I have cleared a lot of bindweed from various parts of my garden. I'd like to keep it better controlled from now on.
I have read that it's a good idea not to compost the roots, because they'll survive and grow.
However, can new growth develop from leaves and stalks?
That is, should I quarantine all bindweed material for burning and/or hot composting by my council? Or is OK to cold-compost the leaves and stalks?
I bought a book, which talks about this, so here's an answer to my own question.
Persistent weeds like bindweed can grow in your compost bin, or sprout when you use the compost. One safe way to deal with bindweed roots, and other weeds, is to drown it in a bucket of water for a week or so until it begins to rot. At that point it is safe to add to the compost heap.
Well I wouldn't risk it, not in a cold compost system. Hot compost, fine, but if yours isn't, then no. Technically, if you just compost the leaves without any stem at all attached, it should be fine, but the opportunistic propensity of this plant to survive under all and any conditions means I'd be reluctant to risk it. To sum up, if you want to strip off the leaves and compost those, and dispose of the stems and other parts elsewhere, that will probably be safe, even in a cold system.
Letting the bindweed stems and leaves dry out in the sun would be an alternative to the drowning option.
The stench from drowning/rotting bindweed is terrible. I found this out the hard way, when a bin of it got rained in and forgotten. Though perhaps good compost! I am going to try the method of leaving it out in the sun using a milk crate, so it can dry out while getting good air flow.
