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One cut should be enough to kill the vines. You may want to go back later and cut back to closer to ground level the shoulder height stumps.
It will be a couple weeks before you see the ivy start to brown off, it's working through the nutrients and water left in the vines.
It's not exactly a quick process, the warmer it is the faster it will happen.
You may want to put a Roundup type product on the cut ends going to the ground. The problem with doing that is that there is some evidence that some of those products can leach out of the ivy roots to the tree roots and cause issues. Those stumps will survive unless you do that or pull them at some point. If they start to put out new growth cut it off immediately. You don't want to have the same problem start again and cutting the new growth will eventually (as in a couple years eventually) kill the stumps.
If you just chipped the tree's outer layer of bark it should be ok.
Something else.The ivy has spread into the woods on the ground behind my house. Can I chop it up with a hoe to kill it?Put roundup on it?or do both? I was thinking about using my tiller to till the ivy but the soil in the woods would be hard to till with lots of tree roots in it.
I think the poster meant to put it on the ends of the vine that go UP into the tree canopy, not the ends that go back into the ground. Although since OP seems confused about what to do despite people all saying the same thing, it might be best to go ahead and be specific.
There would be absolutely no need to herbicide the vine leading upwards from the cut. That part is going to die regardless.
Something else.The ivy has spread into the woods on the ground behind my house. Can I chop it up with a hoe to kill it?Put roundup on it?or do both? I was thinking about using my tiller to till the ivy but the soil in the woods would be hard to till with lots of tree roots in it.
Who owns the property?
If it were me I would go chemical on that large a patch (you could hand pull it). If you do go chemical be aware that anything green it touches will be impacted, both good plants and bad.
Tilling or hoeing without removing will just cause the problem to get worse. Every little bit of vine will root and grow.
English Ivy usually needs a couple treatments of killer, it's tough ****.
If it were me I would go chemical on that large a patch (you could hand pull it). If you do go chemical be aware that anything green it touches will be impacted, both good plants and bad.
Tilling or hoeing without removing will just cause the problem to get worse. Every little bit of vine will root and grow.
English Ivy usually needs a couple treatments of killer, it's tough ****.
I own the property and where I am talking about is in woods with no groundcover except old leaves and the ivy on the ground. So hand pull or go with the roundup?
Have you tried digging around the vines to expose the root? It might be easier then trying to cut the vine embedded in the tree. I would definitely NOT cut down some beautiful old growth tree to eliminate a vine.
Cut the root at the top of the soil in half or as near as in half as you can get. I would inject the rood with a herbicide. Tree roots go deep and if it's done carefully you shouldn't harm the tree.
I use a ground clear around the edge of my garden every year without harming my vegetables. Just a couple of light sprays on the weeds and they're gone for the rest of the summer. Unless it rains for 12 hours straight right after you put it down. Doh!
I would do just that but I cannot overstate the thickness of the trunks that have grown up these trees .I am not dealing with just a vine .That's how the ivy trunks are on my tree.Thick , woody and in places overlaid. I will continue to cut away at the trunks but I do not want this vine spreading to my other trees.
I use loppers regularly to cut woody vines that are as thick as a human's wrist. That's what your photo looks like.
There would be absolutely no need to herbicide the vine leading upwards from the cut. That part is going to die regardless.
Oh, *I* agree with you, but the OP seems to have no grasp on what everyone is trying to tell him, and he also is very concerned that the vines in the canopy die faster than normal. Even in responding to my post, he thinks I want him to climb up a 40 foot tree to apply an herbicide, when that is not what I said.
The advice (which has already been given over a dozen times) is simple:
1) get loppers and cut the vines anywhere in the 0-5 foot high region of the base of the tree. Yes they are thick, but you can do it without damaging the tree. And if you nick the tree a couple times, it should still be okay.
2) once the vine is severed in half, the stuff heading up the trunk to the canopy will die automatically because they've been separated from the root system. Or apply herbicide to the cut ends leading up the tree if you want it to die faster (which is what I think that other poster was saying in his post - that's how I took it, anyway).
3) let vine going up into the canopy die - it WILL die - and once it has dried out completely (which may take many, many months) simply remove the dead vine from the trunk leading up into the canopy. I'll also add, if necessary, call a tree service in to remove the portion beyond your reach.
I personally think this is a troll thread because over a dozen posts have been made telling him what to do, and how to do it, in very simple terms, and he's making it harder than it needs to be AND keeps responding with the same comments over and over again.
Edited to add: OP, just call a tree service to come and take care of this for you, since you clearly don't feel comfortable doing it.
I sprayed roundup on the cut ends leading up to the canopy and down into the ground.Is roundup what everyone means by herbicide? Roundup is all I have.
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