If you want to know how to transplant ivy ground cover, you’ll be pleased that it only takes two steps to do so. More and more gardeners are interested in ivy plants because they make an excellent dense ground cover. However, they grow rapidly, so you may benefit from learning how to transplant them.
Remember that overcrowded plants can encourage pests and diseases. Always maintain your ivy plants and keep them from overgrowing their area. Transplanting the plants allows you to produce more ivy and also keep the garden neat.
How To Move Ivy Ground Cover For Beginners
Step #1. Digging
Timing
The best time to transplant ivy ground cover plants is in fall or early in spring. This way, the plants have established themselves before the challenging heat of the summer. Speaking of which, choose a day that is cool and cloudy to prevent stressing your plants.
Transplanting ivy is not only useful for creating new plants in an area. It’s also an effective maintenance practice when the plants have overgrown their space. Once you know that it’s time to transplant ivy, check for the plant areas you know will root quickly.
Technique
You should see parts of the plant where there are leaves that sprout along the vine. They are typically on well-rooted ivy plants, and the vine itself has many leaf nodes. Use sharp and sterile shears to clip a piece and slowly lift the ivy from the ground using a shovel.
This way, you can easily see the roots around each leaf node and loosen them where they connect to the soil. Cut in between each leaf node and ensure that each section is around 8 inches in length. It would also be best to prepare the site for transplanting beforehand to keep the ivy pieces from drying out.
Step #2. Replanting
As previously mentioned, you’ll benefit from preparing the new site for your ivy transplants. Start by loosening the ground and spread compost over it before moistening the area with water. Check for grasses and weed to ensure that nothing will compete with the transplants for the soil’s nutrients.
Set the ivy sections at 10 inches apart, but do note if you have covered the leaf nodes with soil to ensure establishment. These are the areas where the roots will contact the soil. The maintenance for the plants at this point will be keeping the ground moist but not soggy.
Being potentially invasive, one can assume that the transplants will grow actively quickly. However, you can boost the plants by composting over the roots and keeping them moist. You can also grow ivy ground cover plants in the greenhouse if your climate is challenging for establishing the plants.
Growing And Maintaining Ivy Ground Cover
English ivy plants are probably one of the best groundcover plants to consider because they will thrive even with minimal care. They will grow best somewhere shady with well-draining and fertile soil but expect to only develop quickly in the second to the third year. Once established, they can tolerate challenging conditions such as full sun, drought, and salty soil.
The problems that you can encounter with these plants would be damage from animals such as deers. However, you can keep these ground covers in the greenhouse to protect them from animals. You may also encounter brown spots on the ivy leaves, but this condition is treatable with fungicides.
If you find ivy plants too invasive as ground cover, you can consider the blue phlox, northern lady fern, Christmas fern, and wild ginger.
How To Manage and Control Ivy Plants
Ivy can become an invasive ground cover, so you must know how to manage and control these plants’ growth. A combination of mechanical and chemical methods is best for managing ivy plants. However, if there are not many plants, clipping or pulling them manually would suffice.
To manage and control ivy plants, pull out as many vines as possible during the winter season. You may also need to cut some vines or use a weed-eater to save time and effort. You can then use chemicals during the growing season when the plants regrow.
Gardeners often use a 5% solution of glyphosate with surfactant on the central nodes, but you can use a 10% solution on the entire node if they still regrow. However, be mindful of the other plants in the area because you don’t want the chemicals to affect them. Some other options for controlling ivy plants include smothering them or using fire as well.
Conclusion
Ivy plants are one of the best considerations if you want ground covers for the garden or greenhouse. Learning how to transplant ivy ground cover will not only let you add more plants in your chosen areas, but this will also solve problems when they are overgrowing. Simply take the right sections of the ivy plant that will root quickly and then transplant them.
The best time to transplant ivy plants is in fall or early spring, so their roots have established themselves before the heat of the summer. You shouldn’t have a problem transplanting ivy ground covers because they thrive easily amidst challenging conditions. However, remember that ivy plants like the English ivy can be invasive, so always maintain them.