My neighbour's variegated elm tree has been cut down because it sent suckers all through my lawns and garden. Of course now the suckers are appearing more than ever and I've lost many desirable plants and much lawn area due to spraying with Woody Weedkiller. The spray is expensive, and knocks them back but they always reappear stronger than ever! I can't afford to keep buying the spray and am at my wits end . can someone please recommend something that will kill the suckers once and for all!I actually do have a variegated elm in my garden nowhere near the problem areas, and my tree has never suckered . why would would one tree sucker and another not!
steptoe72,
Dec 20, 7:33pm
We have a Camperdown elm. it grows shoots 3 houses down the road.Maybe your's is not doing it because its not big enough yet.
templeton1,
Dec 21, 6:24am
horrid stuff, dont know what flavour mine are but they are prolific at sending out suckers EVERYWHERE!we use salt, tried diesel but they revived and grew back, salt has knocked them butyou have to keep doing it and there is some risk to the lawn and surrounding trees so its not ideal, I just pull them out when tiny, am hoping to get some leylands started around them then get them cut out once the leyands are of a windbreak size.
dms01,
Dec 21, 6:38am
try vigilant gel - cut them back to little stubs and paint the wound
piquant,
Dec 21, 8:11am
Generally speaking, trees prone to suckering do so because the roots have been damaged in some way. It may be a fork, dug into a border that has struck a root - or it may be a surface root that has been clipped by a lawn mower blade or such like. It is the trees defence against damage. Not all trees are like this but elms, robinias, prunus, poplars to name but a few are very good at it. Cutting back and treating with a systemic chemical is usually pretty effective - but you must do this within a very short time - ie - minutes - to get the most effective result. Poplars, for instance, will seal a wound within 20 minutes and whilst some chemical would get through - much would not. You would also need to treat the trunk - I use neat roundup - painted on and then covered with a plastic bag for safety and maximum absorbancy. If you attack it from both ends - ie trunk and the suckers you should have reasonable success. Good luck.
rsr72,
Dec 21, 8:14am
Elms can only propagate by suckers, or by grafting. As the original tree has gone, and assuming any stump has been treated with weedkiller, the suckers are easily killed by cutting off the shoots to ground level and painting with neat Roundup etc.
quintardanes,
Dec 21, 1:51pm
rsr72 and piquant . so you feel neat Roundup would be better that neat Woody Weedkiller!I have literally hundreds of them that have been either regrowing for several years or newly emerging in little bunches of new growth.Will be a trial having to seperately paintso many, mainly small diameter stems . but if that's what will do it then I'll give it a go. The tree that was cut down is actually in an ex garden centre carpark, and on one side of the tree is a thick sealed chip expanse like roading, and on the other side is my hedge, lawns and garden. Wonder if roots being covered with the chip seal has anything to do with it! My own elm tree is just in a lawn area and is alot older than the offending tree was, and yet has never suckered . I might mention that I have often skimmed the above ground roots with the lawn mower and still no suckers.
rsr72,
Dec 21, 9:38pm
My main Elm is a weeping Elm about 83 years old, 20 m tall, and in the centre of our lawn. It's very big. Our second Elm is a sucker of the first, about 25m tall and probably 70 years old. We get no suckers in the lawns, but quite a lot come up through the surrounding flowers beds in springtime. We cut them to soil level and paint the small stumps with Roundup which readily kills them off. Eventually this constant poisoning could affect the trees themselves but we have seen no evidence of that so far over many years of doing so. Your suckers will be long underground threads and by cutting through and poisoning (both ends), and nearer the boundary itself, will fix them for good. You could look for main roots on the boundary by digging along it and getting them with poison there.
quintardanes,
Dec 26, 7:05pm
Thanks for all the advice, it's greatly appreciated. Going to be big effort to get these things under control . I really didn't think an onamental tree would be so invasive.
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