The minimum protective clothing includes long pants, long-sleeved shirt, wide brimmed hat, and unlined rubber gloves and rubber boots. Wear goggles and a dust mask if necessary. Mulching can sometimes be effective, but must be done with materials which bindweed can not penetrate, such as fabric weed barriers. The entire area infested must be covered for a minimum of one entire growing season, or longer. When fabric weed mats are used, the entire area should be mulched to eliminate shoots that emerge around the edges of between strips of mat, allowing the plants to survive.
Horizontal roots can extend for many feet.
However, they will kill only the portion of the plant with which they come in contact, so in the case of deep-rooted perennials such as field bindweed, which reproduce from rootstalk as well as seed, the herbicidal soaps are ineffective. Unlike glyphosate or dicamba, they will not move down into the root system. Montana Weed Management Handbook . Extension Service Pub. Montana State Univ - Bozeman.