I have lots and lots of trumpet vines, as well as honeysuckle, jasmine, wisteria and grape vines. There used to be poison ivy and kudzu, but I got rid of those long ago. Apparently, the former owners were a little nuts about landscaping.
Keeping the various vines out of the trees and shrubs is a considerable task, but one I can handle quite well. The problem is that trumpet vines spread like a disease. I have trumpet vines popping up in the yard 10 or 20 feet away from the fences where they are planted. I have used every commercially available brush killer in varying strengths and the results are always the same. The vine I treat dies, but another springs up in it’s place a few weeks later. There is also the problem of vines growing up in places I can’t treat for fear of collateral damage to other plants. Trying to dig out the vines hasn’t been too successful, either. My BIL once stated that trumpet vines have roots in Hell. I believe him.
So, have any Dopers out there managed to successfully control trumpet vines (without resorting to thermonuclear devices)?
Standard response. Make up solution of glyphosate. Place solution in jar. Dip growing tip of vine under solution. Leave it to absorb solution for several days, topping up fluid level as required.
Must be glyphosate as few other herbicides translocate well enough to affect root system.
Must be prolonged exposure, otherwise herbicide disperses too much to be effective.
Must be kept in jar because glyphosate kills lawns.
Since you’ve been using ineffective treatmenst for so long the root system has probbaly fragmented, so this will still require multiple treatments, but it will be faster than alternatives.
A good soaking with roundup (Glyphosate) will kill the small vines, but I found that’s a little hard on the grass in my yard, and the bigger ones seem resistant anyway.
This year I’m having some luck with Ortho Weed-B-Gon Lawn Weed Killer 2 (3.05% 2, 4-D, 10.6% MCPP, and 1.30% Dicamba). Again, vines over a couple feet long seem resistant, but a couple applications seems to get them, and spare the grass.
This Virginia Cooperative Extension piece on Identification and Control of Trumpetcreeper lists a variety of herbicides having varying degrees of effectiveness. The plant is hard to kill.
I had a nice big trumpet vine for about 5 years before getting into trouble with vinelets. That started after the vine set seed, and I failed to remove the pods before they opened in spring. The pods contain hundreds of seeds, and they seem to be the source of the problem rather than root propagation from the mother plant.
The vine didn’t set seed last year, but I’m still killing a dozen or more plants a month that pop up through the cracks in my driveway.
If the vine ever develops pods again, I’ll clip them off in the fall, and boil them for an hour or two before throwing them in the trash.
I would happily give them to you, except that (a), I can’t get rid of them, and (b), I would likely have to spend eternity in Hell with the guys who introduced johnson grass and kudzu to the Americas.
If you absolutely must inflict them on yourself, it is disturbingly easy to do. Find any trumpets growing anywhere. Collect a few seed pods in the fall and then drop them on the ground where you want them to grow. No need to plant them or prepare the soil. It takes a year or two for them to take off, but once they do, they are absolutely unstoppable. They will climb anything (and often kill it), so keep them away from your home, other trees and plants and poles for overhead power lines. And if, in five or ten years you find yourself with a trumpet vine forest where your yard used to be, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Squink, thanks for the links. I have found Roundup[sup]TM[/sup] to be completely ineffective on trumpets, but wonderfully damaging to everything else in my yard. I didn’t know that 2,4-D was still available. It is not listed on my bottle of Ortho Weed-B-Gone. I will look for it. As for removing the seed pods, well there’s about 150 feet of fence covered with trumpets, so that’s a difficult task. I do remove lots of them, but haven’t (yet) tried removing ALL of them.
I’m still hoping for a more selective method of eliminating this scourge, like say electrocution (Stick a ground rod in the soil near the plant and then apply AC directly to the offending vine), but have no idea if it would work, be safe, how much voltage to apply, etc. Napalm would be satisfying, but tends to have negative side effects such as jail time and what it would do to the begonias.
Our local Master Gardener suggests pouring boiling water over unwanted “weeds”. It takes several applications, but as you seem to be heavily infested, it will take some time no matter what method you use.
She also recommends applying vinegar, you might try each out on different sprouts to determine if either, or both, are effective.
Good luck, I have almost eradicated the hawksweed from my yard, it’s only take four years!
Seriously, campsis radicans is not something you wanna invite into your home. I’ve got one growing all over the neighbor’s garage next door, and it’s been an ongoing battle for 15+ years now to keep it from spreading into MY yard, 20 feet away.
Just wanted to add that I was pulling weeds last week and found sprouts coming up completely over on the other side of the yard, by MY driveway, at least 75 feet away from “Audrey”.
If you put this puppy in your garden–be afraid. Be very, very afraid…
Trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) seems to be much more docile in the northern part of the continent than it apparently is down South.
Seriously, it has taken a major effort on my part to get this sucker to grow in my garden and it still isn’t really going well. If I ran my lawn mower over my vines a couple of times it would never come back. In particular the seeds don’t sprout as readily and take off as Rhubarb describes. It took a lot of work for me to get 4-5 seedlings.
I live somewhere in USDA zones 5-6 and I have never seen trumpet creeper growing truly wild around here. It seems like it can only grow in disturbed habitats, mostly gardens (notwithstanding this link which I got to clicking through one of Squink’s links).
Let’s say I’ve got some ivy, and I’ve managed to eradicate all but the deepest roots. If a new vine pops up, would this technique kill the whole plant without polluting the ground for other plants? That would be the awesomest.
According to the information I gathered from **Squink[/]'s link (heh. That rhymes!), glyphosate has basically no soil activity, that is it is quickly de-activated and poses no risk to other plants. However, there was one item which said that glyphosate could travel from one root system to another if they were intertwined. So it is possible to damage surrounding plants in this manner. The question becomes how badly do you want to get rid of the ivy.
I am hesitant to try this method myself because one of my pets would doubtless tip the thing over and probably drink it.
Oh, there is no question as to how badly I want to get rid of this ivy.
I was worried about that too, but I was thinking of digging a little hole just large enough to stick the jar in flush with the surface, then putting a paving stone on top of it so neighborhood animals can’t get to it.
We’ve got the same problem with morning glories. We’ve got probably several hundred vines, and some are in places I can’t even get to, e.g. within hedges or large, dense flower beds. I think I’ll try the jar method on a few as a test.
I live in Zone 5-6, too, and the thing about it is, it needs something to grow up, like a telephone pole or a garage. There’s one down the alley growing up and into a big spruce tree. It’ll ramble along the ground to a limited extent, but it isn’t until it finds something sturdy to cling to that it really takes off. And then it starts sending out exploratory suckers and seedlings…
It isn’t “invasive” in the conventional sense of “taking over your yard while you stand there watching”, like climbing hempweed or bindweed. It’s much more unobtrusive; it grows quietly for years, and then the next thing you know, one year, there it is all over the garage in an enormous orange and green mound. And as mentioned, once it’s thoroughly established, it’s really hard to get rid of.
It doesn’t grow “truly wild” in the sense of kudzu or poison ivy or grapevines, or “all over the roadside”. But there is quite a bit of it around.
I’m sure you know this, but for the benefit of others: The patent on glyphosate has expired, so you can save quite a bit of money by getting a generic glyphosate-based herbicide instead of Roundup[sup]TM[/sup].
And if all else fails, there’s always the nuclear option. It works best if you dillute it with diesel oil instead of water.
Trumpet vine is not killed by either Roundup or a broadleaf killer. The most that it will do is burn part of the roots closest to the application. The remaining roots will resurface. Roots however need the sunlight and that is the key. If you can put chickens in that area they will kill the emerging trumpet vine shoots and eventually the entire plant. Without chickens you have no choice but to dig up the new shoots and apply Roundup to the root. Eventually you will win the battle.
Welcome to the SDMB! It should be pointed out that you responded to a thread from over 10 years ago-either the battle is long won…or the OP’s skeleton resides within a vast mass of tangled vines.
