Hi,

Does anyone know of a product readily available in France that will get rid of Ivy - it's creeping everywhere in our garden and is a real pain to drag out by hand.

Any thoughts and suggestions appreciated

Cheers

__________________
David
follow the blog here: http://ca2brittany.wordpress.com/

An horticulturist visiting here suggested "feeding" it with a weak solution of weed killer towards the top of the plant, gradually increasing the concentration - takes time, but - according to him - you can "educate" the thing to "drink" poison.

Otherwise, try a flame-thrower

H

btw: worked here

Thanks Hils, I'll give it a try - how long did it take?

Cheers

__________________
David
follow the blog here: http://ca2brittany.wordpress.com/

3 or 4 months I think but it was about 5 years ago so I can't really remember & it was some time in the Autumn we started so the Winter weather might have contributed, but it certainly hasn't recovered so whatever it was, it worked.

The trick is to put one (or several depending on its size) of the climber root tentacle thingies (you can tell I'm a gardener can't you?) into a jar of weak solution like you would put cut flowers in a vase with plant food, and keep topping it up gradually increasing the strength. Apparently it's clever so you can't just creosote the main roots - it finds other ways of continuing its parasitic existence.

btw I manage to kill most things I touch however hardy they might be - tho' I haven't tangled with Japanese Knotweed yet - so it might just be me!

Good luck
H

Hmmmm, given we have it on all trees and bushes plus the fence the full length of the property I think this method might take some time

Methinks the weed-wacker and manual extraction method might be quicker.

Thanks though - it worth knowing you can't actually kill it outright with stuff like Roundup, saved me some money there

Cheers

__________________
David
follow the blog here: http://ca2brittany.wordpress.com/

I wish you luck with that - mebbe you'll have more success than we did using that method - even cutting out chunks of the main "trunks" and plastering the cut ends with anything toxic we could think of. Our ivy covered the whole of at least six storeys' worth of the south-east wall of the mill - the side bordering the stream, but the main roots were well buried in the foundation rubble, so it was coming out through all the chinks in the stonework.

That was the main reason I wanted to get rid of it - I had visions of cracks being forced as the plant grew and the whole mill just sliding down the slope into the stream! Got rid of the invasive pair of kiwi trees on the opposite wall for the same reason but that was a much easier and quicker exercise.

As before: good luck ....
H x

I just joined the forum today and your lucky i have over 24yrs of experience as an arborist!

The best way to get rid of ivy is to simply find the source point coming from the ground and cut through all the stems! this stops the water supply and in a matter of weeks the ivy will die. You have to wait for a few weeks until it turns brown and then its your job to pull the dead ivy from everything it has encroached. Using weedkillers on ivy is not the solution because the poison enters the ground and will kill everthing around it and in most cases the ivy survives leaving you pulling your hair out in frustration.

Trust me on this subject! It has caused me headaches for the whole of my career

good luck

Yes, we're pulling it out bit by bit. A systemic weedkiller will not poison the ground, only kill anything green it hits. Used Roundup on weeds for years in California with no ill effects. BTW, it's also really useful for killing off the roots of cut trees - paint the stump with neat Roundup within five minutes of cutting and the tree is dead.

Cheers

__________________
David
follow the blog here: http://ca2brittany.wordpress.com/

Round up is a good weedkiller but not one i am readily to use! from personal experience it is better to simply cut off the supply of water and let nature takes it course!

Painting the stump of a fresh cut tree is a controversial issue, the painting of round up does in fact kill the tree but it does not accellerate the decay! Advice from garden centres for example will be given from a sales point of view and there are many accellerants on the market for killing the stump and decay to happen more quickly but you will find that a simple cut around the cambian line kills the tree just the same and is 100% organic!!!

P.S The killing of a tree by Ivy invasion is a myth. The british government spent over 3million pounds on a survey to find out what professional arborists have been trying to tell them for years and that is the invasion of Ivy causes the tree to uproot if the tree is not a strong specimen and this is done by the Ivy constricted around the tree and pulling it over! A tree covered by Ivy thrives due to the nutrients from the ivy and the fact that its growth is encoraged by searcjhing for sunlight, thus making the tree stronger!

Useful info I hope

Would love to be able to .... but my place is a WATERMILL - ergo fast-flowing stream on one side, fast-flowing millrace on 2 of the others. Cut off the water? .... hmmmm - & we're not s'posed to use weedkillers here 'cos of potentially polluting the watercourses.

That said, I still don't have flowing water in my pipes IN the house - the incoming main is still frozen so that makes about 4 weeks now I've been melting snow/drawing water from the now unfrozen millrace for domestic use.

Am really, really looking forward to have a bath - or even a shower - one of these days & I don't mean by sitting in the stream/millrace.

H