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Eradicating African Sumacs?

12 years ago

I have a bunch of African Sumacs in my back yard. These. Trees are anything from seedlings to giant trees, with 2 foot trunks. Many have 8-12 inch trunks.

These are an invasive species. I realize I'm going to need an herbicide of some sort, much as I hate it.

What kind should I use? I never use any poisons around my house. Luckily, the trees are fairly far away from my gardens.

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Comments (2)

brandon7 TN_zone7
12 years ago
Concentrated glyphosate (RoundUp, Gly-4, etc) or triclopyr (Brush-B-Gon, Garlon, etc) will do the job and are readily available. Here are a few tips:

1. Apply the concentrated chemical to the phloem (the area just under the bark) of the freshly cut stumps.
2. Try to treat all sprouts/suckers/stumps of a plant at about the same time. Coming back and getting the other half next week may lessen your chances of success.
3. In case you get resprout, have a little extra chemical on hand and be prepared to treat as soon as you see any growth.
4. Late summer/early fall (before deciduous trees drop their leaves) is probably the best time to treat, but you can also do it now.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
i use generic 41% roundup .. NOT the premixed 18% or lower ..

i use a bottle like the one at the link ...

a one foot wide trunk uses probably no more than a teaspoon/TBSpoon ...

apply to the green line under the bark, before the heartwood ... and one drip on every small cut sprout ...

NEVER let new sprouts get bigger than a few inches..

you have a big root mass to kill ... and all the sprouts do.. is feed those roots ...

in my z5.. i can do it about 3 times between ground thaw and freeze.. in your zone.. what.. 5 times during the year???

considering what you are doing.. it is an extremely small amount of chems ...

the bottle allows precise application of a small amount... with little or no over application ...

it took me three years to kill a giant patch of poison ivy ... doing it as per above... keep at it.. you will win

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:378664}}
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