english ivy leaves browning suddenly

17 years ago

I have some english ivy against a wall in mostly shade. They've been there about 3 seasons. All of a sudden the leaves started turning brown and shriveling up and it started spreading to other plants. Anyone know the cause of this? The plants get regular water (soil is usually moist).

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kayjones

17 years ago

How did you get them to turn black? If you figure it out, post it - I have tons of this awful vine and would LOVE to kill ALL of it!

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Comments (7)

jenny_in_se_pa
17 years ago
Did you check near the base of the vines (whereever that might be in the ground) to see if they got cut somehow (maybe accidently weed-wacked or mowed or chewed)?
pooja_t
17 years ago
Are you sure it's getting no direct sunlight? I ask because you say 'mostly in shade'. My English Ivy got direct sun for half a day and started turning brown. I moved it back to complete shade and it seems to be doing ok. Also maybe the wall is becoming very hot and burning the leaves that touch it?
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I had English ivy (Hedera helix) at my previous house. We regularly took it out by the multiple cubic yards, too. It is VERY invasive, propagating from roots, branches, and/or leaves. I never put it into my compost at that house, and I don't put it into the compost at this house. Although your climate is much colder and may knock the ivy back during the winter, a compost pile will be much warmer than the ambient winter temps, and the ivy will LOVE being in the compost. Such a nice growing medium, you know.... I would recommend that you keep sending it to the town composting facility, where temps are probably high enough to kill even ivy's wish to propagate. in el cerrito
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Oh but Pam - It would be so pretty to have flowers cascading over your rock wall. Are you sure it wouldn't work to put a garden there? "I was very successful in growing massive amounts of weeds this summer" That's good! If nothing grew there at all, that would be a bad sign. Sorry - I'm being a bad influence. I love hillside gardens but I don't have ANY experience with that so don't listen to me ok. I would put a few verbena 'Homestead Purple' along the bottom of the hill to hang down over the wall with some tufts of blue fescue in between. Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' is drought tolerant, makes a wide mound and would cover a big area pretty fast. Iberis (candytuft) would be pretty. It has white flowers and is evergreen but I'm not sure about drought tolerance on that one. It seems pretty tough in my yard. If you like silver foliage, artemisa 'Powis Castle' would make a wide mound too. Then you could add some sedum, salvias, a couple other favorites and poof you'd be done. : )
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Believe it or not, there are several diseases that can affect English Ivy, under the right conditions (for the diseases, that is). Your University of MO Extension service has a plant diagnostic laboratory available for the testing of plant problems. I'd call your local extension office for assistance in packing up some samples for culture. I expect that the local office is required to fill out the paper work and send the samples from their offices. Here is a link that might be useful: Lookee here!
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It may be infested with some type of pest. Probably spider mites. Get a magnifying glass and see if you can spot any. If so use a half alcohol and half water solution in a spray bottle and spray it really really good. I'd cut off the brown leaves as well.
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pooja_t
17 years ago
Kayjones, seems like you are somewhere in the northeast :)
In tropical climates, ivy is probably a fussy plant.
Adp_abq, another tip besides moving it in complete shade is to make sure it's roots are not exposed above the surface of the soil. In that case, you would need to put more soil and make sure the roots are covered.
lilion
17 years ago
Hello! I've noticed the same browning/dying of my english ivy that is growing up a large oak tree in my yard. I have a large ant colony in that bed that I've never been able to eradicate and I was wondering if they could be killing it. It's about 3 years old and looked great until now. Could it be getting too much sun just because the leaves aren't out yet? It's been in the 60's and 70's here already, but this hasn't ever happened before!

And for those who worry so...I keep it clipped well back, never let it get big enough to flower and burn the clippings so they don't spread.
ereeves
17 years ago
I have a well-maintained ivy bed in my yard -- used to be nice dark green throughout. Lost a large crab apple tree last year, now all the ivy that used to surround the tree (probably a 10-foot diameter circle, and seems to be expanding) is dead. I also want to remove some forsythia in the ivy bed and replant with something else, but afraid of killing the ivy. Any recommendations on how to revive the ivy and to prevent further loss? Thanks!!
lilion
17 years ago
Today I noticed that my ivy has no leaves about 3' up the tree and the other 2-3' at the top still does, but it's not looking too good. The ivy at the base of the tree is also looking quite bad. I'm just not sure what to do with it.

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english ivy leaves browning suddenly

kayjones

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