Roundup herbicide would do the trick. You'd need to sneak out at night and spray the stuff on. Might want to do it in sort of a spotty fashion to mimic plant pathology... .Make sure you don't get ANY of the stuff on adjacent greenery-- it needs to look like it's a disease of this particular plant.
Once the thing was dead, they certainly wouldn't want that eyesore sitting around, would they?
You might oughta wait a while until they forget that you asked, maybe even until next summer...
Before you spray... you DO own this hedge, right? It's not community property? In that case, forget that I even mentioned it.
One of the big complaints about herbicide use, and one of the reasons there is an attempt here to ban all herbicides by residential users, is the indiscriminate spray application of such chemicals.
I too have problem plants that want to come inside my hedges and flowering shrubs, and I do recommend the use of Round-Up. But rather than spraying, I put a splash of Round-Up in an old yogurt container with water and a rag. I use the rag to apply the herbicide only to the weed species, doing my best to save the desired plants. I find it is really important not only to wet the leaves, but also get the Round-Up on the stems of the weeds. Within a day or two the weeds are on their way out, and the hedge gradually grows in to fill the empty space. Round-Up even works on tree saplings. Again, make sure to wet the bark right down to the ground as best you can while avoiding wetting the desired plant.
Give it a try before condemning the whole hedge. If poison ivy is involved, make sure to wear rubber gloves.
djm
I'd rather be atop the foothills than beneath them.
It's a good idea, but swap the rag for a paintbrush.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
CHasR wrote:So I have this thorny hedge (4'-5' x 24') with ivy , poision ivy and sumac running through it;
Ive been trying to kill it for several years now;
the civic association won t let me simply chainsaw it down and grub up the roots with a bobcat .
Not even if you explain to them that you'd be doing it to protect their children from the nastiness?
What were your plans for disposal once you chop it down and dig it out?
You can't burn it.
That makes the chemical constituents of the Poison ivy resin air born in smoke.
Bury it?
I've been told goats can eat Poison ivy without ill effect.
Well, actually I was told not to kiss goats on their mouth because their faces could be loaded with Poison ivy resin from eating the stuff.
I have no idea why they thought they needed to warn me about that.
I've tried to kill the Rose of Sharon that grows like weeds around my house and yard for years. I've got one that grows from under our side steps that is eternal. It won't die. I've cut the thing back, poured extra strength roundup, bushmaster, and even straight gasoline on the stumps. They just come right back after a while. I'd burn the things but they are under the steps so that's too close to the house.
Rose of Sharon's should have been named Rose of Satan.
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
I never tried this myself, but when my parents had a tree they wanted to get rid of and weren't allowed to, we were told that if you bury a cheese in its roots, that'll kill the basmati. No idea how this should work. Maybe the bacteria. Mght as well be an urban myth, but maybe it's worth a try.
Otherwise, get yourself some goats...
Why do people use aluminum to put beer in it, if you can make whistles out of it?
hyldemoer wrote:[
What were your plans for disposal once you chop it down and dig it out?
You can't burn it.
That makes the chemical constituents of the Poison ivy resin air born in smoke.
Good point-- if you do kill the poison ivy with an herbicide, the resins on the dead leaves can still affect you. One year I got a nasty case of P.I. in the early spring long before the leaves on the plant came out-- I walked bare legged through an area with just the previous year's stems exposed (and unidentifiable).
(I am highly allergic to poison sumac, so anything to get rid of it I'd do...)
I am NOT telling you this:
Get some concentrated Round Up and do not dilute it (this is illegal, so this is the part I am not telling you). Get a large syringe with no needle or anything on it. Cut a "V" in the vine, branch, etc. then inject the Round Up into the vine with the syringe. Do this at periodic intervals back to the roots of the plant.
The resins will be active for quite a while after the plant has died. As already stated DO NOT burn it.
And you must get every bit of root or the stuff will grow back.
ok a few things:
I live in the city, man...closest thing to a farmer is a dude across the street with a bunch of grow lamps in his closet..( I have no idea what he's trying to grow... anyone:-? )
Of course I own the damn thing, and I DONT want to to give it a fighting chance.. I'm out for murder! Death to the hedge ! NO MERCY !
I'm up for the use of limited chemicals...I like what ive heard so far...
I dont do goats, or arson;
& once it appears dead, I'm all sytems go for grubbing up the roots!
& I want to hear more about the cheese idea...
First off Round-up is only absorbed through new active growth. This is important because if you spray older foliage or woody stems you are wasting product and your time and putting unnecessary chemicals in the environment. It is absorbed though cut stems, vascular cambium, but the larger surface area of leaves is more effective for absorbing the amount needed to translocate to the roots where it kills the plant. Some plants, vines and grasses, can actually out grow the rate at which the chemical moves through the plant so the more absorption the better. With all that said the best way to affect the hedge is to stimulate new growth by pruning and watering in other words treat the hedge like you want to keep it , then as new foliage emerges spray or "paint" only the new foliage. I get poison ivy just looking at it but I use Technu products and have not had a case in years in spite of the fact that I hack through acres of it most years. Also please remember English Ivy is a noxious non-native invasive alien and it is better to suffer a short term biological insult eradicating it than to suffer a long term ecological disaster by letting it survive. And if your hedge is privet it deserves the same "mercy"
won t let me simply chainsaw it down and grub up the roots with a bobcat 
.
.Make sure you don't get ANY of the stuff on adjacent greenery-- it needs to look like it's a disease of this particular plant.
