# How Long Does it Take Ivy to Grow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 28, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465 "2001-06-28T15:07:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/1 "2001-06-28T15:07:23Z")
Ivy adds character and dignity to an otherwise humdrum brick wall. Witness: the outfield wall at Wrigley Field. Obivously, Ivy tends to suggest age, and with it grace and tradition. So, how long does it take to cover, say, a ten-foot-high wall with ivy? 5 years? 20 years? 100 years? TIA ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/2 "2001-06-28T21:11:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rastahomie \* > So, how long does it take to cover, say, a ten-foot-high wall with ivy? Poking around a bit on search engines found nothing on “ivy growth rate.” Growth rates will vary with varying conditions (light, soil, temperature water, nutrients, etc.) so anything that anyone will be able to offer is a best guess. If you want rapid growth try [kudzu](http://www.dcr.state.va.us/dnh/fspulo.pdf) > [@](#): > > During the peak growing season in early summer, this prolific vine can grow at a rate of a foot a day, easily covering and choking trees and understory vegetation. Am I the only one who thinks that the [South Eastern Conference (SEC)](http://www.sec.org/) missed a good thing by not becoming the “Kudzu Conference” when they expanded to 12 teams becoming one of the “superconferences” in 1990? > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rastahomie \* > Obivously, Ivy tends to suggest age, and with it grace and tradition. What does kudzu suggest, And what would it say about a conference named after it? ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/3 "2001-06-28T21:29:52Z")
Kudzu is a pest plant. It is a native Asian plant introduced to control soil erosion, but it liked it so much over here it overgrows EVERYTHING and chokes off their nutrients and steals their sunlight. In South Carolina, where I’m from, there are stretches of native pine forest where nothing grows except Kudzu, and the trunks of the tall long needle pines are completely covered with it, all the way up. I would expect it would be illegal to intentionally plant Kudzu in a place that hasn’t been exposed to it yet. If not, your neighbors will certainly become pissed off, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/4 "2001-06-28T21:48:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bughunter \* > I would expect it would be illegal to intentionally plant Kudzu in a place that hasn’t been exposed to it yet. If not, your neighbors will certainly become pissed off, at least. This is true and I should have mentioned this in my post. Thanks for the follow up. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/5 "2001-06-28T21:53:50Z")
Q. Why is this in Staff Reports? A. Because the Staff Report [Why do they call it the Ivy League?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mivyleague.html) made him wonder. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/6 "2001-06-28T22:49:33Z")
My mom planted some English ivy on the front of out house about four years ago. It has easily spread over ten feet in all directions. It has been getting into her other plants and I think she is having a hell of a time controlling it. I don’t think she should have planted it. There are older brick buildings here that are completely engulfed by it. You can’t see any bricks and can barely see the windows. It requires a huge amount of maintainance. English ivy has been the bane of the Pacific Northwest. A thousand years from thats all there will be. A couple of lovely climbing deciduous vines I recommend are _whisteria_ and the _clematis_. I find they are both much easier to control and don’t use “suction cups” like ivy that leaves marks and pull off paint when removed. Whisteria is much prettier than the clematis IMHO, and has really beautiful vines. They are both trainable to climb lattices, which are only needed for the first year or so. Watch out if you train them up your house because they might sneak under roof tiles on their way toward the chimney. You can prune the hell out of both of them and they will never die. Also expect alot more birds because the stuff is virtually a bird apartment house. ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/7 "2001-06-28T22:51:59Z")
Whisteria grows about an inch a day during the spring. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/8 "2001-06-30T00:02:13Z")
> [@](#): > > English ivy has been the bane of the Pacific Northwest. A thousand years from thats all there will be. If only I had a time machine . . . Imagine it: The English Ivy finally makes it over the Rockies just as the Kudzu makes it through the Great Plains. Cage match of the millennium. A slow, twining, photosynthetic cage match, mind you. But it’d be major kewl in a watching-paint-dry kinda way. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-ivy-to-grow/70465/9 "2001-06-30T00:04:14Z")
(and speaking of the PacNW, I strongly recommend hops [_Humulus lupulus_] for all your wall-climbing needs. Ornamental and oh-so-tasty.)