Persistent Weed

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23995, 19 June 1941, Page 15

Persistent Weed

IVX) ground seems to be exempt from the intrusion of the common convolvulus, and few weeds have caused so many queries in these columns as to the most effective way of destroying it or clearing it from infested land. Unfortunately the most inventive genius in horticulture has discovered no method, easy or otherwise, by which the convolvulus may be promptly and quickly eradicated. Beheading the plants with a hoe stops further extension of just those twining stems that are severed from the roots, but almost as quickly as those growths wither in the sunshine and wind, soft young shoots appear at the ground surface, issuing from fresh eyes 011 the old roots. Theoretically, persistent hoeing should kill any plant, because without leaf growth health and vigour cannot be maintained, but in point of fact very few have succeeded in getting rid of this weed by the use of the hoe alone. The truth of it is that the leaves on one trail of growth can absorb enough atmospheric vapour to sustain far reaching underground roots and it is an almost futile effort to try killing the plant by hoeing alone, although it would be folly to neglect this. The only practical method of dealing with the weed is to watch closely when digging and pick out and burn every particle of root seen and always pull out or hoe off any shoot seen above the ground afterwards. With these combined measures the trouble will be reduced to a minimum.