killing nandina

6 years ago

Nandina is extremely invasive here, and I'm stuck with a wild blob of it that is sort of a hedge, as well as a number of individual plants. They've probably been established for more than 30 years, despite occasional lopping by landscaping crews. The soil is dry and hard. The hedge nandina roots certainly extend under the house's foundation.

My question is this: what if I were to lop them all off at ground level, dig up as many of the roots as I can, and cover the remnants with thick cardboard and mulch? Would that be enough to kill it? The plants are currently in bloom, incidentally, so maybe the stress of pruning right now would help them die?

I'm in San Antonio, zone 9a/sunset 30. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Featured Answer

cooper8828

6 years ago

I had one monster one that also had roots going under the foundation. I cut it and brushed all the cut tips with Roundup right away. I waited several months and dug out the roots.

I had a previous attempt at killing Nandinas that didn't work, but this worked for me the first time.

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Comments (7)

bossyvossy
6 years ago
I find it best to yank my undesirables after a rain, when soil is much softer. But cutting and immediately applying roundup should help a lot. Cardboard should suffocate seedlings. You might need to keep your eyes peeled for a year or two. It’s a tenacious plant
Sage TX 9a thanked bossyvossy
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Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years ago
I think that whatever method you choose, you have to accept that it will be a multi-year project. We dug them out (I mostly watched...) and it took 2-3 more years of vigilance and yanking to really get rid of them.
Sage TX 9a thanked Sara Malone Zone 9b
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
once you kill it with a stump killer.. i have no idea why you would need to dig it out ... just leave the dead wood there ...

if you want to plant something else.. just move away from the gob of deadwood ...where you can dig in soil ...

and btw ... round up as a stump killer is undiluted ... none of that pre mix stuff ...

ken
Sage TX 9a thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Sara Malone Zone 9b
5 years ago
Ken with Nandina the 'glob' of deadwood can be pretty large. Depends on how large the clump is, but I had a clump that I let go for 6-7 years and we needed the backhoe!
Sage TX 9a thanked Sara Malone Zone 9b
bossyvossy
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Damn-dina! Removal not for the faint-hearted.
jc_7a_MiddleTN
3 years ago
The cardboard and mulch method is working (mostly) for me.

Whatever seedlings crop up are easy to pull out.

I had several clumps of some kind of nandina and even round up didn't completely kill them.

killing nandina

cooper8828

Comments (7)

bossyvossy

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