Can Ivy Kill My Tree?

The same characteristics that make ivy a beautiful ground cover can also make it a hassle to remove from your tree. Ivy’s lush growth and strength make the killing or removing it from trees a hard job, but not an impossible one. If you’re thinking about how you can kill an ivy plant, read on.

How to Kill Ivy
There are two ways to kill ivy. One is by, and the other is with herbicides.

By Hand
Digging and pulling up the ivy can be an efficient way to remove ivy from your yard. When removing ivy by hand, you want to make sure that you get as much of the plant, both roots, and stems, as possible. Ivy regrows from root pieces and stems left on the ground.

Herbicides
One of the reasons that killing ivy is hard is because the leaves are shielded with a waxy substance that aids in stopping herbicides from getting into the plant. Therefore, to be successful at killing ivy, you have to break through that obstacle.
What you want to do to make an herbicide more successful in killing ivy is to use it on a sunny day in the wintertime. The cold temps ensure that the spray doesn’t dissolve rapidly and provides the herbicide with more time to get into the ivy — the sun aids in keeping the wax on the leaves looser and easy to penetrate.

Removing Ivy from Trees
Removing ivy from trees is very tricky. Many folks wonder, “can ivy kill trees?” The answer is yes. Ivy destroys the bark as it grows upward and will ultimately assail a mature tree, deteriorating limbs with its weight and stopping light from getting to the leaves`

Weakened trees are more susceptible to issues such as disease and pests. It’s always best to eliminate the ivy from the tree and keep it from the trunk of the tree to stop it from going up the tree.

When removing ivy, don’t just snatch it off a tree. The roots are tightly hooked into the bark and pulling ivy off will also take off part of the bark, damaging the tree. If you don’t want to take a chance and destroy your tree trying to do it yourself, call a tree contractor.​

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