Eradicating Sumac that keeps coming back
Corinne Lebret
4 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRelated Discussions
How do I eradicate poison ivy in the garden patch?
Comments (30)Ortho Brush-B-Gone is a good product. Many have talked about how to avoid a rash. Here is good advice from the FDA - http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/796_ivy.html: Because urushiol can penetrate the skin within minutes, there's no time to waste if you know you've been exposed. "The earlier you cleanse the skin, the greater the chance that you can remove the urushiol before it gets attached to the skin," says Hon-Sum Ko, M.D., an allergist and immunologist with FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Cleansing may not stop the initial outbreak of the rash if more than 10 minutes has elapsed, but it can help prevent further spread. If you've been exposed to poison ivy, oak or sumac, if possible, stay outdoors until you complete the first two steps: * First, Epstein says, cleanse exposed skin with generous amounts of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. (Don't return to the woods or yard the same day. Alcohol removes your skin's protection along with the urushiol and any new contact will cause the urushiol to penetrate twice as fast.) * Second, wash skin with water. (Water temperature does not matter; if you're outside, it's likely only cold water will be available.) * Third, take a regular shower with soap and warm water. Do not use soap before this point because "soap will tend to pick up some of the urushiol from the surface of the skin and move it around," says Epstein. * Clothes, shoes, tools, and anything else that may have been in contact with the urushiol should be wiped off with alcohol and water. Be sure to wear gloves or otherwise cover your hands while doing this and then discard the hand covering....See MoreEradicate...start over
Comments (6)Simply breaking off or pulling the tops of the old plants is definitely not enough. They will come back with a vengence and you'll certainly wish you'd more thoroughly removed them. If I was going to replant a bed, I want to turn the soil and perhaps add some organic matter at the same time. I would do this with a shovel, turning the soil to a depth of at least two feet, deeper if I could. This would require all of the stumps to be removed, and all of the roots of smaller plants disturbed or perhaps killed. It would be a lot of work, but very well worth it - all the new plants would grow much better with the soil loosened. After the soil is turned, many seeds and roots of plants would be likely to resprout. To combat this, I would turn the soil the first time, wait a couple of weeks and turn the soil again to kill the weeds that have appeared. The second time around it would be easy to turn the soil because it would be nice and loose from the first turning. After this, I'd plant the new stuff, mulch, and watch for more weeds, which would certainly appear, but should be relatively easy to pull in the loosened soil. I don't recommend you try to plant without working the soil. Even if you kill all the old plants with herbicide, you'll still have compacted soil and your new plants won't grow nearly as well as they would in an improved soil. However, if you can't work the wsoil, you should still at least try to kill or remove the roots and stumps of the plants you are removing....See MoreEradicating English Ivy (surreptitiously)
Comments (16)Since this is such an old post, I'm not sure how much of the above is relevant. However, I can attest with some certainty that English ivy is very difficult to control with most herbicides, as the waxy leaf cuticle resists penetration. You either need to add an adjutant that will facilitate this or cut off all the top growth and treat with a brush killer applied to the cut stems. And it will take multiple applications. Organic herbicides, like the vinegar - orange oil added or not - will have virtually NO effect!! They only serve to dessicate the foliage and seldom are transported to the root system. Dessication of ivy will hardly have any impact on the plant - you absolutely need to kill off the root system - so save your vinegar for salad dressing! FWIW, most sources will confirm that the best way to be rid of English ivy (Hedera helix) is to remove it manually, roots and all....See MoreNeed help identifying and eradicating
Comments (6)I've had a couple of people look at it and say they think it is mealy bugs. Since posting, I've read a bunch of possible treatments, one of which seems to be working. I've always heard that a dish soap solution of soap and water is effective. I had tried this using Dawn, because it's what I use on dishes. For some reason that had no effect on the bugs so I gave up on that plan. But after reading other posts, it seems that Palmolive is the way to go, so I gave it another shot, and while not completely gone, it is the first product that has made a noticeable difference and I hope that a couple more treatments might just do the trick. Now the problem is all the neighbor's hibiscuses that are also covered with these little guys....See Moredbarron
4 years agoCorinne Lebret
4 years agoL Clark (zone 4 WY)
4 years agodbarron
4 years agothefof Zone 8/9 UK
4 years ago
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)