Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations poison ivy/oak/sumac ?

How does a person get RID OF THIS STUFF?? I have several large oaks around my new pond that are full of poison ivy or somthing of the likes that makes me scratch too much!! I havent been to the local green house or anything yet to see what they say, but I want to rid the place of it.What can I do to kill it without harming the trees or the water in the pond? I havent really stocked the pond with anything to speak of yet, but I'd hate to poison the water before I do stock it.The pond catches alot of runoff if it matters much that and it stays muddy all the time, but thats another post in it's self..Thanks..

I use round up. Does not hurt the trees at all. I have also used it in the rocks lining my pond and have suffered no ill effects from it. Bob

I agree with the round up.
Be careful though, even when dead it can get you.
Use gloves to remove the dead and if you burn it do not let the smoke get on you or it will get you that way too !

Are you sure of the round up? That would shurly be expensive with as much of the stuff as I have.I really dont want to hurt the trees, we just finished the house and the view is awesome looking down at the pond.If I spray the roundup on the vines climbing the trees to kill it, wouldnt it do the same to the tree? Have you heard of somthing called FINALE? I was told that would work, but I havent seen any yet.I read in a Texas co-op mag. a while back about spraying vinegar on it, but it didnt as far as I could tell.

It won't hurt if you just spray it on the trunk, It takes a large percentage of the leaves of the tree being sprayed to do any damage. Have not heard of the other product and have no idea how long it remains active. Bob

Monty,
On the previous Pond Boss web site someone posted this recipe. One gallon of vinegar, one pound of table salt and 2 tbsp. of liquid dishwasher soap as a surfactant. He used it in a 2.5 gallon pump-up sprayer. I haven't tried it but he said it worked very well as a foliar spray, was cheap and environmentally friendly. He was using it for floating pond plants and cattails. I think I'm going to try some of it this weekend but won't know for awhile how effective it is.

I tried the vinegar and salt solution from my previous post on some poison ivy a week ago and checked on it yesterday. Some of it (very little) is starting to turn yellow. However, the stuff I sprayed with Roundup is thoroughly dead. I also tried the solution on some floating pond weeds with no visible effect. It looks like the environmentally friendly approach doesn't work or takes a lot longer than I am willing to wait.

FINALE has the active-ingredient "glufosinate". ROUNDUP's active is "glyphosate". Very similar characteristics shared between the two products. However, FINALE will show its effect more rapidly than ROUNDUP, BUT it generally doesn't provide the same degree of root control as ROUNDUP. Stick with ROUNDUP for treating vines around trees - especially oaks. Provided that the product-mixture isn't applied to the oak's leaves, it will not be harmed.
If working away from desirable trees, a product called ARSENAL works very well on many vine species - including the poisonous varieties. KD