I have dug out hundreds over the years and still have hundreds thanks to the superspreaders that nature provides. To totally eradicate them from my garden I reckon I would need to blitz at least a one kilometre radius.
Some I have dug out resemble Harry Potter mandrake roots but get reseeded by blackbirds etc. almost immediately. That makes it hard to tell whether it is pieces of root I have missed or natural reseeding that gives rise to new plants.
On balance though I would say that as long as you get out the main knobbly bit of root where all the new shoots arise you should be winning. It spreads so effectively through seed dispersal and shoot tip rooting that I don't think it needs to rely on broken root cuttings.
That’s really interesting @steephill and @Liriodendron ....thank you. I know I will always get new ones due to seed dispersal, but don’t want to spend hours digging out every scrap of root (a la bindweed or couch grass) if it’s not necessary. Will carry on with crown removal (which is normally a couple of inches below ground level) and see how it goes. One of the reasons for asking the question is that I have never seen emerging shoots on any of the roots I am digging up.
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