What kills morning glory most is steady hand-pulling before the vines set seed. You won't beat these plants with a single attack. The key is to pull them out week after week so they never get the chance to drop seeds into your soil. Stop the seeds and you stop the cycle.
To remove morning glory vines, grab each stem near the base and pull the whole thing out of the ground. Try to get as much of the root as you can. Do this on a day when the soil is damp because the roots slide out much easier. I spent three summers pulling morning glory vines from my side yard after they escaped from a planting I did years ago. The first summer felt hopeless. The second summer I noticed fewer sprouts. By the third summer I was down to just a handful of strays.
Don't toss your pulled vines into the compost pile. Morning glory seeds can survive the heat of most home compost bins and will spread to new beds when you use that compost later. Bag the vines and put them in the trash instead. This one step keeps you from moving the problem to a different part of your yard by accident.
Mulch is your best friend for morning glory weed control over the long run. Spread 3 to 4 inches of wood mulch or bark chips over the areas where morning glories have grown before. This thick layer blocks sunlight from reaching the seeds buried in the soil. Without light, most of those seeds won't sprout even when the soil is warm and wet. You can use wood chips, shredded bark, or even straw as your mulch layer. Just make sure you keep it at that 3-inch minimum depth all season long and top it off if it gets thin.
Chemical sprays might seem like a quick fix, but they don't work well on morning glories. The waxy leaf coating sheds most sprays before they soak in. Even if you kill the top growth, the seeds in the soil will keep sending up new plants for years. Your time and effort are better spent on pulling and mulching than on buying bottles of spray that give you short-term results at best.
Fall cleanup is the single most important step you can take each year. Walk your yard in late August and September looking for morning glory vines that have formed seed pods. Pull those vines down before the pods dry out and split open. Each pod you catch holds four to six seeds that would have hit your soil and waited to sprout next spring. One missed vine can drop enough seeds to restart the whole problem.
I mark my calendar every August with a reminder to check the fence line and garden edges for morning glory pods. This small habit has done more for my yard than anything else I've tried. You should do the same if you have these vines growing near your beds. Set a reminder on your phone and spend 15 minutes each week checking for pods through fall.
Stick with this plan and you will see results by year two. You won't wipe out every last seed in your soil, but you can cut the number of new sprouts to a level you can manage in minutes per week. Stay on top of the pulling, keep your mulch thick, and catch those seed pods before they open. Your garden will thank you for the effort. Morning glories are tough weeds, but you are tougher when you have a plan and the will to follow through with it every season.
Read the full article: Morning Glory Flower Guide
