🌻🍃🍅 No. 11: Poisoning Poison Ivy Without Poison 🍃🍓🍃 #100GardenHacks

I am working on a project for the 2017
growing season to work my way through
100 garden hacks*.

Found a wicked patch of poison ivy growing along the west wall of the greenhouse, and even more awesome is how it's grown to be where the barn door slides when opened. So the cause of all the plant's dermatitis (the oil urushiol) has been getting onto the wood of the door. No wonder folks at the greenhouse keep reporting random (and thankfully mild) patches of the rash. 

So we can't burn it, we can't cut it (at least no one other than Scott b/c he's proclaimed to be "unafeared" of it), and likewise no one really wants to pull this giant patch. I tinkered with some easy methods to control it, using nothing other than what I already had on hand.

I went basic...literally...I mixed up a batch each of baking soda+boiling water, and epsom salt + boiling water (about a cup or two soda/salt and 1 gallon of water) and...

while still boiling hot, poured it directly onto as much of the plant as I could; I was very intentional about getting a really good amount of the solutions onto the apical meristem (the end of the vine that was growing, or the top of the erect shrubs, depending on which part of the patch I was attacking).

The reason for this is to hit the plant where it is concentrating its energy - new growth. Even mainstream/industrial herbicides are typically applied here because the newer growth is more vulnerable, and at this late point in the season - it's difficult to get any type of systemic action for any weed. However, you can't schedule an invasion or roll back time, so I'm working with what I got. And what I've got is a plant that is still making new growth, new growth is always where a plant concentrates the majority of its resources - most plants will even sacrifice old growth to keep new growth pumping, so this strategy is hits the plant where it hurts the most. 

You can see the precipitate from both the salt and the soda. Chemically speaking the extremely alkaline solution should damage the plant tissue.
A day later...

I got a little damage, but the plant is definitely not dead. So in the interest of trying something even simpler, I tried pouring onto the plant just boiling water.



I'm much happier with the results! The plant is dying back, in 24 hours the leaves that received the hot water treatment wilted. And in a few days were completely browned and dead. No soda or salt needed!

🕊, 💌,  🍃 & ⚛

~KF

I found this copy on a CVS magazine stand :)
However, portions of this publication
previously appeared at RodaleOrganicLife.com

*101+ Garden Hacks magazine. 2017. Rodale, Inc.