English Ivy.....arghhhhhh!!!

[Corwin C]

I have a non-commercial herbicide licence, and above all, READ AND FOLLOW THE LABEL. If it doesn't have English Ivy on the label don't spray it.

I don't have any labels in front of me, but my first guess would be to trim the bulk of the ivy and then spray glyphosate (Roundup) with a little surfactant (soap) or MSO (methylated seed oil/soy oil) to make it stick and soak in to the leaves better. Manually removing as much as possible will make it so you have to use less chemical (always a good idea). Herbicides like glyphosate which rely upon leaf contact to work need actively growing vegetation to work on. If you mow it, let it start to come back before spraying. Tender new leaves are the most susceptible to contact herbicides. Also, glyphosate bonds instantly to soil, rendering it inert. If you spray it on anything but actively growing leaves, your dumping your money on the ground...

As stated earlier, many of the herbicides that we used to use have been taken away because of mis-use. Don't be part of the problem. Use the proper chemical, and apply only at the rates recommended on the label.

[doug hodder]

Update....part of the problem is me....I'm too damn lazy to go out and take care of it all the time....this year it seems to have gotten the better of me, it's been half hearted attempts in the past. I dismantled 1 of my ponds on Sat., got the other one up and running with the pump etc... and ripped up yards and yards of the stuff that had taken it over, or at least removed it from the ground. It's still in a big wad. Maybe next weekend, I'll get more serious about it. I'm thinking a crawler with a ripper would work great on it. Could be a great opportunity to invent a tool to rip it up. Watch out Ron Popiel!

Plan is to pull up as much by hand as I can, then hit it with some herbicide for this summer, after all, I've got camping to do and it's gonna get hot this coming week. I've got tons of large pine trees and all the needles are in with the ivy. The layer is maybe 8" deep, I don't rake needles...I bale them! Also, I have an irrigation ditch (dry) that's like 8' deep and it's all on the walls of it. Doug

[canned o minimum]

Doug,
Like has been stated...if yer gonna "spray" it.. let it "leaf out" a bit fer optimium "Kill".

That CRAP is persistant and the roots/runners can reach 20 feet or MORE before popping up again.

With 36+ years experience, I know all too well how difficult this stuff is to erradicate. MY experience is that you cut it low... about 2-3inches high.. and then use a "polaski" to scrape the roots out like lifting vinyl flooring.. rolling it as you scrape the roots out.

I cannot use "chemicals" and never have with erradicating ivy. It is an arduous and tedious job, but once ter done... IT is DONE.

The ivy will not be parasidic, but will rather STRANGLE the tree and cause its demise.. KEEP IVY OUTTA THE TREES !

Good luck and be patient.. a little at a time.. and it will be gone...

Robert

[dh]

Ortho makes a product called ground clear, I got it at Lowe's. I used it in a vine infested rock bed as a last resort to pulling it out and laying down a new weed barrier. It killed everything within a week. The next year it came back. I reapplied the ground clear and it hasn't come back in 4 years.

[dh]

I've also been known to go unconventional, and ultra un-environmental as well. Hydraulic oil kills about everything. Diesel works good too.