) or salt we may fence it off and run some chooks for a while to eradicate this curse.

To get rid of WJ fill a rubbish plastic rubbish bin with the pesky stuff-fill with water-leave for 6-12months stirring occasionally-use as fertilizer!! Doesn't break out in your garden - this method can be used for hard to get rid of weed but I wouldn't put flowers or seeds in bin.

I'd like to try squashing the stuff. If the laws of physics are correct one could create a container specially designed to keep squashing it into almost nothing. If there are super fine holes in the container that allows the liquid to ooze out then that liquid could be used as fertilizer. After squashing it, then the thing would be to add other weeds to the squasher and squash those into it as well. Squashing would be achieved by putting a sinkable lid with weights on top of it. The force of the weight would create a pressurized weed mix that couldn't sustain growth. After hand removing a bulk of the material and squashing it, a steady regular hand removal would finish off the infestation. That is the theory. I encourage others to have a go and see if it works!

I have also used grass clippings followed by an effective cover plant that spreads over top of the clippings. I use African Daisy as my ground cover.