how do i kill a tree root ball?
 

the tree LIQUID AMBER. i had one cut down before it fell down. in hindsight, if it fell, the rootball wouldnt be an issue. the ground was heaving on one side and the tree was leaning.

i had a pro come and cut it down, and they ground down the stump. 8" down. i wish the pro tree guy would have suggested i dug out the root, or offered to do it for me at a cost.

now? i get the occasional shoot coming out of the tree root. it is trying like hell to become a tree again. i hammer, best i can thru that root with a digging bar. i squirt in some concentrated Round-up. i feel like i am trying to piss on a big fire.

digging out the root; that ship has sailed. my yard is landscaped now :(

dynamite would be awesome, but a no-go. biology class 101 is telling me - no photosynthesis, no tree. but damn..this thing has a huge energy storage i suppose.

Dig enough dirt up to access wood, drill big holes, fill with copper sulfate or similar anti-greenery chemicals. Stump rotter, etc.

I spent the better part of two months digging out a root ball last summer. I used shovels, axes, splitting wedges, and a digging bar.

It really would have required an excavator to remove it.

I had a clump of black locusts cut down a few years ago. If you know anything about black locust, you know that when you cut one down you'll have 1000 more next year until you chemically kill the roots. This stuff was recommended by a tree service (not the ones that did my trees mind you) and it worked first time. The secret is in how (and when) you apply it.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/brushtox-brush-killer-wtriclopyr?cm_vc=-10005

You have to cut around the stump to expose fresh tissue in the phloem layer (the layer between the bark and heartwood) as this is what will transport the chemical to the roots. Doesn't have to be deep, just enough to expose it. All I did was take an inch off the top of the stump. Then paint the Brushtox on immediately after exposing the fresh layer and let it dry. Reapply in 20 minutes. Be generous with it. But you have to do this in the fall when plants are naturally sending sugar TO the roots instead of OUT of the roots. If you do it in the spring, it's just going to get pushed out so wait at least until August to do this if you decide to go this route.

Drill holes in the stump, fill with copper sulfate and let that do it’s thing.


Supposedly driving pennies into the stump works too, but the copper sulfate works better.

thanks!! so essentially what i am doing but with great timing notes and new chemical! this is great. some guy suggested a chemical that wasnt even legal in CA. "Tordon"

how long did it take? your plant sounds like a plant we have here. called Trivit or something. my neighbor is fighting that one.

Yep...drill holes and.....

i dont think i can find the original location of the main stump anymore. unless it starts sprouting. :(

It killed the sprouts within a few days (some of them 6 feet tall) and they never came back. Even to this day, not a single sprout. I left the stumps all winter to make sure the chemicals got through the entire system.

And this stuff doesn't stick around for years in the soil either. When I had the stumps ground out the following spring, I fully suspected the wood chips to kill whatever they landed on. I was wrong. They were piled in the yard and sat there for a good month before I got around to picking it up. It didn't even kill the weeds or lawn under the mulch. I was quite surprised. But it works wonders. Still have half a bottle in the garage for the next round of trees coming out this fall.

We lost our back yard Bradford pear tree to an ice storm. It was damaged enough it had to come down. I was smart enough to hire a pro because it was right over our koi pond, and just 20 feet to the back fence and my storage building on another side. After watching that pro climb way up to the top to cut off pieces, and lower them down and spend many long hours do the job right, I knew I made the right choice.

We had them lop it off with a two foot stump, now it is a VERY sturdy plant stand. It has taken two years of Roundup on the sprouts to kill off the thing. It even has some sprouts pop up out of the ground 15 feet away. It really wanted to survive, but chemical weapons and a skill saw killed it. The tree was there before the pond, but trees are just in the way when they are not in the right place or the right type of tree.

Bradford Pears are very messy. Early spring the old pear stems fall, the the buds form, and then the husks of the blooms fall. Then it blooms, and it flat STINKS really bad, and the blooms fall. Then the leaves and little tiny "pears" the size of a pea form. In the fall the pears rot and fall to the ground, thousands of them. They are a squishy mess but our dogs love them. The dogs eat lots of them and get HORRIBLE gas. The leaves fall of course and it goes dormant for a while. It seems it was always making a mess. We don't miss it.

Doesn't everyone eventually ;). Beautiful trees, my neighborhood "used" to be full of them....like every dang house but mine....

Yea, there are pretty from a distance. And the grow fast so developers love em. Just not long lived and prone to wind damage.

The ice storm that year was extra bad because it was early fall and the leaves were still on the trees. Just too much weight for lots of trees.

G. you just sprayed the shoots directly as they popped up? or you broke them off and sprayed the tiny stumps.


i think landscapers should REALLY know trees before they go and release the kraken on some trusting homeowner. i talked to a city tree guy, he said his predecessor made a big error choosing the Liquid Amber tree to plant. he wanted fast growing, check. shade, check! what he also got was SHALLOW ROOTS which jacked up home foundations and sidewalks. and the tree drops a golfball sized nut that is studded with sharp points. talk about ankle biters.

my neighbor across the street has three city trees lining his jacked up sidewalk. he called the city to ask if the city would trim them back - and they sent him a free permit to remove the trees the next day!! he callled back and asked, "but arent they city trees?" the lady said, yes technically, but if they wanted they could remove them. haha..like $3000 worth of work.

some trees are brutal.

Around here there are trees that are actually illegal to plant. Black locust, cottonwoods and cedars. They are invasive as all get out and they are nearly impossible to kill.

The other major problem tree here in the midwest are silver maple trees. Great shade trees but they grow so fast (3-5 feet a year) that they are terribly brittle. Streets are littered with broken silver maples after every wind storm we have.

Tordon RTU

Planted white oaks over the last 15 years. I may never get to fully appreciate any of them, but I won't have to worry about them falling over in any wind. I also put them in to draw water out of the ground as the water starts to show up about 10 ft down around here and I hope they can give my sump pump a rest to some extent.

Send in the gophers!

If you can't buy Tordon in CA...try 'Spike'. It's applied by broadcasting around the root area. It leaches into the ground and is drawn into the root and dies.
I think it's a Monsanto product. (maybe Bayer)

Amazon has Tordon RTU......won't they ship to CA, you're saying?

You can buy on eBay too...and other places.

No. I’ll be in New Mexico soon. I’m picking some up at the tractor supply when I drive buy.