No, you can't spray poison ivy around your tree, and yes, it would damage the tree. The poison ivy killer, regardless of what it says on the container, is a broadleaf plant killer. Keep in mind that mature trees can potentially be damaged by triclopyr. Since poison ivy will grow on tree trunks, you may be tempted to spray the leaves and vine on the trunk.
It's rarely a good idea. In some cases, the herbicide can move through the outer bark and reach the tissue that trees need to carry water or nutrients. This can severely damage or even kill mature, healthy trees. Wear protective clothing and cut the vine at the base, then “paint the herbicide directly on the cut vine”.
This will allow the chemical to be transported to the roots of the poison ivy plant without affecting other plants. One way to control poison ivy is to spray foliage with a systemic herbicide. This is only possible when the spray does not reach the foliage of the desired plants (these herbicides will harm any plant). Herbicides work best when sprayed at the right time.
Poison ivy and poison oak are more sensitive to treatments with 2,4-D amine and dicamba in late spring or early summer, when plants are actively growing rapidly. Triclopyr offers the best control after leaves fully expand in spring and before leaf color changes in autumn. Glyphosate offers the best control when applied between 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after full bloom (early summer) and must be mixed with 2% solution. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a woody shrub or vine with hairy aerial roots.
Grows up to 10 feet or more, climbs high on trees, walls and fences, or paths along the ground. All parts of poison ivy, including roots, are poisonous at all times of the year. Second, use large sheets of cardboard or plywood to make a barrier between poison ivy and any plants you don't want to kill. I have found that it is easier to pluck poison ivy in early spring before major growth occurs.
Glyphosate (Roundup, Eraser, Killzall and other brands) or triclopyr (Brush-B-Gon, Brush Killer and other brands) are commonly recommended for poison ivy control. Treatment: In mild cases of poison ivy rash, cold baths, soothing lotions, or over-the-counter medicated lotions may be used to minimize symptoms while skin heals. Don't confuse poison ivy with the Virginia vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), which also grows as ground cover and climbs trees like a vine. I always see the precautions of wearing long pants and long shirts and gloves when people offer tips on how to get poison ivy out, but rarely does anyone explain how to remove them without contaminating the skin, so I thought I'd offer some suggestions on this, because it's not necessarily obvious.
Although there are some ways to kill poison ivy without killing grass, all commercial herbicides that are harmful to poison ivy are also deadly to many types of desirable plants. As a young man I was never allergic to it, but one day I was working in the garden and pulling out the poison ivy with the weeds, I finished and went in to scrub my dirty hands. If poison ivy or poison oak is growing among the plants you want to save, you can cut poison ivy or poison oak and spray or paint the herbicide only on freshly cut stems or stumps. Poison ivy is a native vine that, under the right conditions, can grow to the size of a bush or spread across the ground, creating an almost continuous layer of leaves up to the ankles.
Poison ivy can be very persistent, so you may need to spray the vines two or more times to have full control. Poison ivy foliage within easy reach can be sprayed with glyphosate (sold under the trade names Roundup, Kleenup and others) according to the instructions on the label. When removing poison ivy, it is essential to remember that urushiol oil is present in foliage, stems and roots. The moral of the story is that I now have flower beds free of poison ivy and tanned, but the rash is someone else's problem.
There is a huge vine of poison ivy that had swallowed alive a 40-foot hardwood tree in a field across the street that my next door neighbor identified a few weeks ago. . .
