Corn gluten and vegetable beds

[Dataminder]

I'm making my preparations for spring. I have a decent-sized herb/vegetable bed, about 15X6 that over the last two growing seasons has been progressively more infected by bindweed. I can't clear it and cover it with black plastic to cut out the light and raise the soil temp like my other veggie beds because I have perennial asparagus, thyme, savory and a few others. I don't use chemicals and I'd never use them on food crops. So, I plan to go over my lawn with corn gluten once the soil temperature hits 60 to snuff out any transient weed seeds. Does anyone know whether dosing this bed with gluten at the same would check the bindweed? (I don't grow from seed in this bed so I'm not concerned about stopping germination of things I want, and in zone 5b, it will probably be a month or more between the application of the gluten to when I'm ready to plant plugs, so I can't see it inhibiting any root growth later on.) BTW, my philosophy of planting is that if I can still see soil by mid-June, things haven't been planted close enough. Bindweed is the only weed that can grow out if the shade of my tomatoes and other plants in the summer and I despise it. Thoughts?

[simy1]

I am as organic as the next guy, but given the situation, would it not be best for you to just go around the plot with a paintbrush and a bottle of roundup, and paint a drop or two on a leaf of each bindweed plant? We are talking about tiny amounts of Roundup. I have had a bottle for five years, I use it to control poison ivy over two acres, and it is still 80% full.

[escapee]

You will have success with the pre-emergent properties on bindweed, but it may not fully happen to all seeds at first. It may take a few applications over a few seasons to fully work in that bed.

I don't use Round-up for any reason, but I am going to say Finale, another herbicide, is a better choice for organic gardeners who need to step over the line.

In essence, I believe if you are persistent by pulling immediately and using the corn gluten at the recommended rate and frequency, you can get the bindweed into control.

Victoria