Killing root system of english ivy
daintyjag
14 years ago
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hortster
14 years agowhitecap
14 years agoRelated Discussions
English Ivy question---please don't YELL at me.
Comments (21)Yep. It was one of my biggest gardening mistakes. The thing is, when you plant it initially it grows so slowly you actually celebrate when it starts to rip. You always PLAN to keep it contained, and when it gets to just where you want it, then it is usually too late. LOL. When it hits maturity, it goes on steroids. Plants cannot survive if they are severed from their roots, so I'd suggest taking a good sized lopper and severing the vines just above ground level on the trees you wish to eradicate it from. My husband has mowed the ivy bed from lleh in our front yard. Destroy the clippings in an appropriate manner. What you have left are very short zagillions of rooted stems and THAT is what you round-up. It usually takes several applications exactly how the label describes, before you see results. By mowing it down first, you have a lot less area to cover .. however since the herbicide is absorbed through the leaves, this is also a drawback. I faced the same situation with Japanese honeysuckle on my property before I got married. It was already there when I bought the land, but in one small spot. By the time I moved ten years later I was taking machetes to it to keep it from enveloping my orchard. It was hideous....See MorePesky English Ivy
Comments (8)If you have a relatively thin patch than just pull it out. If you have a dense patch than it is harder to remove. A dense patch will have started to form a web of vines that makes it harder to remove. Once it forms a tangled web of vines it is going to be harder to pull and more prone to snapping as you pull it because the interlocking vines form a tanlge and secure each other to the ground. Pull on a vine in this web and it will snap rather than uproot, leaving healthy fragments intact. However, with the exception thick roots (of perhaps .3" diameter or more), English Ivy is not that resilient to abuse and a dense web that is hard to remove by pulling can first be knocked weakened by weedwacking until all the leaves have been removed from the web of vines. Let it rest and weedwack again 1-2 weeks later. Wait another week or two and start pulling the vines the day after a heavy rain as vines are less likely to snap when pulled from soft wet soil. As you pull them you will find they tend to snap where passing under an intersecting vine. Dig your finger a half inch or more under the surface at the location of the break to find the intersecting vine, and uproot that one as well. This method will help you find vines just under the surface and break up the 'web', and makes for more efficient uprooting. I've removed these vines from several large areas....See MoreThe best way to kill English Ivy
Comments (4)There are ways to successfully control this plant. The subject has been discussed numerous times on Gardenweb over the past few years. The link below is a decent summary of many methods compiled by the Nature Conservancy. As for herbicide use for this, it is important that certain things are done for this to work well. For example, it usually takes the addition of a surfactant to the mix, and the use of herbicide label rates that are higher than would be used for easier to control weeds. You can get very good control though. Here is a link that might be useful: TNC link...See MoreEnglish Ivy rooted massively in water
Comments (7)I am not sure what you are worried about - light or soil? I'd plant it in well-drained potting soil in a pot. IME very little kills ivy. Put outdoors in full shade and move a bit more into sun every few days to harden off. Or just leave outdoors in shade....See MoreKimmsr
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