Killing ivy

[JoshR77]

Quick question please - is there an easy way to get rid of ivy and stop it coming back again? Perhaps poison.?
I've got two big patches, one on my shed with about 100 stalks, and one on my apple tree. For the apple tree, I've stripped all the ivy off as I high as I can reach and cut through all the big stems, but the foliage higher up the tree (which I can't pull off as it's partially in a hedge and all out of reach) doesn't seem to be dying off. (I fear the small rootlets on the remaning foliage must be enough to keep it alive...) For the shed, I've cut back the worst of the foliage, but there are so many stalks in so many locations that I don't seem to be able to get them all.

Is there anything I can inject into the stems or something that will spread through the plant and kill off the whole lot, and stop it growing back?

And, on another note, why does ivy grow so much better than anything that I'm actually trying to grow?!

Thanks in advance.

[Nicos]

Hi there , and Welcome to the Vine

Urmm...I’m just wondering why you actually want to kill it ?

We have loads of ivy on the house, sheds, fence posts, stone walls, up massive cherry trees...
Its amazingly full of wildlife.

Here have a look at this site- and goooogle a few others!
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildl...ildflowers/ivy

If it starts to get too unruly we cut back the ivy on the house twice a year and rip back any on the other locations just to control it’s spread.

Maybe it’ll be less work and irritation if you just embrace it and it’s wildlife and set about just controlling it rather than trying to irradiate it?
Just a thought.

[Babru]

Be careful cutting it back JoshR77. My husband cut loads back at the request of his dad, and the sap burnt his arms really badly, it looked like he'd been burnt by boiling water. Took a long time to recover. He stays well away from ivy from now on. He had no knowledge of being allergic previously.

My mum always used brushwood killer for tree roots, sounds like it might be useful in your case. She drilled holes in the trunk and applied it as far down as possible.