How do you get rid of 5-leaf ivy and some other stuff?

I read the crabgrass tip with vinegar, will try that; this is a helpful group as I have had that problem ever since I lived here for over 30 years, was just out digging some up trying to get as much root as possible because I didn't dig out enough when I planted a new flowerbed in front of the house. I did purchase some of that black landscape stuff, but will need help getting it installed, but it should help some, but I doubt it will stop all of it..

Over the years, we have these two kinds of climbing horrors (I guess they're pretty if you want them). One I'm sure if 5-leaf ivy, the stuff people used to grow up their chimneys in the midwest anyway. The other kind, I don't know the name of, but I'm pretty sure it isn't poison ivy, looks like wild grape a little but no fruit. The stuff will grow over your whole house and garage if you let it.

If it is important, I can take a photo of some somewhere around here, got most of mine off the house (off but still popping up ready to go as soon as I turn my back on it, but in the lawn), seems to like partial shade, doesn't grow at all or very little in the full sun.

I pull and pull the stuff and sometimes get a big chunk of root, a foot if I'm lucky but it just shoots up somewhere else. With so many of the neighbors having this problem which has now worsened in my yard, does anyone know the best way or any way to either get rid of the stuff or keep it at bay better than pulling all the time. I swear it must spread those underground root systems they develop from a quite a ways away.

Reply to
I Love Lucy
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Are you talking about Virginia Creeper?

Virginia Creeper quite often grows along side poison ivy.

Cut them back to a few inches from the ground, and then paint them with a half-strength solution of triclopyr. Everything above the cut will wither and die, and the herbicide will do the rest. Painting it on with a paintbrush will give you better control over the herbicide if there are plants in the area that you would like to keep.

Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what the 5-leaved stuff is called.

That is no doubt true, but poison ivy has shinier leaves, the kind I can identify anyway. There is so much of the other vine around the neighborhood, we would have had more cases of poison ivy if that is what it is because several neighbors are probably fighting it, and we pull it with our bare hands sometimes. The front of the house across the street is covered with the "other" vine now; I'll have to look more closely to be sure it isn't VC. I'll see if I can get a photo of it. Mom runs a day care center, so I doubt they would let poison ivy climb their house. I do think they should not let it take over because it can get under the siding and it is now at the rooftop, and it would not be good for it to get under the shingles.

If you cut them back, nothing is going to be growing above it unless, sorry I don't get that part. However, I hadn't heard of that stuff and will try it. Thanks a bunch. That's one reason I'm leery of having Chem Lawn come and spray because I'm worried the mist could drift and damage my flowers which are just seedlings at this point and some larger ones I set out by the garage. Painting it on would give me a lot more control although it will be tedious as there is so much of it. I would have to do it little by little.

Reply to
I Love Lucy

Looks like there may be two kinds, one with a triple leaf and one with a single, grapelike leaf, although it could be the same species. How do you get rid of this without pulling it down, same treatment as with the

5-leaf kind?

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's what happens if you allow it to grow unchecked:

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Reply to
I Love Lucy

By that I meant, since you've severed the vine from it's roots (food source), the vine above the cut will die, and then be easily removed. Sorry, didn't mean to confuse. =)

I believe the common name for triclopyr is Brush-B-Gone.

HTH

Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

I believe poison oak has five leaves. Google it.

Reply to
Stubby

I did. It usually has 3 leaves but sometimes 5. My 5-leaved vine is not poison oak, leaves are shiny, differently shaped. I doubt if the other is poison oak either, but it looks a little like it. Some people do have a horrid reaction to it. If it were poison oak, since it is so ubiquitous in the neighborhood, I'm reasonably certain that someone would have tried to get help from the city erradicating it and word would surely have gotten around about it.

Reply to
I Love Lucy

If the vines are in an area where you can spray, then just spraying with 3% Roundup will work. Or you can cut and then treat the new growth with Roundup or one of the similar products made for weeds and brush. They are cheaper and more effective than triclopyr, which is a selective herbicide.

Reply to
trader4

Some areas I could spray because they are presently unplanted. Would it affect future roses and flowers I hope to plant there? For other areas, it would be better to use the paintbrush and the triclopyr method as I wouldn't want to ruin what is already planted there, sparse though it be. I'm even afraid to have Chem Lawn come and spray the lawn for fear spray would drift onto my new plants. I suppose I could ask them about that, but I would definitely need a second opinion . . .here or on another forum I frequent. This one is more active so you usually don't have to wait very long for answers. Today they have been almost instantaneous which is amazing. ID'ed couple birds on the bird group, got a handle on what to do with this annoying vine, and an almost instantaneous answer about a lily question. Amazing.

I added your info to my file on this matter. Thanks much!

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Reply to
I Love Lucy

I doubt a 3% solution of Roundup will kill such a mature vine.

Either herbicide will work. But I'd still recommend tryclopyr. It's selective, as the googlegrouper said, but it's selective towards woody, broadleaf plants (exactly what you're trying to kill).

More reading on both products:

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Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

Have you ever tried it? I've routinely used it on mature poison ivy and it works very well. On ground based poison ivy, I just spray it on. If it's a large vine going up a tree, with no accessible leaves, I cut it, wait till new growth emerges, then spray it a month later. Never had to brush it on.

In my experience the broad spectrum total vegetation type killers have always been more effective than a selective herbicide, where there is a tradeoff on what it will and won't kill. For example, triclopyr is used for clover control in lawns. It usually takes at least two applications to control it. The first tends to just stunt it. If you sprayed that with Roundup or another total vegetation killer, it would be dead the first time, but so would the grass.

As to the OP's question of future planting following Roundup, it's safe to replant a week after application.

Reply to
trader4

Also in response to eggs info. I guess the bottom line is that I hate messing with poisons. But sometimes it has to be done. I was wondering if I could cover my 3 hostas, one mallow and a fern, with double plastic bags and give it a good spray. This fall I will seed the whole area with partial shade loving wildflowers. There will probably be a battle for survival, but if I can just keep the nuisance stuff in check, that would be a positive outcome, even if I have to keep whacking and pulling some of it off.

Obviously if no leaves are allowed to remain, it would eventually die off, but new invasive roots would move in from neighboring areas, but I wonder how long that would take? Oddly, my son used to work for Chem Lawn and sprayed the whole spot (I have other problem areas) with some stuff that kills all vegetation for 5 years. I didn't like it then, and somehow that fern survived that.

I potted up a little oak tree from the area and thought I was going to lose it because the leaves were turning brown on the edges. Now I see new leaves are starting to form in the tip.

Most of that stuff shuns sunny areas, so at least I don't have to battle the stuff in the whole yard. It seems to like north, partial sun partly shaded east, so far little or none in the mostly shaded west side of the house, and none on the south. But those photos I posted, one is my next door neighbor, and there is some on the south side of his house. That's where it migrated from, most of it. They had a terrible problem with it and ignored it for years, allowing it to develop massive underground root systems. Now he has gotten rid of most of it because he completely rehabbed the house and lawn, so in time, maybe we'll get it under control.

I thought about planting black cap raspberries there. Would that win the battle eventually if I keep it from climbing anything?

Thanks for all the good info and links.

Reply to
I Love Lucy

Nice

Reply to
Tom The Great

Reply to
Stubby

I use it often at work, when the need arises, to kill all green growth in an area (hardscape joints, cool-seaason grasses trying to come through dormant zoysia, etc.).

Then you never tried to selectively remove plants. You take the lazy way and just kill off the entire area. In the case of clover, Dacamine would be a MUCH better choice of a herbicide than triclopyr. Triclopyr is better suited to *woody* plants (such as the ivy in question).

Of course, if you don't care about the surrounding vegetation, then a "total vegetation type killer" will do the job. Using specific chemicals, for specific applications, is MUCH more efficient.

I'm curious as to just what your "experience" with the multitude of herbicides on the market, is. Killing clover and plantain in your backyard?

Yup. Then you're left replacing much more vegetation than necessary. And, I don't know anyone that uses triclopyr to kill clover, when dacamine does the job in one application, at the same time doing NO harm to the surrounding turf grasses.

I'll leave you the links below. You could obviously use them. When you've finished, do a search on dacamine.

HTH

Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

Thanks for another good idea. The painting method would work well on the 5-leaf stuff because there's not so much of it. That other stuff, "gloving" all those leaves would be a pain, and that doesn't deal with the root system which is lurking there waiting to pop up somewhere else. You have to get all the leaves connected to the system. If I pull on the leaf stems and they don't break off (little ones do), I often get a foot or more of root along with it, and I know there's more left under there waiting to break out somewhere else.

But I like the sound of that much better than spraying. Worth a try on a target area and go from there.

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Reply to
I Love Lucy

Are you serious? It looks quaint and cottagy, but in the long run it is a mess.

Reply to
I Love Lucy

Who the hell are you to tell me I'm lazy? And how do you know where my poison ivy was that required hand application of Roundup? All I said was that I never had to hand apply it. Do you think poision ivy only grows next to desirable plants?

In the case of clover, Dacamine would be

BS. First, in all this discussion, has anyone told the OP that the triclopyr won't kill whatever desirable plants she has around? Of course not. In fact the recommendation was to apply the triclopyr like a product that will kill everything. And for good reason, as it likely will kill her other plants, unless they happen to be turfgrass and likely that too if she uses it at concentrations to kill poison ivy.

As for specific application herbicides being more efficient than a broad spectrum kill everything one, that is BS too. There are major tradeoffs in a chemical that will kill weeds, while leaving a desirable plant unharmed. Are you gonna try to tell us that the crabgrass killer one can buy in the local home center is more effective than Roundup? What a joke. Roundup will kill the crabgrass and the surrounding grass in a week. The crap they sell for crabgrass, might kill it after 2 or 3 applications and a month. Even Acclaim, which is very effective against crabgrass, isn't nearly as effective as Roundup.

And as in the example I gave above, Roundup will dispatch clover a hell of a lot better than any of the selective herbicides.

(Disclaimer for morons. This does not mean one should use Roundup on their lawn)

Well Duh? Did I ever say to spray a total vegetation killer in areas where there is desirable vegetation? Sure, I wouldn't use Roundup on turf, where there are solutions that will kill the weeds, but leave the plant. What the hell does that have to do with whether Roundup or Triclopyr is better suited to killing poision ivy? The OP doesn;t have it in her lawn.

And, I

Reply to
trader4

That's why systemic herbicides are effective. They're absorbed by the plant, and kill it by distributing the poison just as if it were food. So, the whole plant gets the herbicide. ;)

Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

You keep bringing up poison ivy, but it's not the plant in question.

I see you've not read the links I provided. Too bad.

The "painting" recommendation was was because it was unclear what other plants were in the area. It's better to be safe about it. If there are woody plants in the vicinity, then I'd err on the side of caution. You, on the other hand, would spray the area with Roundup, then replace all the shrubs and any other plants in the vicinity. Effective? Sure. Efficient? Not in the least.

Wow you don't get it, do you? So, by your logic (sic.), you only consider an herbicide effective if it totally decimates the surrounding vegetation. Glad you don't work for me. ;)

There's more factors involved with killing crabgrass than just spotting it and running for your bottle of herbicide. But, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

That's all you've been saying. "If I got clover, I just kill the whole area with Roundup." So, you're gonna change your story, mid-stream now?

Again, that's all you've been saying.

She doesn't have it at all, dumbass. You seem to be the one with all the poison ivy. She wants to remove Virginia Creeper, and another vine, that is NOT poison ivy, but quite resembles poison oak, from the first picture she posted (still no positive id).

Reply to
Eggs Zachtly

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