Ivy - is this a pest in Ireland?

ozchick

One thing I've noticed travelling around Ireland (with no leaves on the trees) is the prevalence of Ivy climbing up and all the trees and everywhere. Is this a pest and danger to trees here? Back home it's a pest that sucks life out of trees and kills them, just wondering if its the same kind of pest having same effect here?

Curious.

ircoha

The purist would argue that a weed is a plant in the wrong place:)

There is a certain body of opinion out there that suggests ivy was brought into Ireland by the 'occupying force' during our long and troubled history with the nearest land mass, so as to strangle all our trees to make us more reliant on 'British Coal'. As an ozbird, u will be familar with Waltzing Matilda'

My opinion is that it is a natural feature of the cycle from seedling to fossil fuel and is only visible here now in un-managed woodlands where the owners are paid to do nothing by the EU behemoth.

Enjoy your stay here, we much enjoyed our stay in Cape Tribulation and the environs
Lots of ivy there:)

gerky

Ivy is an important plant providing food and shelter for several insect and animals particularly birds.

It can however damage some trees but usually only if their already weak or dying or if it can make it up to the very top and take control of the top.
Its thought that a possible reason its more common in recent years is the huge changes in Ireland particularly our farming practices, years ago a lot of houses would have had a goat or two that did a good job at eating down plants sometimes too good of a job, some also think the increase in artificial fertilizers may also contribute to it.

As to whether its a pest or not I think people are rather split, we have different varieties of ivy most fully native as far as I know, I personally like it as a plant when its not out of control.

ozchick

Thank you very much both for all that information. Interesting. It's often how you view something isn't it? My mum always curses 'Wandering Jew' in her garden saying it's a pest and you can't get rid of it (we did, we can kill anything!:p) but a geology/mining friend commented once that like all things, it has it's place, holding the soil together, retaining moisture etc. This was near a river. Oh and it helped soften the falls off my mountain bike too!!;)

Ircoha, beautiful country up there, wouldn't be lantana would it? We are living here for a couple of years, so looking forward to seeing more of this lovely country (The Connemara was beautiful when we were there over Easter.

Oldtree

ivy is a serious weed here in ireland.

The ivy climbs into the crown and the rapidly increasing weight of the ivy cannot be compensated for by the trees roots, thus you get a huge weight in the crown which when a strong wind blows can topple the tree, or more usually break the stem at a point further up.

It does not strangle the tree, but can be very tight in places which can misshape the trunk/branches.

Ivy can shade out buds, thus stopping the tree forming its natural crown, cutting down on the overall size/volume of the crown, and recovery from broken branches.

What I have noticed (which is not mentioned in any books), is that underneath a cloak of ivy you get a lot of wood lice and even worms. I think that this is because the cloak of ivy keeps the tree bark underneath permanantly damp which in turn makes it very soft. The bark is then broken down to a brown matter. I am unsure if this damages the cambium of the tree, but as a tree breathes through it bark ther must be some decline in function in this area of the tree, as well as a protective layer mission leaving the tree prone to infection.

AngryHippie

Its pretty easy to kill it off once its grown up high onto the trunk, just run a chainsaw round cutting the vine the whole way around, go up 18 inches and make another cut, pull off the bit in between, that'll put manners on it for a few years. If your not fit to juggle a chainsaw, a good bushman or if you've time a secutars will do the same job.

Oldtree

In my experience this does not kill ivy, it will be back from the roots shortly and will climb up the tree again at a rate of 1.5-2 meters per year. You may have been lucky in that the shock of the cutting was too much for the plant and it died. It is important when manageing ivy that there is a gap cut out of the stem of the ivy to prevent it joining up again and continuing on its merry way. The only real control would be a systemic weedkiller, sprayed on the regrowth after cutting, but I choose to manage it in a mannual way.

Running around with a chain saw or a bushman can easily damage the bark of the tree and the cambium of the tree which is directly under the bark. Take great care, and take your time, with this kind of operation.

AngryHippie

AngryHippie wrote: »

that'll put manners on it for a few years.

FFS never run with a chainsaw, It'll do more than damage the tree....