Ivy removal

[Dan Forsh]

Hi,

 

Looking for any tips/advice on this.

 

I seem to have unwittingly become the grounds keeper for my wife's church; probably knowing that I own a lot of petrol powered tools put me in the frame for this. The fact that I fix them rather than use them doesn't seem to come in to it.

 

I'm not any form of gardener or arborculturist, so I'm looking at about half a dozen mature trees around the church grounds that are quite heavily covered with ivy. Looking at the couple that don't seem to be effected, these seem to have had the ivy's growth cut back in previous years. It looks to me like the ivy has been cut off about a metre from the ground and stripped back to the base. I assume that from the dead remains I can see above, that this kills it off?

 

Is this the normal way of dealing with it, or is there more to it that I'm missing?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dan

[treesrus]

it's one way of dealing with ivy, if you don't mind years of unsightly dead ivy in the trees, will take maybe 10 yrs or more for it to fall out by itself. allthough it's more work, it is preferable to climb the trees and pull all the ivy out. but i guess you are not a climber, so the method you describe will work, i use an axe and a billhook, being careful not to cut into the bark of the trees. this will only kill the ivy above where it's cut, the ivy will grow back up from ground level, so in future years keep on cutting it back.

[T14EES T14UNK]

A claw hammer is pretty useful too.

[campanula]

Or, alternatively, you could live with the ivy - this is a tremendous resource for wildlife, providing food and shelter for birds and insects. If you are concerned that the ivy has grown into the canopy and presents a risk of falling limbs or even tree fall, then topping the growth with a pruning saw, just under the main branching limbs will still allow the ivy to climb, thereby reaching fruiting maturity, while diminishing the risk of catching too much wind and stressing the tree. Ivy does not strangle or damage either trees or masonry.

[hedgesparrow]

Or, alternatively, you could live with the ivy - this is a tremendous resource for wildlife, providing food and shelter for birds and insects. If you are concerned that the ivy has grown into the canopy and presents a risk of falling limbs or even tree fall, then topping the growth with a pruning saw, just under the main branching limbs will still allow the ivy to climb, thereby reaching fruiting maturity, while diminishing the risk of catching too much wind and stressing the tree. Ivy does not strangle or damage either trees or masonry.

 

+1 depends if the trees are good specismens or your normal tree ivy is very good for nuthatches,tree creepers. plus other bugs which birds like.

what you could do is look at trees and say keep two of them so go around the bark with a small axe or bill cutting the ivy so there is a gap this will kill any ivy up above but as other posts will die and then fall out of tree. and go around base of tree and try and get as much of the ivy dug out to stop it re creeping back up tree,s. but ivy is a pain no matter how much you try and get it will come back and it will need doing again in a couple of years. i have a number of trees on a playing field and i left about 6 of them to ivy as the trees are on there last legs the others i ring ed the ivy to stop it growing.

[MattyF]

Be careful not to damage/ring bark the trees if you decide to remove, its easy to damage and kill mature trees.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[teepeeat]

be aware that if you do cut it near the ground, bits will eventually fall off when it is dead. I did this on a holly a few years back and in the recent winds some very large chunks came down and would have caused significant injury if anyone was hit.

[Dan Forsh]

Thanks for all the info and alternative views. Much appreciated.