Encouraging ivy

I'm planning on planting ivy in a soil that isn't maintained and is very stoney (full of bits of brick and pottery in fact).

The ivy is 3 - 5" cuttings that I've placed in water to encourage root growth. At what stage do I move them onto a perlite type substrate, if at all?

 

Hi Richard - I am sorry no one has come back to you on this. I am no expert in this area. I did not even know that you could grow ivy roots in water. But as with any plant I would wait until the roots were a couple of inches long, then plant it in a a mixture of compost and sharp sand or compost and perlite. I know sharp sand is easy and cheap to buy - I am never sure where you can get perlite cheap.

If it is going into a poor situation, I would hold it a pot a bit longer than normal, perhaps potting it up ito a larger size pot when the roots have filled the existing pot. When planting out I would excavate as large a hole as possible and fill it with the potting mixture of compost/sand or compost/perlite, then plant the Ivy in the centre of this, watering well. This will give the Ivy a good start in life. Best of luck.