maphas
Posts: 74
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| Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject: HELP WITH IVY! |
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SORRY ABOUT ALL THESE POSTS AT ONE TIME BUT I GOT LOTS OF QUESTIONS!LOL. ANYWAYS I HAVE GOT IVY GROWING UP TWO OF MY TREES AND ONE IS DYING I'M AFRAID.HOW DO I GO ABOUT GETTING THE IVY OFF.(SAFELY)
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tim
North Cotswolds
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:42 am Post subject: |
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Wish there was an easy way with ivy - it's the bane of my life.
Frequent Roundup & SBK treatments fail to control it and, when you cut it out down to the roots, it still lives on the tree!
But do we know that it is responsible for your tree's state?
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Palustris
Posts: 524
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| Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:08 am Post subject: |
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Ivy per se does not kill a tree, however, the weight of the plant can and does eventually snap branches allowing the ingress of pathogens which do harm the tree. Also at the stage where ivy has reached that sort of coverage then the tree also is competeing for moisture, food and light with it. We have had this problem in our Damson wood. Since the leaves have a waxy covering which water based weed killers cannot penetrate, spraying with Roundup etc is a waste of time and money.
Cutting the stems around the base of the tree DOES kill all the top growth (if you cut all the stems) eventually. The areial roots of ivy are climbing mechanisms only, they cannot take in water or nutrients,
To get weedkiller penetration, you need to bruise the leaves before application. I did this with a garden cane just beating at the ivy, very satisfying too.
Also one problem we get is seed from the hedgerow ivy around us, It is a major bee and bird food resource by the way.
_________________
Gardening is the great leveller
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