Re: Poison ivy
- To:
- Subject: Re: Poison ivy
- From: M* T*
- Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 17:37:22 -0400
My guess is that these are seedlings, donated by the local bird
population who adore the berries on both these vines.
If you only have a few instances of it, pull it out. Take
precautions. Wear long sleeves, long pants, and gloves. Don't mess
around with poison ivy with shorts and sleeveless tops as the vines
are sneaky and will manage to brush against bare skin if there is
any.
Our daily paper comes in a nice long, narrow plastic bag, just the
right size for sliding over a gloved and long-sleeved arm. If you
don't have this type of bag, a small size plastic trash bag will
do...wastepaper bag size.
Armed with small and large plastic trash bags, insert gloved hand
into smaller bag and grasp the ivy as close to the ground as you can
and pull. Use a hand fork or garden knife or other prying type tool,
if necessary, to pry roots out of the soil. Immediately transfer
P.I. to trash bag.
This operation works best if the soil is moist, since more root will
come out.
When done, peel off bag from arm into trash bag and donate to
landfill. If you even think you brushed any vines with clothing -
remove directly to washing machine and wash it.
I get bolder with tiny seedlings and grab a leaf (always have those
around) and use it to grab the stem and pull and discard. Always
have seedlings popping up, thanks to the birds, and if you don't get
them when tiny, they grow speedily into nice plants.
If you have acres of it, pulling isn't practical and you have to
bring out the big herbicide guns, but for isolated plants, pulling
works. If the plant has gotten really well established, you may have
to repeat the process, since they will return from vining stems left
in the ground.
If you have woods and find nice mature P.I. plants growing on trees,
cut the vines as close to soil line as you can and let them die.
Don't try pulling them off, they will inevitably land on you, besides
they attach by aerial roots and are very hard to remove while living.
You can tell it's P.I. because the exposed vines are incredibly
hairy with roots.
And, as a final precaution against contracting a rash, get some
Tech-Nu and wash with it after you're done...haven't had any P.I.
rashes since I discovered this marvelous product - best thing since
sliced bread.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
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> From: Janet N. Yang <jyang1@home.com>
> Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 10:58 AM
>
> The privet hedge has been invaded by poison ivy. Never had any
> before this year. Some is sprouting a few inches away from the
shrubs,
> up through the mulch. The previous year, it was invaded by
> Parthenocissus vine; again, I had never seen any before.
> Each fall the neighbors dump a lot of wood chips to mulch their
side
> of the hedge. He's a building contractor so he probably gets the
chips
> from a customer who's had some trees cut down. The chips are fresh,
not
> at all composted.
> Is it possible that these unwelcome vines came from this mulch?
> I.e., suppose the original tree had been covered with poison ivy or
> parthenocissus, then the tree was cut down and ground into chips.
Could
> the plants survive that, and sprout up again? I'm getting rid of
them
> regardless of how it got there, but I do wonder.
>
> Janet
>
>
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