Ivy

[fredpuli47]

Does cutting through the main stem of ivy, near the ground, kill the plant or does an established plant have the ability to survive by taking water and nutrients through its leaves and adventitious roots ?

[carlton23]

If you cut ivy near the soil without covering the cut with a brushwood killer and also something like black polythene to exclude light it will send out side shoots from the root. I rid mine about 6 years ago this way.

[fredpuli47]

Ta. I hadn't thought of that.I didn't realise that ivy would reshoot !

[AlBags]

Repeated use of SBK is probably the best way!

[Whoever]

Ivy is a real survivor. We are plagued with the stuff which grows through under a neighbour's fence. No matter how hard I cut it back and try to dig the roots out, it always seems to shoot back again.
I swear that if there was a volcano erruption somewhere and you went back a year later, the first plant you'd find growing through all the layers of cooled down lava would be - IVY !

[regulo]

My friend had an ivy that covered a 30 foot long, 6 foot high fence. When the fence had to be renewed, the ivy was completely cut back to a stump, which was about 8" wide by 18" tall, it looked like a lump of concrete, completely devoid of greenery. Within 3 years, fence is fully covered again!! Stuff is indestructible without strong chemicals.