Hi....I just signed on to this forum, so please forgive any breaches of accepted OG protocol. A bit about myself....I subscribed to Organic Gardening magazine for years, then quit several years ago in a huff when Mike McGrath was dumped. His monthly article had become the high point of the magazine for me. Glad to see that he's still associated with Rodale.

About two years ago, I finally managed to buy a house with some acreage. I now own 8 acres in south-central PA. Unfortunately, much of the pasture is badly overgrown with poison ivy SHRUBS. I didn't know the plant could get so immense! I'm seriously considering having the fence repaired and getting a flock/herd of goats to clear it out for me. From what I've seen after a cursory scanning of the OG website, doesn't look like there are any miracle cures for the dreaded weed. Any suggestions on dealing with ACRES of the nasty stuff? (I'm HIGHLY allergic & wound up on prednisone the past two Springs after mowing thru some of it)

What is really at the top of my mind right now is the topic of Soil Solarization. I remember reading about it years ago & it seemed like a fantastic idea. So I took a stab at it this summer in an attempt to try to kill off some of the poison ivy and the other overgrowth in the spot where the previous owner had a long-neglected garden from years ago. Early in the Summer, I spread out a huge piece of the thickest clear plastic I could find at the local Home Depot and secured it with rocks. I had hopes of keeping this plastic in place until next Spring, when I planned to fold it over the adjacent ground in order to expand the solar-treated area, and plant a garden in the soil I cooked this year. First question....what do you do about the moisture that accumulates on top of the plastic? Fortunately (?), we're having a major drought here, but we're also having an outbreak of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus. It doesn't take much of a puddle to provide the beasties with a fertile breeding ground. Huge swaths of plastic sheeting hold enough water to serve their purpose. Second problem....about a week ago, I noticed that the plastic had developed a few rips. I thought perhaps a deer or other critter had strolled across it. Before I got a chance to seal the rips with tape, we had a very windy day & the plastic tore itself to shreds and blew all over the place. Turns out the plastic had degraded in the sun and is brittle and basically just decomposing (something I thought plastic didn't do!). So, did I use the wrong sort of plastic for my solarization project? Or was I dreaming to think that any plastic would hold up for a long period of baking? What type of plastic sheeting have others used in successful solarization attempts?

Please forgive me if this is a too-long post for this forum. Now it's time to get back outside and pick up all the little pieces of plastic strewn about my new garden area!

joy

Hi Joy, and welcome! There really are no protocols here. The membership is large, grows constantly, some people here know a lot, some a little, some come asking a lot of questions, and some get a bit opinionated...and when folks start bickering and such, well the rest of us duck our heads when the rotten tomatoes start getting thrown.... but hopefully the last tomato fight is over (ducking low, just in case).

Me, I was born in PA, but moved to a much sunnier location during my early childhood (Calif). As far as plastics go, a 6 mil, greenhouse quality version will last much longer, cost way more, and in the end you'll have to chuck it anyway as it'll be covered with that lovely poison ivy oil...

burning the poison ivy is a no, no, not good to breathe, can cause trouble in the airway...

Can't you HIRE someone/company to remove it for you???? I think in a case like this one must resort to either brute strength (hired hopefully), or a substance which kills the stuff. Killing shrubs is hard to do organically, as so many plants easily sprout from cuttings. I do not know of any organic way to get rid of it, sorry, maybe someone else knows???
As far as those bits and pieces of plastic all over your land...each of those probably is covered with oils and you better not touch them!
As for mosquitos, there are alternative formulas for getting rid of them, try this website: http://www.no-mosquitoes.com/

Welcome!

Probably the best way to get rid of all the PI is either hire someone to eradicate it for you or get a herd of goats to eat it for you.

Plastic. You need UV stable plastic to do a year long solarization. 4 year greenhouse plastic is what I would reccommend. The stuff form Home Depot will not last more than 3 months as you found out. To keep water off of the plastic it has to be stretched tight and the edges buried in the soil. This takes work but will stop most water from ponding and will also keep down on the wear and tear on the plastic.
Some garden catalogues carry such plastic off hand I know Nolt's Produce Supply in Leola PA has it and they are reasonable (717) 656-9764

Another idea to get rid of the pools in the plastic...and that is to encourage one large pool. Can you maybe dig a hole in the dirt close to the middle of where you are planning to place each piece of plastic? Then the water will all roll down to one spot, and you can treat that one spot. There are those mosquito larvae killers that float on top of water. I guess if it's full of poison ivy you don't want to dig, but it was just a thought.

You can check with State College, they have a website that will post e-mail addresses and bios of some of the professors. I've had luck getting other questions answered, but I can't remember the actual web address off the top of my head. I know the cooperative extension works through them in PA. Maybe some of them have an idea of how to eradicate poison ivy around here without chemicals. I certainly wouldn't use them where you plan to have a veggie patch.

Hi. We are in Williamsport/Muncy area. Are you familiar? I like the goat idea. I bet some farmers would rent you some if you asked around. I also heard (and this might be an old wive's tale, so don't quote me) that if you drink milk from goats that eat a lot of PI, you can be immunized against the nasty stuff. We rent on an old farm house and I feel for whoever buys it. The ivy is everywhere!

TanyaS57, I like the idea of being immunized against the stuff.Wonder where we could research that? Our property was covered with it, and it was huge!!I had to revert to bush-b-gone, but used it very sparingly and directly on the cuts on the vines. I am starting to itch just thinking about it. pallensmith.com has some info on PI if you want to investigate his info. Good luck and let us know if the goats work out.
Oh Yeah, WECOME to the forum!!

Thanks to all of you, especially for clueing me in to the "Greenhouse Plastic". I just ordered a roll from GrowerSupply.com. The area I solarized looks mostly dead, but as soon as the plastic disintegrated, the wild onions sprouted with a vengeance. That implies to me that the soil didn't get hot enough to kill everything. I'll put the new plastic over the same area when it gets here. Am I correct in remembering that CLEAR plastic is what I need to use for soil solarization? My sister thinks I should use black so the temperature gets hotter, but I thought the UV rays need to penetrate the plastic.

Thanks...joy

Or... park bales of straw over an area for about a year or two, and smother everything under it. :-) If my memory serves me, straw doesn't decompose all that quickly, as I still have some in my garden from LAST Hallowe'en, and bales don't blow very easily. Nor do biting wee nasties breed in them.

I got the idea from my kids' yard toys doing the smother thing to the clover. I have to remember to move them around the yard every couple of weeks in the summer so my lawn doesn't get bald patches. The clover doesn't always come back.

I'd hire someone to get rid of something as noxious as poison ivy, though.