Ivy covered tree

Hi all
I moved into a lovely property at the end of August last year and have been busy doing the inside up and a few basic bits in the garden like planting rose bushes and removing the masses of Ivy that has been grown by the previous owners (I found roots cable tied to posts to give it support) but left it to get everywhere. Ive been filling the garden bin up every time its emptied and still have two 500l sacks of ivy to dispose of with another 1/3 garden to go

Anyways, enough of my ramblings and I’ll get to the point! There is a tree at the bottom of the garden that is almost enveloped by Ivy. It still functions as a tree but I’m concerned that it wont be for much longer as theres just so much ivy. Whilst I appreciate the benefits of Ivy, I’d rather have a tree thats a tree as we live in a conservation area so doing anything is a mass of paperwork and the tree is next to the church carpark and our garden wall so want minimal damage when/if it does die

I have googled and looked into how to remove ivy from a tree but everyone only shows the bit about severing the roots and waiting for it to die. How do you get the dead vines out the tree or will the tree recover and work around them?

Sorry if this seems obvious but I’ve never dealt with an ivy covered tree before and its a huge tree with lots of ivy in it.

 

That's a lot of ivy in the tree.
From my understanding you just need to severe branches on the bottom part of the trunk. Ivy doesn't grow roots into the tree, it uses it as a support to climb. Because of it's green mass it's an additional pressure on the tree during the winds etc. It takes light away from branches too.
When main branches/vines severed, ivy will slowly die and dry off. You just need to keep an eye for any new shoots trying to climb the tree and get rid of those in the future.
It's what I see council does in our parks on a regular basis.
When ivy branches are dead, it will be less mass if want to get it off the tree.

 

Takes a while and looks ugly, but the severed ivy stems eventually die and with and may then be pulled away. You may need to get up into the tree to remove the most stubborn ones.

 

To echo what has already been said, it's key to cut through every single stem - they sometimes have ones that sneak between parts of the tree and you don't notice! I'd create a decent gap in the stems so they can't rejoin. Unfortunately the ivy is incredibly slow to die - I treated one tree a year ago and the ivy is still there.

 

Hi

what a wonderful haven for wildlife.

 

Big hater of Ivy here, once allowed it swamps everything in its path, they say it doesn't kill trees but it certainly doesn't do them any favours.

As others have said, chop off any stems climbing the tree and let it die back, its a waiting game mostly with something that size.

What kind of tree is it?

 

At the moment no idea. When we moved in it had leaves so I didn't pay it too much attention. It’s only when winter came I realised it was 99% ivy. Whatever it is, I imagine it’s the same as what line the street as our house was the vicarage that was built c1900 so maybe a plane tree?

 

The Ivy will grow again of course. The belt-and-braces job would be to drill some holes in the living ends of the Ivy stems after you've cut them and then fill them with a solution of SBK diluted 50% with water. Cover with plastic bags and tie them on.

 

I’m with @Spruce here. A marvellous home for wrens and robins and thrushes and blackbirds and all kinds of insects and stuff. And the flowers are great for bees and wasps and the berries are loved by all kinds of things. I’d keep it as it is.

 

Agree, I've got a rowan tree that's going the same way.
When I was at junior school we got taken out on a nature walk, and the teacher stopped us and asked us to identify a tree. It was a trick question - the "tree" was a telegraph pole completely smothered in ivy!

 

Yeah but you cant kill a telegraph pole, its already dead.

Ivy has its place in woodland but when it totally takes over a tree/ garden its gone too far IMO.
I planted some years ago and its self seeded and taking over the fencing and acting as ground cover, I'm now mostly in hacking back continually to stop it taking over the world.
Its a definite weed.

 

I worked with someone who’s old shed was covered in ivy, the shed had been standing for years , you know what’s coming next , killed the ivy and the same year the shed fell down


Spruce

 

OOPS PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON

 

Sounds like my fence down one side of the garden, the ivy has taken over.
If I remove the ivy the fence will fall down.
Mind you the fence is 40 yrs old.