Easy to eradicate now, even when among ornamentals
The summer brings many joys with its myriad of colorful, fragrant plants, but it also gives rise to some undesirable plants that are unwelcome in all gardens and against which constant warfare is waged.
Just a few sprigs of poison oak or poison ivy may be enough to spoil the beauty and enjoyment of a garden scene if you are sensitive to these poisonous plants. Their elimination is frequently costly, laborious, and in many cases, ineffectual.
The familiar three-leaved vine, which may grow as a shrub, vine, or small tree and which may have leaf edges that are smooth, toothed, or slightly lobed, is a deceptive garden intruder. Leaves on different poison ivy plants, or even on the same plant, may vary widely in size and shape.
Recently, a new method for killing poison ivy has been developed, which gives all appearances of being highly effective and, more important, safe to surrounding ornamental plants.
The “Jar Method”
The new technique for ivy eradication may be called the “jar method” and uses a popular weed and brush killer based on ammonium sulfamate.
Sometimes there’s not enough growth to need spraying, or the vine may run through an area where ornamental plants are growing.
In cases of this nature, where spraying might prove fatal to surrounding plants from wind drift of the chemical control, using the jar method, you dunk the end of the vine in the liquid solution, and the solution is taken up through the leaves and eventually transported to the roots.
Follow the directions on the container when mixing.
Be careful not to touch the vine; grasp the end of it with an ordinary clothespin and push the leaves into the solution.
Clip the vine to the jar with the clothespin and let the tip leaves stay in the solution for about 48 hours.
This procedure can be repeated as many times as needed using the same solution if desired.
Elimination of Tops and Roots
However, to ensure the complete elimination of tops and roots, allow adequate time for the chemical to be carried throughout the plant.
This usually means leaving the dead vines in place without cutting or digging them up for at least one full season. The dead vines can be raked away or buried by the following season.
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