How long after using vinegar as an herbacide can you plant in that area? I was thinking about using a vinegar, molasses, soap mixture I read about on this site to get rid of poison ivy. I would like to plant in the area when it is all dead.

Any tips on killing poison ivy would be appreciated.

I've tried the "vineger herbacide" before and have found it's use to be very limited. Don't plan on it working on your poison ivy unless you plan on saturating the root zone, but from your formula mix, I see you plan on using it as a foliar spray. I guess the best way to put it is that you can kill grass with it....but not the dandelions.
I can only hope you have better luck with it than I've ever had.

I've used straight vinegar & it works great. Use as folar spray (I don't know what it would do at the root zone) it disrupts the photosysthis. To do that, it has to stick to the leaves, that might be what the molasas is for? And, do it in the morning, while the leaves are still soaking up moisture. They'll suck it in & then try to use it... and get fried!

I don't know why you couldn't plant right away, as long as you're sure the poison ivy is all dead.

Acetic acid, vinegar, will kill off the top growth but will not reach the plant roots except is the top growth is kept dead so no food is sent to the roots to encourage new growth. So it may take a couple of years, maybe more, before the roots of poison ivy are dead and you can plant in that area.
The acetic acid needs to be applied at the right time of day and that is usually when it is very hot, or mid day contrary to what you have hard about applying every other spray.

Thank you all for the tips. Anyone have any recomendations on how to get rid of poison ivy? This stuff is everywhere.

quote:

How long after using vinegar as an herbacide can you plant in that area?

I don't know about your soil, but in this area any acid that gets on the soil is neutralized very quickly since our soil is a bit on the alkaline side.

Sorry, I don't have a good recipe for getting rid of poison ivy. I guess like anything else, if you can defoliate it and keep the new growth down, the roots will die eventually from starvation. Seeds are probably all over though.

Like fighting morning glory. You have to keep at it. Good Luck!

........sandwich and a posting makes for a good lunch........

Hemingway, talk to us......what sort of area are we working with, what size, what else is there, how soon do you HAVE to be planting in it...? Kimm, AMU, and I are going to need to know what constraints we're working with to give you better advise.

......see ya'll after dark, back to planting peppers again.....

The area is about 3 feet wide and 30 feet long. It contains a mixture of poison ivy, various unidentifed plants, and stumps from small maple trees. It is on the border of my front yard. I am hoping to rid myself of the poison ivy put up a trellis and plant somthing more appealing. My timeline is flexible for replanting. I am hoping to get something up as soon as possible. I want to block the eysore of my neighbors lot.

Have you tried corn gluten? It kills everything, and I think I recall reading that you can dig it into the soil and replant within three weeks. Good luck finding it, though. I have often read about it, but I am still looking for it.

Hemingway -
Here's the first thing that came to my mind, and then I thought about your situation all day some more.....corn gluten will do you no good, it's a pre-emergence application. Poison Ivy is a perrinial.
You can solorize the area. You're gonna cook it.
Go to your local hardware store and buy the appropriate size plastic to cover the area. Coverage in one piece is best. Thickness of the plastic is unimportant other than it should be thick enough that the weeds don't poke holes in it by simply laying it over them. Black plastic is best for the heat absorbsion, but clear works just as well.
Chop or burn the maple stumps down to ground level. Don't worry about mowing off or cutting down the rest of the weeds unless they are such that they can hold the plastic 4-5 inches off the ground.
You can water the area before you spread the plastic if you prefer to steam things rather than cooking them, but it doesn't matter in the end.
Spread the plastic over the area, weight it down and seal the edges so that it traps the sun's heat underneath it.
Watch things die for a minimum of 6 weeks. Poison Ivy is one of the most tenatious plants out there, and we need to go for "depth" in this case, so I'd add a couple more weeks.
Understand that we are "killing" the area....sterilizing with extreme prejudice, if you will.....bugs,microbes, roots, and seeds. Dead as the moon if it's done correctly and long enough. Fear not, a couple weeks after the plastic has been removed, the "good life" will have begun to re-establish itself and you will have a healthy working area again to play in at your heart's content.

Your next option is to buy a "weeding torch" and spend a few minutes every few days scorching everything green for 2-3 weeks until nothing re-emerges. This option will most likely require that you keep the torch handy thru the rest of the season for those sneaky late emergers, and will do nothing for any seeds that may be below the surface at any depth. Now you can work in some corn gluten if you wish to, but only if you plan to re-plant with established plants in the area. The gluten will still have No Affect on re-emerging ivy as it will be regenerating from an established root.

Now let's talk a little about garden safety. At all times during the above proccesses; gloves, long pants, and long sleeves should be worn. Even after the solorization, the resin that causes the irritation will be present, and will stay there until it's compounds break down naturally. At NO TIME SHOULD CONCENTRATED DEBRIS SMOKE BE INHALED if you choose to use a torch. Blistering of the lungs can happen and can be fatal.

And now a personal opinion - This is one case were I would forget organics and resort to a chemical herbicide. Especially if there are small children or beloved pets to be using the area. The organic solutions are not absolute, and often require more than one implementation to work to your complete satisfaction, and this isn't something you want to play with more than once. Get it done once and for all. And for those that don't agree with this statement - keep it to yourself, I don't really care. It's Hemingway's decision, not our's.

I wish you the best of luck.

Goats.

If you can have goats... That'd be my vote as well. After that, thick black plastic (so it doesn't get torn). After that, vinegar. (I know that some think vinegar doesn't work that well... I converted a neighbor to it when she used Roundup & I used vinegar! Vinegar worked better than Roundup.)

evelyn
getting back to work.

Burning poison ivy is very dangerous and can have a serious effect on people who are not in the immediate area. If you are burning a stump in the area of poison ivy, you could be burning poison ivy.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-218.pdf

try rock salt

I am giving the black plastic a shot. I had some left over from another project so I decided to put it to use. We will see how it goes.