Good to know, and what I was suspicious of. However, I’ve been able to remove a lot of whole, intact roots. I’m trying to catch all bits too. Basically if they come up around the edge of the bed, I’ll cut/pinch and possibly spray it with something. But, we were trying to avoid spraying the actual bed and related soil.After digging up the roots, and getting rid of them, I found out yesterday that we are supposed to kill the flowers, and not the roots.
let me find the article...
Quick & Dirty Morning Glory Control
https://dengarden.com/gardening/How-to-Get-Rid-of-Morning-Glory-Safely-Permanently
- Although morning glory makes for a beautiful plant, the mature vines create the biggest problem. You will want to take them down with a sheet below the plant to catch any falling seeds. A trellised morning glory usually has hundreds of seeds waiting to fall to the soil below and germinate the following spring.
- Pinch the heads off of any morning glories peeking out of the soil to prevent the sun from providing the majority of the energy that feeds into the plant.
- Do not pull morning glory weeds up from the roots. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, pulling the roots creates new, more numerous fibrous roots. These roots spread underground and help cultivate the plant in new locations, many feet away. This is why morning glory is considered an invasive species, perhaps second only to the kudzu plant.
last year, I think I made it worse bc I put plastic on the bed during June into July. The roots I think just bulked up. So, I found many large root clumps in the middle of the bed.
To this point, I wonder if:
1. I should leave the bed fallow this entire season, turn and get rid of roots or alternatively allow them to come up in the fallow bed and spray them at that point.
2. Keep going through the bed until mid-May then use it for plantings. That bed will likely get beans (pole and bush) planted in it if I use it this year.
3. A hybrid approach. Turn over bed repeatedly or let MG grow and spray/kill it through early/mid July, then begin to plant fall
items, bush beans, beets, carrots, as examples.