Hey all…….
I know this really isn’t the place, but can’t seem to find any info. The house we’re rehabing has some bad ivy, (among bad paneling as well) and there has GOT to be a better way than hacking it with a plasket, perhaps a new power tool or some small gas engine, or ??????Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, Beck
Replies
little confused about whatcha talking about...if you mean ivy as in the plant....use weed killer. Whats a plasket??????
Be confused scratching me head
andy
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try asking that in Over the fence http://forums.taunton.com/tp-random/
From what I under stand you pull the vines off the walls and then scrape the walls. After that you use a random orbital sander to get the stickum off the wall left by the plant.
The stickum in the plant is really the microscopic tendrils that insinuate their way in to any minute crack of crevice or irregularity in the surface. A sander would get most of the residue, if your talking about wood.
One recommendation is to kill the root system with an application of round up and then let the vine die and dry up, which would make pulling the residue off the walls easier. Takes a long time. Cutting the vine off at the bottom would also kill the top but it could come back.
I think checking with the Over The Fence posters or your local agricultural extension office would yield better results than here.
Thanks for sending me to fine gardening,,,sorry to be less than specific. The ivy growing is actually in the front yard, and fortunately not growing up onto the house. Just thought someone might have a better idea for removal. I've sprayed twice with round-up which seems to have made it healthier. And a plasket, (I believe it's the right term) is an axe-type gardening tool.) Anyway, thanks to all who tried. Beck
Beck, your roundup may not have been strong enough. Don't buy the premixed, buy the concentrate. And know that there are several forms of the concentrate, read the labels. When you mix it make it strong, the instructions give several different concentrations for various plants, use the highest.
Second point. Roundup only works on actively growing plants, the more healthy and vigorous the plant is the better it works because it must be transported to the roots by the leaves for it to do its job. Much of your ivy may be in an almost dormant state if it is mature. For best result with roundup (although more work) trim back the ivy with hedge clippers, cutting off most of the green growth. Then water vigorously. The plant will respond with a burst of new, active growth. When you have lots of new growth covering the ivy spray your concentrated roundup on and I think you will see a better outcome.
I found that roundup did little to discourage Virginia Creeper, which grows about 50 times faster than any other kind of vine at my house.
To kill all of it on my property, so that the Myrtle and English Ivy could grow (MUCH more slowly, and more pretty), I had to buy special Shrub and Ivy killing stuff. It seems a lot like Roundup, but is made by another company (got it at my local garden store). Even that stuff is not perfect (it kills more than just the ivy), but at least it works.
The previous poster is right, the plant needs to be activly growing when you apply this kind of thing, so using it at various times of the year increases your kill ratio.
Norm
And a plasket, (I believe it's the right term) is an axe-type gardening tool.)
Maybe you mean Pulaski, a double headed ax with the heads set at right angles to one another. One is at right angle to the handle, the other is parallel to the handle.
SamT
I thought those were called a maddock or something like that?
Norm
Maddocks have thick, usually unsharpened blades and a pickax type handle. All the parts of a pulaski are exactly the same as a 2 bladed ax, except one blade is rotated 90 degrees.
SamT
I've often found myself in the same situation on jobs. I've heard that if you weedeat it often, it will eventually go away (photosynthesis biology stuff). You need a powerful weedeater and think line for this. I've also heard of something that you can mix with Roundup that makes it stick to the plant for something like 3 weeks. I don't know what it is called, unfortunately. I recommend talking to your local ag department, garden centers, or landscapers. Let me know what you find out