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We recently purchased a house that has two thujas side-by-side in a raised bed. They're fairly tall (around 10 feet), so I assume they're fairly established. The last owners moved away months before the house was sold, so the garden wasn't tended to (assuming they tended to it regularly to begin with). This may be one reason why the English ivy we have covering a good portion of our property seems to be out of control. I pulled a huge amount of it growing over my fence and between the thujas (and *in* the thujas). When I did, I noticed both the thujas were brown in the areas facing each other. I'm hoping this is because the crazy ivy overgrowth was keeping them from getting light? I didn't see any insects or bagworm. The leaves just fell off and now they're noticeably bare on the sides facing each other. Lack of water wouldn't be a problem. Do you think it is plausible that the ivy overgrowth was preventing sunlight from getting to the tree? Or stifling airflow? I'm hoping the trees will just regrow their leaves and be okay at this point. Any insight? Thanks!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,186,228 times
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Evergreens that grow too close together and block each other's light do brown out there. Look in the woods and you will see many examples of this. I have that situation with a couple of big firs. The lower branches go first, and because they are conical in shape the tops are fine. Ivy will do the same if it's able to get thick enough to block the light, but can even strangle the tree by girdling the branches so keep it off. If the branches from the two trees are actually touching each other, they will probably not come back much unless you thin them to let air and light in.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57821
I would say they were planted too close together, and then the ivy just made it worse. i would trim the bottom third to allow at least a few inches apart and see if it comes back, unless those branches are dead. You can tell by scraping the bark, to see if it's still green just below the surface.
Thanks for your advice. It's raining now, but I'll go outside and assess their health when the weather is better. I'm hoping it will fix itself, especially now that spring is close. I'll do some trimming, too.
Orange,
English Ivy has killed off so many natural woodland areas, it is illegal and invasion in the
south.
Please do yourself a favor and buy some vineX for that ivy and kill it off.
You have to be careful using it, but you will always have problems with those trees
unless you get rid of that ivy.
When I was looking at the ivy, I noticed some really thick gnarly vines that were working their way though my neighbor's concrete wall that is next to my fence! (at least I think that's what it was.) I can't completely kill it off since it comes over my neighbor's fence. I can try to control it. I'm worried now because she has some cracks in a retaining wall that backs to the side of our property where we have 20 concrete steps going down the hill. The home inspector and realtor talked to her and noted in writing that she was watching the main crack, but I wonder if this ivy has something to do with it. I didn't know ivy could get that thick, but there is *something* definitely pushing in and under the wall. When I thought it was a "naturally" occurring crack, I wasn't so worried. Now that I see something might be moving it, I'm becoming concerned. Maybe I can talk to her and see if she knows anything or if she'd be willing to do something to control it.
Thanks for your advice. I've never had ivy on a property, so I'm not really well-versed in how to handle it.
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