Management Of Poison Ivy Around Trees?

[Sarah_R]

Hi, if this has been addressed somewhere else, please point it out to me and I will delete this thread

We are located in Eastern Ontario, Canada, and this will be our first year tapping the trees on our 14 acre property.
We have some really nice maples, and of course they're located right in a huge patch of poison ivy.
I was wondering if anybody else has dealt with this issue? Mainly I'm wondering about the use of RoundUP or Brush B-Gone; will this go into the soil and harm the trees and/or end up in the sap? Is there a specific amount of time I should wait before using these trees again? I can't find any information on this anywhere else.

Thoughts and ideas?

Thanks gang!

[Cedar Eater]

I have a lot of experience with RoundUp, but not in this context. I know that it will kill trees through their roots if sprayed very heavily and indiscriminately to the point where it never dries before contacting the roots. In this situation, I would consider very careful spot spraying or even brushing a wet towel or even a paint brush over the poison ivy leaves. You don't have to touch every leaf. Usually 2-3 per vine is good enough. I'm going to make the assumption that poison ivy qualifies as a broadleaf and suggest a broadleaf-specific herbicide called 2-4-D or Weedar 64. This can be mixed with RoundUp or just mixed with water. Commercial grade herbicide can be purchased at a feed store. The kind of RoundUp you can get at Home Depot isn't likely to be strong enough to kill poison ivy.

[happy thoughts]

Can you call your local ag office or maple producers association? I searched for info on weed control in the sugarbush and didn't come up with much anywhere, not even the UVM Proctor site or Cornell. I saw mention of herbicide use to control invasives in the sugarbush at UVM but no mention of which herbicides to use. Maybe Dr Tim will see this and be able to point you in the right direction.

I know getting rid of it can be tough. How much can you mow or cut now while it's cold and you're better covered? From my own experience, Roundup alone isn't going to kill it easily and Brush b Gon isn't recommended around food crops. I just went to the ortho site and logged into their chat. They suggested roundup poison ivy plus. That isn't recommended around food crops either per the label so I’m not sure I trust their recommendation. They did tell me this product's half life was 45 days (means half of the product degrades in that time) and that 90% degrades within 6 months.

Here's my thoughts on that:
Maple roots spread wide and shallow so potential for getting into sap seems high to me.
I don't know what the product degrades into and if that would still be a concern for food safety especially in sap which ends up highly concentrated for syrup.
You have to apply herbicides during the growing season and you'll probably need to reapply it several times. Assuming a final application at the end of this year's growing season, you'll still have 10% or more of this product still hanging around next sugar season.

Maybe someone has some ideas of better info. Or maybe you just need a goat

[maple maniac65]

A goat that does not chew maple trees.

[WVKeith]

Round-up can easily kill or harm Maple Trees. One day I saw the grounds keepers at work spraying round-up around several ornamental fruit tress to keep the grass down around the tree instead of weed whacking. I thought this looked like a great idea, so I tried it in the yard at my house. Weed whacked first, then sprayed some round-up. I was careful about not spraying on the trees (all maples) or using too much. About once a month, I re-sprayed on any clumps of grass that came up. Looked great, but next year, a couple of the smaller (< 15 in dia.) died and other trees lost many lower branches. At work, they ended up removing all of the ornamental fruit trees. Guess they did know as much about weed control as I thought.

I will not use round-up around any tress that I value again.

[wildlifewarrior]

My father killed a 3 tap maple tree growing up with a 6 inch ring of roundup around the base to ease the weed sacking that needed to be done….

Goats should be fine as long as there are no low branches for them to chew.

Mike

[Cedar Eater]

Weed whacked first, then sprayed some round-up. I was careful about not spraying on the trees (all maples) or using too much. About once a month, I re-sprayed on any clumps of grass that came up.

Weed whacking first and then so often contributed to the problem. RoundUp works on weeds by being absorbed through the leaves, then it is transported down to the roots. By cutting the leaves off first, that much more RU got down onto the soil and the weeds weren't killed as effectively. Maple roots run shallow, so you don't want any RU that hits the ground to soak in.

[KevinS]

I use toradon on poison ivy. you cut off the largest stem you can find of it. and put ONE DROP on the cut. if it is a big clump start with no more than two stems, well apart from each other. when I say one drop. I mean one drop from an eye dropper.
leave the stem long also. never spray it. never use a lot. do not even treat a bunch of vines per year close to each other. one drop on a cut branch WILL kill a large mature tree..it might take a year or two but the tree will die.
this stuff will travel through the root system and get other vines that are above ground from the same root system
I also would not tap those trees in the treated area for a year

[BreezyHill]

There is an organic farmer near me and he said many times that vinegar will kill all weeds and leave the trees alone. He uses it on fences and his trees look fine and he PUTS it Down. .

[Sarah_R]

Thanks, I'll try that, too and see how it works!