Tree question
 

I had a dying oak tree removed from my yard last year. Prior to that, I would get little saplings (or whatever they are called) growing up all around the base of the tree. They never got big since they were mowed down with the grass. Now that the tree is gone, these things have sprouted again due to the warm weather. If you pull them up there are runners everywhere.

How can you get rid of these things?

thanks

Is there a remaining stump? I've sold the problem in the past by drilling 1" holes in a stump and filling the holes with stump killer which is available at the hardware store. My neighbor solved the problem by drilling holes into the stump and repeatedly filling them with kerosene or diesel. After the stump soaked it up, he set it on fie and it slowly smouldered away into ash.

If they're in a lawn area that's getting regularly mowed they generally dislike that and will fade away.

We ground the stump down below ground level. The tree had been there 45 years or more and the root system was everywhere. I guess the little plants are seedlings or something. I thought about wetting them with Roundup using a sponge (to protect the lawn) but that could take a while to do each one individually.

That is what they recommend, and I tried it and it works: You cut the little buggers, and put straight roundup on with a brush. That is is the end of them.

Wow....ever think of what filling a stump with diesel does to the environment?? :eek: If the EPA caught him they'd have a field day.

Since it all went up in smoke I don't think it had much more of an effect on the environment than burning it in our cars.

You really don't know if it all went up in smoke, or if some was spilt or leaked into the soil. What's done is done; but I think there are better ways.
The Round-up stuff works great, but it should be applied to foliage when the plant is growing, as in right now.

Emmerich,

Impossible. I have four Live Oak trees on my Dallas, Texas property approaching the half century mark. Three out of the four have these "runners." I consulted with Howard Garrett the Dirt Doctor 15 years ago - and he said two things; number one - there's nothing you can do about them short of continually digging/pulling them up. And number two - there's no telling why some Live Oaks have these "runners," and others don't. One of my Live Oaks has none - amazing!

My Live Oaks are the most beautiful - even though there are three other nice Oaks I planted twenty years ago - along with a couple Bradford Pears and numerous Photinia bushes 20' high I use as berms instead of fencing to the busy side-street, alley, and neighboring property.

BTW, most of my lawn is St. Augustine / centipede grass - I just love it, and every few years it gets frozen-out or burnt-out from the 100*+ plus days.



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You haven't seen these in the deep south - they are relentless. Nothing like them up north.

Kill off the stump, Smack a few copper nails into it. that will kill it. took care of the oak stumps in front of our house

You can let the oaks grow. Then you won't have to cut any grass. And more time to work on your Mercedes.

Emmerich -

Those are commonly referred to as 'suckers' and they are essentially a form of vegetative reproduction. The tree will naturally produce shoots from its roots, as well as the base of the trunk, and these can become new trees. Certain species will use this form of reproduction predominantly, and you can have an entire forest essentially created from a single parent tree.

Ironically, by cutting the stump, you may have actually stimulated the growth rate of the suckers - especially those that grow from the base of the trunk. The root system has a lot of stored energy and it can produce a remarkable amount of sucker growth even without leaves producing energy for it. The tree is simply responding to environmental conditions and is trying to survive.

In a mature forest stand, competition for light within the canopy can be limited and hence vegetative reproduction can be an important competition advantage for a tree in terms of being able to produce a competitive, viable offspring. The sucker has the benefit of drawing from an existing and healthy, established root system. They will generally grow quite quickly.

In contrast, a seedling will have a much smaller and underdeveloped root system in comparison - and it will not likely be able to withstand stresses as well as the sucker.

So...long story short, to get rid of them you need to remove as much of the pre-existing root mass of your live oak as possible. The stump and the trailing roots. My knowledge of southern species like the live oak is limited, but I am guessing many of the further roots will be within the top 12" of your soil, so you should be able to remove many of them.

A lot of work though...good luck!

Any ideas on getting rid of the suckers without removing the tree? That is, any ideas where the suckers won't return? Or is there such a method?

I understand that Live Oak trees go dormant every 100 years, then renew growth for another 100 years and so on. I heard this as hearsay, but looking at some of the massive-sized oaks nearer the gulf coast, I can believe it.

Sorry, no ideas that I know of. :confused: I would hazard a guess though that the healthier the tree, the less trunk suckers. When you see lots of those, it is usually when the canopy is dying back, or the tree is diseased or otherwise stressed. Not sure about the ones originating from the roots. Different conditions may initiate growth.

We don't have live oaks up here, so I don't really know anything about them. Our oaks - red, black, white, burr, etc. don't have a dormant period other than winter. There isn't a cyclical 100yr dormancy that I'm aware of. Our rate of growth is likely slower as well compared to the south. Our fastest growing oak up here is the red oak, averages about 1.5'-2' per year.