Greenhouse problem

[abax]

I'll need the vicodin to start on that ivy. It's far more than one plant. I've mixed up a concoction of Round Up and a brush killer (2,4,D maybe) that might be effective. I didn't know there was RU just for ivy. I'll have to go to Lowes and try to find it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they actually had it! I'm just a bit afraid to wade into that mess for hand pulling and sawing because particularly nasty yellow jackets just love to nest in there. Any body got a hazmat suit for sale?

Stone are you volunteering to climb into that mess and take a photo? I'd
pay you well. :>)

 

[keithrs]

Sounds like the same fight I had with my morning glory! 3 yrs later I'm still dealing with it!

 

[mormodes]

Sunset Magazine also says you can contain the spray by spraying through a plastic Coke bottle or bleach bottle or something similar. Cut the bottom off the bottle, spray through the neck, placing the open bottom over the plant or ground area in question.

 

[cnycharles]

I just read that you can use vinegar to spray on weeds to burn them (like using the other contact herbicides) though ivy might be tougher than grass

 

[SlipperFan]

In my experience, vinegar only works on young plants that are in the sun.

 

[abax]

I've used rubbing alcohol on individual plants from time to time and it
burned off the top growth, but the weed came back from the roots. I'd
guess vinegar works about the same way.

BTW, the person-in-charge at Lowes had never heard of RU for ivy...typical.

keithrs, forget getting rid of morning glory. We have had invasions of that stuff in our veggie garden for years and we've tortured it every way
we can think of with very little result. Ditto green briar and poison ivy.
And while I'm weed raging, we have had plagues of ragweed in the nursery fields and nothing takes them down...I mean nothing and we have access to herbicides that only licensed people can get.

 

[gonewild]

And while I'm weed raging, we have had plagues of ragweed in the nursery fields and nothing takes them down...I mean nothing and we have access to herbicides that only licensed people can get.

You should plant Ivy in the nursery fields, it will choke out ragweed and nothing will take it down.
oke:
Beautiful Ivy
:sob:

 

[keithrs]

I've used rubbing alcohol on individual plants from time to time and it
burned off the top growth, but the weed came back from the roots. I'd
guess vinegar works about the same way.

BTW, the person-in-charge at Lowes had never heard of RU for ivy...typical.

keithrs, forget getting rid of morning glory. We have had invasions of that stuff in our veggie garden for years and we've tortured it every way
we can think of with very little result. Ditto green briar and poison ivy.
And while I'm weed raging, we have had plagues of ragweed in the nursery fields and nothing takes them down...I mean nothing and we have access to herbicides that only licensed people can get.

The RU is labeled for poison ivy but it works on almost all ives. It's a brush killer too.

That morning glory is bullet proof! I most of pulled a mile of vine out and it just keeps coming back! At lease I got it away from the garden and house. It's growing in a field on top of ice plant. I gave up trying to get rid of it. I just control it now. I planted because its beautiful but I had no idea how invasive it was/is.

 

[cnycharles]

as far as the ragweed and ivy, if you have one of those propane or butane flamethrower things that are designed to burn weeds out of sidewalks and driveways, when the ground is moist (no fire hazard) you can use that to burn back the plants. that way you are assured that there is no drift threat of chemicals to your desired plants. you could always water everything down in the area where you want to cook the weeds, because wet plants heated up will still die

the propane works well for the yellow jackets and ragweed too

 

[goods]

abax, I work for a landscape maintenance company while I'm home on summer break, so roundup is a daily part of life. What we do for large, woody vegetation is cut it down close to the ground and spray the remaining stump with roundup. Spraying it in the open wound allows it to get to the roots. One application of this will even effectively kill very large tallow trees.

My suggestion for your situation would be to chop the stems that are inside the GH with a shovel, etc. to open a wound on the plant and spray from the inside. That way, you protect your bulbs outside and should kill off most of the ivy.

Edit: I've never heard of a RU designed just for ivies, and just because it's effective for poison ivy doesn't mean it will be effective for English ivy. They aren't in the same family: poison ivy is Anacardiaceae, English ivy is Araliaceae.

 

[gonewild]

Edit: I've never heard of a RU designed just for ivies, and just because it's effective for poison ivy doesn't mean it will be effective for English ivy. They aren't in the same family: poison ivy is Anacardiaceae, English ivy is Araliaceae.

Likely the only difference is a label specific to "Ivy". The chemical content is probably the same.

 

[abax]

goods, that's close to my plan. I don't have the ivy leaves in the greenhouse, just the roots. I'm going to slash outside and scrape the
roots inside and very carefully drench the roots with Round Up mixed
with the brush killer with a spray bottle that will do a very thin stream...
and hope. You must like hard work in the summer. Our nursery used to
do landscaping, but we gave that up and just went exclusively back to
field grown trees selling to companies in the business wholesale by the
trailer truck load. Dealing with retail customers was a pain in the butt!

This thread has been entertaining and a bit reassuring that I'm not alone
in the wilderness fighting weeds.

Lance, I have a question about replacing ragweed with ivy. How can we
get ivy out of the trees...150 acres of trees!??? I think you secretly like
English Ivy. ;>)

 

[goods]

abax, sounds like that should work! I remember back in one of my intro biology classes the professor taught us that RoundUp's mode of action was chlorophyll inhibition, hence the need for it to come in contact with leaves. In practice, I've come to question this unless it also does some other harm to the plant if there is an opening in the tissue along with blocking the function of the pigments.

On the hard work, I enjoy being outdoors, and it's a family business. I get to choose when I do it as long as it all gets done by a set date, and the pay is a bit better than a typical student's summer job. I can't really complain! I remember when we had a much bigger operation and would receive those truckloads of trees...we'd have to plant small forests on golf courses

 

[gonewild]

Lance, I have a question about replacing ragweed with ivy. How can we
get ivy out of the trees...150 acres of trees!??? I think you secretly like
English Ivy. ;>)

I was referencing using one bad problem to solve a lesser problem. You would not be able to get rid of the Ivy so really no problem is solved just changed to something worse.
This is something "we" do in life all the time. We create a problem by deciding we don't like something and then do something to solve the problem that turns out to be a worse problem. and this keeps on going until we have nothing left we are happy with.

My original comment "learn to love Ivy" was with this thought in mind. No matter what you do to get rid of the Ivy will invoke another problem whether it is an injured back from pulling the Ivy out by hand or some form of contamination by using chemicals.

No I don't like Ivy but I like the idea of liking Ivy so that I don't feel the need to worry about it.

At one point I used a lot of chemicals in or field crop production to control weeds. i remember when RU was first introduced and it was the safest and best thing ever invented. It was not long until the entire Central Valley of California was weed free along fences and canals. It was also the same short time that you stopped seeing wildlife along the roadways. The "safe" RU targets only the plant it is applied to but the overall effect is not so selective.
Don't get me wrong I'm not against chemicals but I do realize what the end result will be from all the chemicals being sold to homeowners to solve problems that are not really "problems". You'll use roundup and 2-4d and probably solve your Ivy problem but there is still a problem.

I don't like Ivy but I think it is beautiful and I wish I had a greenhouse that was covered in it. (at this time I don't have a greenhouse, that's my "problem")

 

[SlipperFan]

...
I don't like Ivy but I think it is beautiful and I wish I had a greenhouse that was covered in it. (at this time I don't have a greenhouse, that's my "problem")

No you don't!!!

 

[abax]

I hear the "I'd like to like it" very well which is how the stuff got there in the
first place and I do think it's pretty. I agree with the notion that substituting one problem for another is awfully human. Our nursery uses
very little in the way of chemicals with the exception of using RU just around trees and not in the balk. I mow that all summer with a tractor to
put nutrients back into the soil. We're the only nursery in this area that
doesn't broad spray RU.

The ivy looks really good, especially with the Narcissi and daylilies coming
up through it, but it ain't going to dismantle my greenhouse from the
bottom up. So it seems I have little choice really. I'm only going to kill the ivy intruding into the greenhouse, not all of it. In passing, we have
lots of wooded area around our nursery fields and we've never noticed any
ill effects from using small amounts of RU relative to the acreage. Deer still gore the trees in the fall, the dogs still get skunked from time to time, and we feed all our wild critters large and small. In short, there's more of "them" than there are of "us". I appreciate you, Lance, I really do.

 

[abax]

goods, I like working outside too. We've supplied trees and shrubbery for
golf courses and I love 'em as customers, but save me from ever having to
landscape any of them!!! Our biggest problem with landscaping was customers who didn't think they needed to deep water the trees for the first
year or two...sheesh. Those people need to buy plastic plants.

 

[SlipperFan]

goods, I like working outside too. We've supplied trees and shrubbery for
golf courses and I love 'em as customers, but save me from ever having to
landscape any of them!!! Our biggest problem with landscaping was customers who didn't think they needed to deep water the trees for the first
year or two...sheesh. Those people need to buy plastic plants.

:rollhappy::clap:

 

[abax]

I see you've met some of those people, Dot! Writing that down reminded me why we
sold the landscaping/garden center and kept the tree nursery. A couple who'd just
built a new home came into the garden center and demanded plants they didn't have
to water. This was in a drought year at that. That's when I decided to sell that part of
the business or go on a hair-pulling spree!

 

[Clark]

http://flamethrowerexpert.com/broke.html

I think chemicals are too harsh.