# &^%$& MORNING GLORY!! Any livestock that eats it?



## happydog (May 7, 2008)

We moved to our new homestead this spring and I optimistically tilled up a big quarter acre plot for a vegetable garden and fenced it in. Unfortunately I only got a small portion of it planted before we got too busy with other chores. Now it's COVERED in lush knee high morning glory. 

It's threatening to pull all the new fencing down and take over our whole farm. Is there any kind of animal or poultry that will eat that stuff? 

I sure don't want to use herbicides on my nice new organic vegetable garden. And it's way too big an area to hand pull every bit of root.

PLEASE tell me that goats or cows or pigs love to eat the stuff!? Otherwise, what would you suggest to get rid of it? 

Thanks a bunch!


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## jmtinmi (Feb 25, 2009)

Keep it mowed or weed whacked so it doesn't go to seed! Then next year, keep at it when it sprouts. I thought it was so pretty until the next year when I couldn't keep up with it. Big mistake to plant it!


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Is this the white flowered with purple base wild vine or an escaped cultivated one? How you get rid of it will depend on what it is. The wild ones have a large tuber DEEP in the ground and a major excavation to remove. The excapees from cultivation act more like an annual and spread by seed. 
According to my wild foods book the wild one with the white bloom's large tuber can be eaten and tastes like a bitter sweetpotato, some being more bitter than others and should be cooked in several changes of water. Ipomoea pandurata


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## happydog (May 7, 2008)

These aren't the white bindweed, though I have some of that too, these are deep blue/purple and some pretty pink ones. I'm darned if I know where it came from either. Before we bulldozed, plowed, and tilled it there was just horse pasture there. And a few poplar trees. No morning glories. And I sure didn't plant them. 

In just a couple of months they've completely taken the garden. I'm afraid to even walk in there without boots on, it's so thick and tall I couldn't see a snake. Or a small dinosaur.


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## mothernature (Aug 22, 2010)

Ask on the goat forum! They can eat poison ivy, why not morning glory??


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## peri_simmons (Apr 9, 2005)

A friend gave me some surprise seeds once. Morning glories I later found out. 

My Buff Orpington chickens loved it. Not the first summer I got them, but the second summer they cleaned out seedlings and If some MG,s escaped on the fence they would jump up to get the seeds from the adult plants. after one summer and following spring no more MG's. The few that escaped and grew could not seed as the cickens loved the seeds and would decimate the plants of every seed.

Hope this helps.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

I've got them everywhere, too. Ducks and Geese won't eat them. I've been mowing the heck outta them... there are a gazillion of them.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

My neighbors ram just ate every bit of morning glory off my arbor that it could reach. Ate the clematis, the climbing roses. Must have liked it real well, he could have eaten our Alfalfa field instead.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

My guinea pigs ate most of mine. Had a good crop too before they ate it up.


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## happydog (May 7, 2008)

Ok, I asked on the goat forum. I'm wanting to get some goats anyway so I could keep them in the garden for awhile if they'd eat the @#$%@#% morning glories. 

I have a flock of buff orpingtons but they're still small so maybe that's why they've not shown any interest. It's a relief to hear they'll eat it since their run encircles the garden. Gives me some hope that next year it won't be so bad. I was scared I'd have to give up on the garden and move it somewhere else.

Thanks!


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

My goats find MG to be delectable.
But ditto on knocking it back before it blooms/seeds.
It makes a huge difference for next year.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Raise a crop of chickens in the garden next summer. You won't have any weeds by fall and your garden will be well fertilized.


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## greenSearcher (Mar 23, 2007)

You can use 10% or 20% vinegar as an organic herbicide. It is a broad spectrum so be cautious of wind blown mists. It will kill just about everything. I have 2 chunks of Mesquite buried in my herb garden, too big to dig out, so I hacked off the new growth and poured a cup or so on all the cut surfaces. Repeated a few times, and I no longer get the shoots, and the prairie grass grows right around the wood. I'll be going through gallons of the stuff to kill off all the buried mesquite.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I cannot keep morning glories as my goats demolish all they find.


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