I have a small (now) poison ivy patch between my cottonwood and redbud. It's right near the house and I don't want my son getting into it. My husband pulled a bunch up yesterday, but those root systems are killer. What's the best way to get rid of it? It might be very difficult to get all the roots out, as they are intermingled with tree roots. Can I apply vinegar, or would that damage the trees?
Acidify your soil and Use straight vinegar. What I do is take a plastic bag and put my hand into it like a glove. Then I grab the vine and either pull or cut it free, pour some straight vinegar on the cut or broken end, and then put some other plant right over it, either that or a rock or heavy plastic...something to smother it out. Pull the bag over the vine, and toss. I have been able to reclaim about ten feet a year of my yard this way.
be very careful. the first time i got poison ivy- at the age of 25, i was hospitalised it was so bad. i hadn't touched a plant or major root, but some root hairs in the soil from 2 years previous.... what a killer! please, be careful! keep your son out of the area even after it is cleared. livvie~~~~~~~~6b
My hands are fairly immune--they must be too calloused for the oils to seep in. The only time I got poison ivy was all over my feet and ankles--after trecking over to my old college laundromat with bare feet in hiking boots because all my socks were dirty.
I worry much more about chiggers!!!!
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How soon would I be able to plant in that area again, after using the vinegar?
you can use all vinegar you want even straight stuff will not matter either way do to fact poison ivy will live right though it. poison ivy either requires a serious digging job or none organic methods in most cases do to the fact it will survive most if not all common weed killing chemicals. Burning is not an option do to fact the smoke gives off the poison ivy resin thus effecting those near bye..
For those of you who consider the mere mention of non organic treatments for weeds to be blasphemy.......... stop reading right now!! To the rest of you more pragmatic blasphemers,(sic?) here is my non-organic but highly effective solution to the problem of the various poisonous vegetation problems. (Note: 8 years ago I developed a rash over 30 % of my body and could stand to wear no clothes but a MuMu, (remember those Hawiian dresses?) for over 10 days, (and I'm a guy)! as a result of contact and stupid treatment. I was told at the time that the best way to get rid of the oil was to take a hot bath and wash off the poison. WRONG!! the oil formed a thin layer on top of the water and as I gently immersed myself it spread over my entire body. If I had wanted to cover myself with a monomoleculer layer of any oily compound I could not have chosen a better way! Now for the blasphemy: Take Ortho 'Weed-be-gone, dilute it as reccommended along with some spreader/sticker or use Kodak photo flo to lower surface tension of the mixture. Now put it in one of those spritzer bottles used for windex etc. Lift up 10 or so individual leaves for each vine and very carefully spray just enough on the bottom of each leaf to make it wet. Do not spray enough to wet anything else!! This is best done when the leaves are just beginning to grow in the spring. If it makes you feel better, mutter "DIE SUCKER!" and remember the last time you had a poison ivy rash. Take a look the next day and you will almost, (I said almost) feel sorry for the poor poison ivy, if you have done it right, the plant will be all curled and shrivelled and look like it is in terrible pain. But, hey, live by the sword, die by the sword. You can wipe out an acre of the stuff with less than a cupful of the weed-be-gone mixture. The trick is to keep the aerosol droplets out of the air and on the leaves. The weed killer is absorbed through the stomata on the underside of the leaves and travels all the way through the plant right back to the roots and then biodegrades within a few days as the poison ivy dies, a week at most. You can then plant as soon as you can get rid of the dead plants. Be careful, though, the dead plants still contain the oil. DO NOT USE ROUNDUP! I did the same treatment a year later using Roundup and the area about 3 feet in diameter was barren for 2 growing seasons. It does not appear to biodegrade regardless of what Monsanto lies. David Chisholm
There is a product manufactured by Ortho which is specific for poison ivy/poison oak. It's a brush killer, so one must be careful not to spray it on other kinds of vegetations one doesn't intend to wipe out. I am VERY allergic to poison ivy, and we had quite a few plants growing in our back yard when we first moved here. My husband did the impossible to destroy all of the poison ivy, and he still does. One thing, he chopped every climbing, large vine with an ax at ground level. You may want to do this regardless of other methods because you don't want the poison ivy to go to seeds EVER!!! (and make sure there are no other plants growing in your surroundings). Birds feed on those seeds, and of course by defecating everywhere the keep the plant going. And, even after you have done all you needed to do and no longer see sign of poison ivy, keep checking. We inspect every formerly infested area every year, several times, and are ready to pull out any seedlings as they make their appearance: This is a war that you have to keep fighting! Best wishes, Gardpro--zone 5b (but I wish I lived in zone 8)
Gardpro, After the vines were cut at ground level how did you handle disposal of dead vines? and get them down? (ours are high in the trees). Any help would be appreciated, my husband got quite a case last summer trying to get rid of it, even while being pretty careful about covering up and cleaning up of person and clothes. After frost this fall the bases of all the vines were severed and hopefully we will be able to rid ourselves of the majority of our problem. Thanks in advance
While I'm not sure what the best method to dispose of it is, I DO know the WORST, because a co-worker did it. Whatever you do, do NOT burn it! The oils will go into the smoke, and can then be inhaled, not only by whoever is there burning, but by anyone downwind of the smoke! (Like I said, a co-worker burned the poison ivy he had pulled out, and got a HORRIBLE case of it, not ONLY on his body, but IN it, as well, requiring a hospital stay. Nothing like having a tube down your throat to keep your windpipe from swelling completely shut!)
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Be very careful how you handle the stuff!!! There was a letter in an old OG around 1981 (I actually found it the other day but do you think I can put my hand on it at the moment?) from a prof. that took kids on field trips through poison ivy when there was no other option. He said to spray all exposed areas with a 10% solution of ammonia. I have done it ever since, we have lots of the stuff on our 45 acres. I have not had one blister since! I even spray boots jeans etc. anything that might have touched any part of the ivy. Since it's sap is acidic, the ammonia neutralizes it. We keep a permanent sprits bottle topped up by the back door. We have had some luck smothering the stuff, and the trees should not be affected by that. I know the neighbour's cattle eliminated it on their side of the fence. I think I've heard that goats will eat it too! Please do not burn. As a 3 yr old I had it in my eyes when my father tried to get rid of a big patch near our house in Virginia! I can still remember it, 60 yrs later!
Good luck and PLEASE be careful.
Omemee
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To gr8fulmom: My husband couldn't do anything about the climbing vines. He sprayed what he could at the bottom very carefully after axing the plant, but he didn't dispose of it at that time. It was IMPOSSIBLE to remove without causing extensive injury to oneself. The good thing is that the poison ivy started to die right away, and you could almost see it shrivel before you eyes. When it was all dead (it took a couple of years), we disposed of its "remains" by bagging them in plastic bags, and this is all you can do.
Hi all,got this recipe at garden path from Denny. 1 gallon vinegar 1 cup salt 8 drops of detergent heat vinegar and salt until salt is dissolved let cool,then add detergent put in spray bottle and spray on anything you want to die I haven't tried it yet,but I'm going to soon. I feel wayyy guilty using roundup
When I was in college I did lawn work and landscaping and what I used to do was to buy a bottle of brush killer dip a paint brush in it ( size it for the job and don't ever use it on anything else ) and paint the top and bottom of the leaves. A sponge brush will give you better control so as not to drip it on the ground. Also go to walmart and buy the cheap surgical gloves in the pharmacy section. Wear those and then toss them. You might want to drop the brush in a ziplock until you know for sure you have killed the roots. I have some out back now that appeared in my compost pile I need to take care of.
