Strange things in my yard

[Dean]

So if you've read the "something interesting" thread you know that I'm a new homeowner. I've got a tree in my yard that's covered in vines, and someone over there said I should just get some weed killer, spray around the base of the tree, and the tree should be healthy enough to shrug that off while the vine will die.

He hasn't seen my vines.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSC00895.jpg

Here's a wider shot from the other side, this tree is covered in vines.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/new%20house%20and%20yard/DSC00894.jpg

And, for reference, here's the base of one of the vines with my foot in the picture to give you a sense of scale.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSC00896.jpg

Now, we're in the northeast, but these seem like amazon rainforest-type vines. Do I need a machete? It seems like it's going to take major work to de-vine this tree. Any suggestions?

Also, in the front yard I found these:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSC00893.jpg

I'm betting there used to be a tree on that spot and these are growing off the still-buried roots. Should I just dig these up? Leave them? Get a pig?

I haven't had a yard since I moved out of my parents' house. It's a strange new world.

[Ninyu]

If anyone in your family starts acting strange, RUN!

[WarrenM]

That was me making that suggestion but I didn't realize you were talking about jungle level vines. Good luck with that!

Nice view though... Damn.

[awdougherty]

Could it be kudzu?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu

I know they have this a lot in the south and it spreads like crazy and consumes trees, bushes, what have you.

edit: don't know about the mushrooms

[Phil_Stein]

The fungus thing looks like stuff I see from time to time in my yard. No big deal - dig it up.

Vines are fairly simple to resolve - just cut them (with a hand saw or a pole saw). I would cut once high, and once low, with the high cut to get the vine out of the way and reduce temptations for your kids or neighborhood kids. When cutting over your head, wear safety goggles - I was doing this without goggles (I had my ordinary glasses on), and a bit of sawdust or something got in my eye and scratched it - VERY painful and led to a trip to a local medical facility.

[WarrenM]

Cutting is only a temporary solution though. Even the small vines that I sprayed on my tree have recovered. They were dead for weeks - and now there's new green growth visible. Damn you, nature!

[Rightbug]

After you cut the vine you should liberally dose the bit that goes back into the ground with Round Up, otherwise it will just resprout.

[Jon Rowe]

Looks like virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Do you have a leaf from the vine?

[Slainte Mhath]

Those vines look like the same bastards that grow in my wooded back yard and climb up my trees. Do they spread out in all directions from a central root base? Do they just wind up and around the trees,without actually putting tendrils or roots into the tree bark? And if you cut one at the groud, are you able to pull it free from the tree fairly easily provided it's not wound all around in the treetop? If so, you've got the same stuff I do, and you're in for a lot of hard work.

I usually wait until late fall or early spring when the vines (and trees) are leafless. Then I cut the vines at the base (ground) and pull them out of the trees. Unless you dig the root base out of the ground, they will grow back, usually by the next year, though not as thick and crazy as before. I've tried digging out the root system on ours, but they've been there for many many years and it's pretty much an impossible task at this point without heavy equipment.

I use a pruning saw to cut the vines, it works really well even on the thickest ones. Any vines that I can't pull from the treetops I'll cut about 4 feet off the ground and leave there. They die over the winter and tend to come down by themselves in springtime storms. Good luck!

[Bahimiron]

Burn your yard. Salt the land with bleach. Move and tell no one about the things you saw.

[eliandi]

I had a tree with vines like that. We needed to have some other tree cutting done, and just had the tree guys cut it out for us.

That said, once you cut it off low it will die on top. All you have to do then is keep cutting back any excess new growth. We get that all the time, and its easy.

[Dean]

Those vines look like the same bastards that grow in my wooded back yard and climb up my trees. Do they spread out in all directions from a central root base? Do they just wind up and around the trees,without actually putting tendrils or roots into the tree bark? And if you cut one at the groud, are you able to pull it free from the tree fairly easily provided it's not wound all around in the treetop? If so, you've got the same stuff I do, and you're in for a lot of hard work.


That picture with my foot is about 10 feet away from the tree and where the vine goes into the ground. The entire tree is covered with a dense set of leaves, and the only reason you can actually see the vines in the first picture is that's the shady side. The other side is the sunny side and you can just make out a tree shaped object in the middle of all that green.

Also, it looks like they allowed a perimeter of weeds and brambles to grow up around the trees (to keep the neighborhood kids from climbing the vines? If I were 10, that tree would be irresistible.) so before I can even get to the trunk of the tree I've got to cut back this 6-foot high undergrowth.

This tree is also on the side of my house. My neighbor's yard is on the other side of that tree.

I'll take a pic of a leaf today. I'm actually not going to get to this until well after we've moved in, so hearing that I shouldn't deal with it until the leaves are off is a good thing. I'm actually procrastinating now, because I've got to go strip more wallpaper but my arms are killing me from doing this all weekend.

[Skipper]

It's too big (vine size) to be kudzu or creeper, or at least looks way too big. Post the closeup pic of the leaf when you get a chance and be careful since it could end up being something like poison oak or similar (though the leaves don't look like it in your first set of pics.)

I had a run in with a tree with poison oak vines that even bigger than those and it was not fun. At all. You can definitely cut the vine to start killing it off, just be careful what you cut with and getting any of the cut on you until after you verify what the plant is.

[Pogo]

You're going to have to rip that vine out of the ground. You have no other choice. You will be dealing with new growth, and very quickly I may add, before you even know it.

Congratulations on being a land owner. It's constant work, but if you do the right work first, you'll do less work later. Take the time to get that vine up out of the ground. You have a lot of brush around that area too, so if you want to make it look clean, and work safely, AND have some more usable yard space, clear out all the brush and bushes. Bushes should also be pulled out of the ground.

That fungus picture looks just like mushrooms when they've died. Although I'm not certain they're mushrooms, just some other type of similar fungus.

[Phil_Stein]

I very much doubt that he needs to rip the vines from the ground.

Cut them to the ground once. They'll probably grow back to some extent (but they won't be covering his trees in a matter of months or anything). Cut them back again. Do it a few times, and you'll pretty much have killed the vines. i.e. The roots can survive the loss of the upper part (with leaves), but they can't survive indefinitely.

If the roots are easy to pull up, then sure, do it. But I doubt that will be the case. Whereas cutting them off initially, then monitoring them and cutting off new growth a few times until it stops is not that hard.

Re-iterating an earlier point - if there are likely to be kids in the vicinity of the trees, you don't want the old vines exposed as a tempting climbing target. Cut the old vines high or pull them down if that's possible or whatever.

[Slainte Mhath]

That picture with my foot is about 10 feet away from the tree and where the vine goes into the ground. The entire tree is covered with a dense set of leaves, and the only reason you can actually see the vines in the first picture is that's the shady side. The other side is the sunny side and you can just make out a tree shaped object in the middle of all that green.

That's how bad mine were when we first moved in. The developer (newly built house) had just cleared the land in back to the treeline, and left everything beyond alone, so there was this literal wall of vines/leaves strung between the trees. It looked like I was hiding an ammo dump behind a camo curtain back there.

Waiting for fall/winter makes removal much easier and cleaner, not to mention far less sweaty. I'd recommend renting a brush cutter for the brambles and other bushes they've let grow there, and possibly a roto-tiller if you plan to keep that area brush free to plant grass in the spring.

[jpinard]

Why aren't you up there building a tree house? Those vines provide an awesome camo in which to hide your new fortress!

[Tman]

Cut the vines, when new growth appears, spray a 5% solution of CrossBow on the leaves. It will kill the plant all the way down to the root system.

Crossbow works very well for woody plants. It will not harm grass, etc. Works excellent on anything woody (including a number of weeds such as thistle or black-berry bushes) - however, for trunk sizes > 3 inces, use higher concentrates. You can pour Crossbow on a freshly covered stump (about a cup of non-diluted) to kill the tree so it doesn't resprout.

[Griddle]

This is my solution for everything. Hook that bitch up to a 4x4 and put it in low range, creep forward until it rips out of the ground by its roots. Make sure to water the ground really well beforehand so it's nice and soft.

[Tman]

BTW - to get the vines out of the tree, with vines that size I'd recommend an arborist. I don't think you'll be pulling those out easily - even a truck or tractor could have a hard time and the odds of a large branch coming down in the process would be high.

It's a lot easier (and therefore cheaper) to have them cut out while they are green than if you cut and wait a year to call an arborist.

[Griddle]

BTW - to get the vines out of the tree, with vines that size I'd recommend an arborist. I don't think you'll be pulling those out easily - even a truck or tractor could have a hard time and the odds of a large branch coming down in the process would be high.

It's a lot easier (and therefore cheaper) to have them cut out while they are green than if you cut and wait a year to call an arborist.

This is a very good point. One of my best friends had an unrelated issue with a Maple in his yard, and the arborist was amazingly helpful. Now that Old maple is up and running and looks happy.

[WarrenM]

We're going to have to call someone like that to look at our tree before the summer is out. One side of it seems to be having problems (curled leaves) while the other side is doing great...

[Phil_Stein]

Yeah, not a bad idea. If you get a tree trimmer out the first year and get stuff cleaned up, you may not need a tree trimmer out for a while thereafter. If you've got other issues beyond this one particular tree, that might be especially helpful. Also if you've got dead branches. It sounds like the previous occupants may have been letting this kind of stuff go for a while, so it may be money well spent.

[Jon Rowe]

It's too big (vine size) to be kudzu or creeper, or at least looks way too big. Post the closeup pic of the leaf when you get a chance and be careful since it could end up being something like poison oak or similar (though the leaves don't look like it in your first set of pics.)

I had a run in with a tree with poison oak vines that even bigger than those and it was not fun. At all. You can definitely cut the vine to start killing it off, just be careful what you cut with and getting any of the cut on you until after you verify what the plant is.

Virginia creeper can get that big in the wild. The stuff you see on the sides of houses are usually smaller cultivars or boston ivy. Creeper can get really big in the woods.

But yes, it very well could be poison oak,ivy so use gloves or other protection, unless you are a masochist.

[JM]

I think I see something in the undergrowth...

http://www.gosfordhobbies.com.au/shop/images/P/newimagelge-119.gif

[Skipper]

Virginia creeper can get that big in the wild. The stuff you see on the sides of houses are usually smaller cultivars or boston ivy. Creeper can get really big in the woods.

But yes, it very well could be poison oak,ivy so use gloves or other protection, unless you are a masochist.

Yeah I have experience with um ... being a dumbass and chopping a huge arm thick poison oak vine on the side of a tree for about a full day before noticing what I was doing. I spent the greater part of the next month getting treated. You do NOT want to mess around with that stuff.

I believe you about the creeper as well. Some of the vines around here get extremely large for all varieties.

[Jon Rowe]

The best way to tell will be looking at the leaves, and how it is attached to the tree. If it as little sucker-pads or if it just uses tendrils to cling to the trees.

[Phil_Stein]

Jon - what are the signs of poison oak as opposed to other stuff? You mention sucker-pads vs. tendrils - which kind does poison oak use?

[Jon Rowe]

Poison oak isn't a vine. Poison Ivy is the vine.

Poison oak usually is mistaken for young oak trees as they have similar looking leaves. Poison ivy creeps with tendrils (not suckers) so they are not found on walls as much. They look like they have red-brown hair growing off of them to latch onto the bark. Poison Ivy is crazy because it can be a shrub, ground cover (ground vines) or vines hanging from trees. Depending on where they are situated they will take a form.

Poison Ivy and Virginia Creeper are often mistaken for eachother. Big way to tell them apart. Poison Ivy have a leaf with 3 leaflets (small leaves sharing a stem) and Creeper generally has 5 leaflets.

Hope that helps.

[Jon Rowe]

Additionally, it could also be Vitis riparia, or the River Grapevine! They usually don't get that big, but since that tree is old, I could definitely see river grape being a possibility. I would need to see a leaf to be sure. Though, they usually have really shaggy bark on the vines (look like they are falling apart almost) and the vines you are showing look pretty stable.

[CLWheeljack]

I give Australia a lot of shit for having the world's most unpleasant creatures, but I have to admit, poison ivy is pretty nasty. "So , there's a plant that grows pretty much everywhere. And if you touch it, you can get painful rashes, and maybe blisters. Have fun in the woods kids!"

[Jon Rowe]

Oh, I would like to also add, if it is creeper (which I am 90% certain) it could definitely hurt the tree... but not likely. Creeper only uses the tree for support to get to the sky and open air. They don't feed off of the tree like fungi do. With a tree that large, I doubt the creeper vines are choking out the sunlight.

But, aesthetically the vines look kinda messy, so to get rid of them, you just cut the stem from the roots and it will die slowly and fall down on its own.

Other species can re-grow from the vine, creeper cannot.

[Hanzii]

Why aren't you up there building a tree house? Those vines provide an awesome camo in which to hide your new fortress!

This.
And if Bear Grylls have taught us anything it is that you should cut down the thinnest wines and build a raft.

I envy you your tree. I have a fig tree... I think it has four leaves and one fig. Next year it might grow a branch.

[jerri blank]

This.
And if Bear Grylls have taught us anything it is that you should cut down the thinnest wines and build a raft.

And then pee on it.

[Dean]

This.
I envy you your tree. I have a fig tree... I think it has four leaves and one fig. Next year it might grow a branch.

We actually have a nice patch of forest behind the house. The trees there aren't quite as old as this one, but my backyard is about 15 yards of lawn, then a 4-foot high wall, then about 30 yards of forest with what looks like ivy covering the ground and a whole bunch of new growth trees and saplings. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of poison ivy back there, but the general ivy covering the ground actually looks like something that was planted in a garden and then went wacky.

I didn't get the pics today. Too much to do. I'll do it tomorrow.

[Pogo]

I very much doubt that he needs to rip the vines from the ground.

Well I'm assuming he wants to clear his ground so that he has usable land.

If he can't pull some of those roots, he'll at least have to dig and cut off a sizeable portion.

[Dean]

Double post. Move along

[Pogo]

Are you attempting to reclaim that 30 yards?

[Raife]

Take off and nuke the site from orb... ++[No carrier]

[Robert Sharp]

It's too big (vine size) to be kudzu or creeper, or at least looks way too big. Post the closeup pic of the leaf when you get a chance and be careful since it could end up being something like poison oak or similar (though the leaves don't look like it in your first set of pics.)


Neither poision oak nor poison ivy is technically a vine, though they do have vine-like properties. This looks like a true vine, although the leaves DID at first remind me a bit of poison ivy. It's a bit blurry though.

The shroom is just a shroom (don't eat it!).

[Dean]

Are you attempting to reclaim that 30 yards?

Not this year, and probably not the whole 30 yards. It makes a nice buffer, because behind it is an access road for the small college we live next to.

[Jon Rowe]

Neither poision oak nor poison ivy is technically a vine, though they do have vine-like properties. This looks like a true vine, although the leaves DID at first remind me a bit of poison ivy. It's a bit blurry though.

The shroom is just a shroom (don't eat it!).

Poison Ivy can be a vine, shrub, or groundcover. Poison Oak is just a shrub.

[Dean]

Okay, here's a closeup of the leaves on the big vines:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSCF0322.jpg

And these seem to be mixed in, growing as undergrowth and as smaller vines within the bigger vines:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSCF0329.jpg

These are the ivy like undergrowth that coats the floor of forest-ey area (ipod for scale):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/DSCF0323.jpg

And here's the backyard above the wall. You can see that the ivy stuff is just a solid mass on the ground:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/new%20house%20and%20yard/DSCF0325.jpg

[Dean]

And here's the two good trees in my front yard (this pick is taken right from my front door) I don't need any advice about them, I just think they're two fine looking trees.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/deanodonnell/new%20house%20and%20yard/DSCF0326.jpg

I'm probably going to have all sorts of problems with the trees and those wires someday, but until that day, those are damn nice trees.

[Raife]

Be careful, if you let that iPod get established you're going to have a yard of nothing but iPods.

[Griddle]

Be careful, if you let that iPod get established you're going to have a yard of nothing but iPods.

If that becomes the case, I'd like to reserve an 80+ gig for scientific purposes.

[Slainte Mhath]

Be careful, if you let that iPod get established you're going to have a yard of nothing but iPods.

Damn Podzu covers everything, and it's expensive as hell thanks to all the apps it downloads all day long.

[salwon]

I'm going to use my Residual Eagle Scout (RES) experience and say that's not poisonous. Leaves of three and all that.

That's a fine looking yard, regardless.

[Jon Rowe]

The leaves in the ipod picture, the 5-leaflet leaves. Are virginia creeper.

[Jon Rowe]

Your vines look like American Bittersweet.

Here is a good .pdf with info.
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_cesc.pdf

[Griddle]

Damn Podzu covers everything, and it's expensive as hell thanks to all the apps it downloads all day long.

Not to mention that damn firmware update you have to pay for. You could be into alot of dough unless you flood ebay with them and let others deal with the infestation, although I would suggest not putting that they are free range in the descriptions.