"sigh" Have you not seen the palo verde in bloom? Awesome to behold. Even when not in bloom, the shade it provides and its unique color of green is worth raking the pods up. In my little town you could sell your home just because it has a tree.lol
Teri

I can sure empathize with having to deal with the mess they create. I've loved them on my properties when I had acreage settings but have always passed on purchasing properties when these were growing in a small yard, specifially because of the litter and the bees when in bloom. Maybe you could plant understory shrubs that would help cammo the litter.

I'm with RdRnnr- I hate thinking about killing a drought-hardy tree, but the better you treat palo verdes the worse they drop stuff and if you neglect them they drop blooms and needles AND look bad. RdRnnr has a great idea with the understory shrubs.
Didn't somebody say on this forum that self-mulching was one of the characteristics of a lot of desert plants? It makes a lot of sense.

bcmommie -
Wait until you have seen the thing in bloom, if you are new to the house. Palo Verde trees are heat and drought tolerant, spectacular bloomers

Perhaps if you find a tree you like better, with the ability to grow some "bigness" fairly quickly, he can be persuaded that it's not a good tree for a front yard.

The palo verde 'droppings' make great mulch. It's easy to pick the stuff up in large 'flats' and set it down around other plants. It's prettier than some other mulch we use. I'm not a fan of PVs, but I try to look at the bright side: At least it's not a china berry. If you had one of those, you could talk about mess with *much* more authority!

I have seen it in bloom. I hate it even more then. I hate bees, and the tree looks like it belongs in the yard of the Wicked Witch of the West (my neighbors agree). In my well-established neighborhood of mulberry trees the palo verde looks like a really large weed. In an effort to be more drought tolerant, I agreed to the killing off of the grass in the front - and now that ugly tree has got to go.

sounds like you have a mexican palo verde since you say that it drops its "sticks". to tell you the truth, they are loathed by true diehards of native plants. they are considered the weeds of the palo verdes. right now, seedlings are popping up all over my yard. and they are fast, fast growers. i think that's what makes them appealing to me. also, i like their sweeping motion in the wind. i've yet to see any seedlings from my foothills palo verde pop up in the same places. then again, maybe they are just taking their time.

well, my only advice is to pray that a gust of wind uproots it. make sure you indicate which direction it needs to fall. LOL

detrick

maybe you should move to seattle or cleveland where you can have grass and big green trees. the desert is not full of these things. you live in arid land and the palo verde belongs here where nature intended. sometimes its easier to go with mother nature than to fight. sometimes it's just narrow minded to try to make things fit where they don't and even more so to insist that nature has made all the mistakes. choices like this - how do you slowly kill a paloverde - are slowly killing the earth.

i think that everyone on this forum can probably say that they have something in their garden or that they grow something that nature didn't intend for the sonoran desert. if that weren't the case, no one would have any need for any type of irrigation system. we would just wait for the rains to water plants just like it happens in nature or we would harvest water.

let's be realistic and not so narrow minded...

ok, a majority of us here are guilty of removing a plant we did not like anymore or just did not work anymore with our landscaping designs, like burmuda grass, oleanders, lantanas, cats claw, mexican primrose, mesquite trees, ect., ect. like detrick said, "let's be realistic".

bcmommie, i do not agree with deceiving your husband, or purposely making the tree sick. my advice to you is to research some other options for a tree that would be pleasing to both you and your husband, and try to discuss this with him. or you two might be able to come to a compromise if you discuss the pros and cons of the current tree and/or a new one. communication with your husband is the best route, i think.

Posted by: desertdiva Z9 (My Page) on Sun, Aug 14, 05 at 14:40

maybe you should move to seattle or cleveland where you can have grass and big green trees. the desert is not full of these things. you live in arid land and the palo verde belongs here where nature intended. sometimes its easier to go with mother nature than to fight. sometimes it's just narrow minded to try to make things fit where they don't and even more so to insist that nature has made all the mistakes. choices like this - how do you slowly kill a paloverde - are slowly killing the earth.

Okay, Desert Diva, let's be square here: I don't live in the Sonoran Desert, I live in the Mojave Desert, and the only thing mother nature planted here were scrub brush, so even the dastardly palo verde is not native to this area. I already agreed to pull up the lawn (burmuda, no less, so it has taken quite a while to kill it). I have enlarged the patio, created a dry river bed, and have a 4'wide walkway through the front of my yard. I have as much hard scape as my small yard can handle. Really, don't be so narrow minded, yourself.

Well, my husband is on the first day of a three-day firefighter shift...I guess now is as good a time as any to hire the backhoe :)

Good luck with that, and I say that with no malice whatsoever.
BTW- great reply! It made ice tea come out my nose when I read it, since I was in mid-swallow at the time.

"The mind opens, and in creeps wisdom."
-Lwxana Troi to Alexander Roschenko

Overwater it...... Flood the poor lill thing..

:'(

Oh man, Turtleman, you took the words right outta my mouth!!! Palo Verdes do not like wet soils, and especially in the winter when it's cold.

I love desert trees, I hate the idea of killing one, but the wrong tree in the wrong place is nothing short of a bad idea. That's why we cut down the Mulberry in my yard, LOL! Hopefully once this one is gone, you'll find another that is beautiful and that you love and will care for.

Now, not wanting bees is a totally different subject....
>smile

BCmommie -
You have a non-native plant, and a weedy species of one at that.

I abhor mulberries (short-lived, etc.) but after you get rid of the scraggly thing, consider planting a better-behaved desert tree. You do have to make sure it's frost-tolerant for the Vegas area.

I have 2 of these god awful abominations just behind the block wall of my backyard. Guess where all the leaves go?
Right in my pool. I'd like to trim them about 1" above the ground. These have to be the dirtiest trees in all the world. DIE TREES DIE!!!!

I feel better know but I still hate these trees.

The BEST way to slowly kill a tree is very simple, drink as much herbicide as your little tummy can handle and sneak out at night while your husband sleeps and pee all around the drip-line of the tree, you should see the tree start to decline gradually in a week or two!

bcmommie,
If you got an answer offline let me know. I have some tree killing to do also

Buffel grass? I don't think the neighborhood association would like it too much.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buffelgrass snatches water away from nearby palo verde trees, ultimately killing them.

not at all im not a tree hugger but this is one of the worlds great dry climate trees. i think you are not only sneaky but a wierdo .move far away. see a srink your not normal

this is a az site on the garden web

>I have a godawful blue Palo Verde tree in my front yard taht was planted by the previous homeowners. It drops its pods and sticks (for they certainly aren't leaves) all over the place. I want it gone, unfortunately, my husband wants it to stay (not because he likes the tree, he likes the "biggness" of it). What can I do to slowly kill the tree so my husband will think it has a disease or something? Please Help!!!

This post brought tears to my eyes. You are like all of the winter snowbirds who come here with absolutely no knowledge of the desert, mohave or otherwise. And to say you hated it even more when it blooms? I am speechless. Well, not quite. Agree with the suggestion that you move to Seattle or some other green place and allow the desert to grow in its natural way.

> These have to be the dirtiest trees in all the world. DIE TREES DIE!!!!

Again, I am speechless. Were they planted in the wrong place? Probably. But you are talking about one of the most beautiful trees in the desert. Oh, but its littering your precious pool! Well, then see if someone wants them, see if someone would be willing to take the beauties and plant them somewhere where they can grow naturally. That's the least you can do.

>how do you slowly kill a paloverde - are slowly killing the earth.

Yep

>Again, I am speechless. Were they planted in the wrong place? Probably. But you are talking about one of the most beautiful trees in the desert. Oh, but its littering your precious pool! Well, then see if someone wants them, see if someone would be willing to take the beauties and plant them somewhere where they can grow naturally. That's the least you can do.These aren't even on my property. They belong to the homeowners association and I'm the person who has to clean up all the mess. Why don't you talk to the homeowners association? Maybe you can and have them transplanted to your property if you like them so much.

Wow, this site has gotten chippy. This lady sounds like my mother-in-law.

I have the same problem with a palo verde tree planted in the wrong place, right next to my plumbing and need to get rid of it, I have cut it down several time and tried stump killer and it only laughs at me! It will grow a new brand and I cut it down it keeps coming back! how can I kill the stump?

Robic K77 (copper sulfate) should help with the problem.

Simple answer:

Drive a large copper nail into the base of the trunk.

Quote ÂDriving a copper nail has physical, chemical, and
biological actions playing together. If the tree dies, it will not be easy
to know precisely what the main cause was acting. Copper as a metallic form
is not harmful to tree nutrition. It needs to oxidize, to solubilize and
then be absorbed. Absorption of copper at the bark level may not occur, while
high levels of copper ion in the soil rooting system may lead to toxicity. Many
species of trees also will respond differently to this stress related to
nails in their bases.Â

Personally, when ever I have moved to a home where I wanted to alter the trees, I looked up charitable organizations. In CA they would come out and remove the trees and plant them in communities that couldnÂt afford trees. I have no idea if AZ has these kind of organization but itÂs worth a shot.

I just found this one in a search ÂTrees for TucsonÂ
http://www.tucsonaz.gov/tcb/

hope this helps

S

Wow - wanting to kill a Palo Vere? Well, you could collect and eat the seed pods, when young they can be boiled or steamed and taste like green beans. Or, you could let the seeds dry and grind them up and make a flour like the Cahuilla, Pima and Papago Indians.
On another note, plants absorb and use Carbon Dioxide (a green house gas and major cause of global warming) and release oxygen WE breath (not to mention levels of oxygen on the planet have dropped from 26% to today's 16%). Also, one square mile of TREES produces enough evaporation to change the local climate an average of one degree. So, yes, lets cut down more trees! They are just eye sores - right? In fact, we WANT more greenhouse gasses, less oxygen, less free food, and more erratic climate. The fact that only 1.68% of seeds germinate and the trees may live to 100 years is no never mind too.
Perhaps we all should practice what we preach to help the earth - or is all the talk of global warming and "climate change" just a bunch of political lies and hype?
I'm betting on political lies and hype since we obviously don't see any need or responsibility to protect what we have on each of our little patches of dirt. Don't want the tree - move it! Call a nursery or whole seller to come get it for free.

Methane is 20x more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, go easy on the palo verde seeds/pod consumption might produce more methane. Moving a big palo verde tree is going to generate more greenhouse gas unless folks are going to pull it out by hand and carry it away in a non fossil fuel vehicle (wont get into the high water use by the folks doing this).
Palo verde is state tree of Arizona, grows all over the central/southern parts like weed, acres of them get burned down to ash every year in forest fires many of which are startd by lightning. Palo Verde a nice tree, hardy, pretty yellow flowers, its pollen can cause allergies.

I had the same problem.
First I tried salt water in the early morning once every couple of weeks. No result.

Next I tried "Round-Up" on the leaves. This caused the tree to drop some leaves and "sticks", but ultimately - new growth resumed.

Finally I was advised to try turpentine, and to remain undetected, Ace Hardware sells a 'no odor' version. I poured a half gallon on the ground around the base of the tree, and slowly over the course of the next few months, the tree went brown, and never came back.

Maybe the salt and the Round-Up did a little damage, and the turpentine was the knock-out punch?

Good luck to you. No one deserves to be enslaved to a tree when the "right one" is out there somewhere just waiting for it's chance to serve you better.......

p.s. no one here should judge your motives or methods - these things can be a really big deal for some couples - my mom left us for a while once because she was so upset over a severe pruning that our dad gave the mulberry tree!! It wasn't funny at the time, but we all laugh at it now...

I totally agree with you. The neighbor behind me has a Palo Verde in his back yard and all the debris is falling onto my property and in my pool. He doesn't live there, he leases out and I want it gone so I don't have to put up with all that debris. I've contacted my HOA and signed a back yard violation in which the tree should be trimmed so it's not flying onto my property. I would prefer that it would be cut down. I don't have anyone coming to my door and asking to clean up that awful mess on my property or my pool!! I agree that these trees need to be in a location where other's can enjoy the beauty of it but along with beauty comes a complete mess when the yellow flowers fall from it along with the needles. I'm very disgusted over the tree or maybe it's the home owner.

I think the larger issue here is the lack of communication and cooperation between you and your husband. Deceiving your spouse is never a good idea. First, you poison the tree, what's next, his cat? It's a slippery slope...

Arsenic. Oh wait, that's how you slowly kill a wife...

The solution is simple, and will not upset the tree huggers. You put an ad on Craigslist saying, "Full-grown Palo Verde FREE! IF you remove by Sunday night. " You post the ad at 5 in the morning on Saturday before you and your husband depart for a weekend vacation. When you return you will be "shocked" to discover that some terrible person has "stolen" your husband's beloved Palo Verde. Meanwhile the new owner will give it a nice home.

Copper nails will do it.

Some palo verde beetles will too.

Lol, I wonder what ever became of this lady and her tree?

Turpentine... if it's a 3-4 inch around the base pour a gallon of it around the base....

I had a large palo verde tree removed a couple of years ago. Not sorry either, every spring there were dozens of seedlings to pull up, not to mention getting stuck. I planted a beautiful Emperor Green palo verde tree in it's place. This tree is perfect, no seedlings or thorns, incredible blooms, wish I had planted some of them years ago, since I'm relocating soon. Oh well..

I meant to say, Emerald palo verde, not Emperor! I was looking up information on the Emperor Japanese maple for the next planting zone I'm going to live in. Already planning the next yard!

Amen

Haha! You definitely came to the wrong site for advice. What you speak is blasphemy here. If you're trying to "poison" the tree it's also a bad idea because you'll likely leech the soil(and possibly the groundwater) with whatever your "poison" is.

Want to keep the seedlings from sprouting? EAT the seeds! You can make high protein flour from them as they are in the pea family. Read about Palo Verde seed harvesting here: https://www.desertharvesters.org/native-plant-food-guides-the-desert-can-feed-you/palo-verde/

I just posted this to the MGTOW social media groups. They are going to have a field day with this as it proves their points so perfectly on women and marriage...

Kill a Blue Palo Verde? That chick is a psycho. go live in Los Angeles, you will fit right in.

Take a chainsaw and cut that sucker as low as possible. Drill 1” or larger holes as deep into the stump as possible. once a week fill the holes with undiluted Roundup. Enjoy your clean yard!