Dipping English Ivy cut ends in full strength herbicide?

14 years ago

I am unable to spray the english ivy on my chain link fence because the neighbor who planted it also planted several fruit trees close to that fence and I do not want overspray. He says I can remove as much of the ivy from my side as I want without spraying - he doesnt' care for it but does not want to spend the effort or money to remove it. Which is fine with me. I cannot step into his side because he is not cordial and also has 3 vicious pit bulls.

I have hand pulled as much of the ivy as possible. Then I spent an hour dipping the cut ends of the ivy from my side of the fence in full strength "Roundup for Poison Ivy plus Tough Brush Killer". My question to all the weed experts is, did I do enough? Will just dipping the cut tips of the ivy in Roundup be good enough to kill it? Or does the ivy need to be sprayed? I looked at them two hours later and see no signs of wilting and they are as healthy as before.

If the amount of herbicide I applied by dipping cut end of vines in a cup of full strength Roundup is not enough, I need to figure out how to paint the ivy with a brush!

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (4)

hortster
14 years ago
English ivy foliage has a waxy surface cutin that prevents glyphosate from being effective. Whether the product will work on English ivy at all is a good question. Painting the freshly cut ends with an artist's paintbrush would certainly lessen the quantity of the product wasted and keep excess from entering the environment. Stronger products that are more effective tend to leach and/or sterilize the soil for long periods of time, possibly damaging other plants. My best luck with English ivy has been dig, dig, dig each time it tries to re-grow.
hortster
Beeone
14 years ago
Depending on what the brush killer contains, it will take a minimum of 3-5 days before you see any effects of the Round-up, and may take 7-10 days.

If what you did doesn't do the job, try the same technique, but set a small bowl of full strength Round-up on the ground and stick the freshly cut ends of the vines leading back to the root in the bowl. Leave it for a day so it can take up more of the herbicide.

If you want to use a brush to paint the leaves, add a couple drops of mild dish soap to the Round-up before you paint the leaves as that will help cut the wax and get the herbicide into the plant. If using a concentrated solution, it really doesn't take much to knock things out.
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ashleysf
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the help. The ivy has not budged so far. So, I am going to use the dish soap with the concentrated roundup approach and paint the leaves with it.
hortster
14 years ago
I really question whether you will have any luck painting the product onto the leaves as the cutin resists the surfactants in many glysophate products and probably can do the same with dish soap. By the way, having said this, I use the same technique using dish soap in mixtures with this and other products. If you do this, try applying to the UNDERSIDE of the leaves where the stoma, the "breathing pores" on leaves are active. You might get some of the product into them. Ivy has always been a no-win for me.
hortster

Dipping English Ivy cut ends in full strength herbicide?

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Dipping English Ivy cut ends in full strength herbicide?

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