How to kill ivy on a tree?

krlyr

We've just moved into a new house and in the garden is a large tree, covered in ivy. The neighbour has told us that it's an apple tree underneath, but it's absolutely covered so no chance of it producing any apples in its current state.
What would be the best way to kill off the ivy? Ideally without affecting the tree/apples - not too fussed about harvesting the next crop but I have two dogs (who may pick up fallen apples if I don't beat them to it) so I want to use the safest method possible.

ariba10

Cut it off as close to the ground as you can and then wait for the ivy to die.

Suzy_M

Web search weed killer for ivy brings up a link to the RHS advice - Very thorough and covers all the options.

DaftyDuck

Cut right back, then each time it comes back (and it will), spray with glyphosate onto the new growth. Works best from May onwards, I find. It will take time to win, but it will lose if you are determined.

Ectophile

The usual way is to go around the base of the tree chopping through all the ivy stems (just be careful not to hack away the tree bark by mistake). This will kill it without having to spray weed killer around.

ed110220

Ectophile wrote: »

The usual way is to go around the base of the tree chopping through all the ivy stems (just be careful not to hack away the tree bark by mistake). This will kill it without having to spray weed killer around.

That would be a good start, but it will obviously only kill the ivy above the cut point, though it will give the tree a chance to get some light etc. You will still need to use weedkiller to kill the ivy stumps, as they will resprout.

LittleVermin

krlyr wrote: »

We've just moved into a new house and in the garden is a large tree, covered in ivy. The neighbour has told us that it's an apple tree underneath, but it's absolutely covered so no chance of it producing any apples in its current state.
What would be the best way to kill off the ivy? <snip>

A healthy tree always outgrows ivy, and you'll probably get some flowers and fruit so I'd wait until next summer/autumn to see what you've got. It may not be to your taste!

On the other hand if you kill the ivy the apple tree you're left with may be a very poor shape with lots of long spindly branches (the results of its arms race with the ivy) and need severe (and careful!) pruning, over several winters, to get a half-decent tree.

In its present state it will be a home and feeding station to birds, insects, etc - and should give you the pleasure of bird song, families of baby birds, butterflies, moths, etc.

When we bought this place thirty years ago we knew we had apple trees - we could see them from the lanes on either side! We cleared all the ivy, brambles, nettles, debris ... and found some excellent trees, as well as some I wish we hadn't bothered with! So now I let the ivy cover some trees (plus some wild roses, clematis, honeysuckle) and even leave dead trees standing .... and enjoy an amazing variety of birds and other wildlife.The barbecue is under a cider apple (quite inedible!) and hammocks get strung between other trees. Sit in the shade in the barbecue area and in summer there's often a warbler singing a few feet from my head. Or a family of long-tailed tits 'squeaking' to each other as they search for caterpillars and little insects. This summer wrens had a nest in the ivy three feet from my seat.

Oh yes, I did carefully prune a russett back into shape, over a few years, but then it got disease (through the cuts?) and died!

Maybe your neighbour can give you some more info about the apple?
..

krlyr

Thanks for the advice. Good point about the birds - the neighbours seems very into their birds, lots of tables, hanging feeders, boxes, etc. up in their garden and I've seen several flitting in and out of the ivy. From a practical POV, it does wind my dog up to have animals rustling away in there though, she's got big chasing instincts and at the moment is rushing out of the door to bark up the tree (not the wrong one!). I don't want to evict a growing family of little birdies or make some homeless before a big freeze though, but there are lots of trees at the back of the gardens that they could move to, when would be the best time of year to clear the tree out?

LittleVermin

krlyr wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. Good point about the birds - the neighbours seems very into their birds, lots of tables, hanging feeders, boxes, etc. up in their garden and I've seen several flitting in and out of the ivy. From a practical POV, it does wind my dog up to have animals rustling away in there though, she's got big chasing instincts and at the moment is rushing out of the door to bark up the tree (not the wrong one!). I don't want to evict a growing family of little birdies or make some homeless before a big freeze though, but there are lots of trees at the back of the gardens that they could move to, when would be the best time of year to clear the tree out?

I imagine your dog will calm down - or you'll need to train it/them? - before lots of neighbours get very fed up. We (this hamlet) had a couple move in whose two dogs barked all the time. Fortunately they've gone - after letting on, drunkenly, to a neighbour that they'd had to move from their previous place because of the dogs. [I don't blame the dogs. Sometimes they were tied up outside while the couple watched telly over some drinks].

Birds will be looking for nest sites from roughly February, and nesting from March through to August (very broad timings!) - which is why nest boxes should be out now. Ivy takes some time to die so you either need to cut it now or after August. Birds using it for a roost will find somewhere else, probably in other ivy, leylandii, other evergreens, etc.

Bird tables, etc are great - but birds need shelter too! My last neighbours put out lots of food - but had a super-tidy garden so all the birds lived in my semi-wild patch and just rushed to their's to stuff themselves!

Before you cut I'd try to work out as best you can what the apple tree will look like shorn! You probably wouldn't want some of my apple-trees in your garden. I finally chopped down one which was never going to do any good - despite spending lots of time straightening it. Another, fallen over, produces masses of fruit - totally tasteless (but crunchy so better than so-called Golden Delicious!) so I leave it for its superb blossom and pretty stripey fruit - and leave them for the thrushes to eat.

Scruff02

We had lots of ivy in our garden when we moved into our house 3 years ago and we have now got it under control. If you don't dig the ivy out of the ground it will regrow.

ed110220

LittleVermin wrote: »

A healthy tree always outgrows ivy, and you'll probably get some flowers and fruit so I'd wait until next summer/autumn to see what you've got. It may not be to your taste!
..

That's only really true of trees that grow very large, like oak or beech trees. An apple is a fairly small tree, especially those on dwarfing rootstocks. Smaller trees can easily be overwhelmed by ivy.

Unless you have a wild garden, ivy is pretty much always a pain in the garden in my opinion as it grows so vigorously, it gets very messy and smothers other plants.