How to kill ivy on a tree?

LittleVermin

ed110220 wrote: »

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.

The original poster wrote: ".... in the garden is a large tree, covered in ivy." ... so it doesn't sound as though he/she has an apple on dwarfing rootstock! Sure, ivy will overwhelm some plants / bushes / small 'trees'.

My opinion about ivy appears to be almost opposite to yours: ivy flowers provide masses of nectar in autumn for butterflies, honeybees and loads of other insects (e.g. beneficial hoverflies). The berries are a good food source for thrushes. And the plant provides shelter, roosts and nest sites for many birds.

I'd rather have my "wild" garden than a manicured patch. And, of course, "wild garden" is a total misnomer - it takes a lot of managing!

BTW I have a rambling rose growing with the ivy which half-covers a shed: the rose seems to have no problem keeping ahead of the ivy! The rose has also got about 20 feet up a small ash which is also support for honeysuckle (and, yes, I cut back the ivy when it tries to get into the ash: it's sparrow-central).

ed110220

There's nothing wrong with ivy in the wild garden, and as you say it does provide a lot of food and shelter for wildlife so I'm not knocking that. But I stand by my opinion that in a 'normal' garden, ivy is almost always a pest that creates a lot of work and I speak from experience of having a garden with both types - wild and more tended.

I think even for a large apple tree, ivy could easily become a menace. Even a large apple tree is a small tree as far as native trees go (ie oak, beech, ash etc).

bromsgrovebarry

Just a word of caution. I killed the ivy round an old apple tree that was being smothered. I had not realised that the ivy was the only thing supporting the tree and soon after killing the ivy, the tree was blown over in a gale. Just be careful that the tree is not too rotten when you remove the ivy as it may be safer to fell the tree if that is the case.
I certainly agree that ivy is an important wildlife plant. It is one of the latest plants to flower in autumn and gives the bees a useful feed before winter. Some species of bird such as wren like to nest in ivy.

Should_be_out_gardening

bromsgrovebarry wrote: »

Just a word of caution. I killed the ivy round an old apple tree that was being smothered. I had not realised that the ivy was the only thing supporting the tree and soon after killing the ivy, the tree was blown over in a gale. Just be careful that the tree is not too rotten when you remove the ivy as it may be safer to fell the tree if that is the case.
I certainly agree that ivy is an important wildlife plant. It is one of the latest plants to flower in autumn and gives the bees a useful feed before winter. Some species of bird such as wren like to nest in ivy.

I was asked to trim away ivy and to be honest it was all that was holding the tree up , that too was a fruit tree, half dead anyway. I persuaded them to do away with it - they were sure it was to go any way and plant a new tree, a flowering cherry in this case. In the same garden the ivy was holding up the old shed too.

Ivy , like drinking , OK in small doses but don't let it get out of hand!

krlyr

When I say large tree, it's bigger than the spindly little apple tree in our old house, but not a huge oak or anything! Probably about 15' tall with a good solid trunk - probably about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter.
Not too fussed about losing it, though I think the neighbour would prefer us to keep it as a resource for the birds they encourage into their garden. But being fairly near to the fence, we wouldn't want to risk it falling onto their garden if it was dead/weakened, especially as it's about level with some outbuildings of theirs. There's lots of trees (and ivy) behind the garden so the birds could easily set up camp there anyway. No idea of the cost of having a tree that size removed though, maybe we'll just leave it as-is until we've put some money aside to use incase it does need lopping down.

Mojisola

LittleVermin wrote: »

My opinion about ivy appears to be almost opposite to yours: ivy flowers provide masses of nectar in autumn for butterflies, honeybees and loads of other insects (e.g. beneficial hoverflies). The berries are a good food source for thrushes. And the plant provides shelter, roosts and nest sites for many birds.

I'm glad to find another ivy supporter - I usually find I'm a lone voice in support of the benefits of ivy!

LittleVermin

krlyr wrote: »

When I say large tree, it's bigger than the spindly little apple tree in our old house, but not a huge oak or anything! Probably about 15' tall with a good solid trunk - probably about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter.
Not too fussed about losing it, though I think the neighbour would prefer us to keep it as a resource for the birds they encourage into their garden. But being fairly near to the fence, we wouldn't want to risk it falling onto their garden if it was dead/weakened, especially as it's about level with some outbuildings of theirs. There's lots of trees (and ivy) behind the garden so the birds could easily set up camp there anyway. No idea of the cost of having a tree that size removed though, maybe we'll just leave it as-is until we've put some money aside to use incase it does need lopping down.

You're very lucky! You've bought a house with a healthy mature apple tree. Maybe it was planted 20 or more years ago - and presumably was carefully chosen, either as a cooker or an eater (or dual purpose). Apple trees can live up to 100 years or so, and provide fruit for decades.

Of course when it was planted no-one intended it to be encased in ivy. In your shoes I'd wait until next autumn, when it's probably produced a few fruit, before doing anything drastic. Then, depending on the shape of the tree beneath the ivy, you can decide whether to try to get it back to being just an apple tree. The birds will still like it! Your neighbours will still be happy. You'll need to prune it, carefully, over several years - not all at once! Lots of advice on pruning on the web.

Why not tell your neighbours you're worried it might fall and damage the fence, their outbuildings, etc? (But of course a tile might blow off your roof and kill their pet hamster when it's hoovering up the bird seed ... but you're not going to put mesh all over your roof to ensure the little fellow is not at risk from unusual flying objects. Are you?). If you'd written that the tree didn't have a "good solid trunk" it would be a bit different.

You'll probably find there's an apple day event near you where people can get their apples identified. October 21st - or thereabouts. See here.
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