Getting rid of tree root suckers

[Jeff Monson]

Anyone have a remedy for getting rid of tree root suckers?? I have a flowering crab in my front yard that is
relentless about sending up suckers. They seem to grow 4" per day!! I trim them back to the level of the mulch but that only lasts a day or so. I have tried deeper mulch but they still poke through. I'd guess they grow in a 5' radius around the base of the tree, they come up through mulch and perennials that we have planted there. Maybe its just the nature of the tree, but I'm going to need some professional help if I have to keep up with this thing.

[David Weaver]

I think it's a matter of tree choice (i.e., don't plant trees that are known to do it). If you overdo it with pruning, they grow more of them, but I've never heard of any management of them other than to prune them off immediately.

[Ole Anderson]

Did you lay down a layer of geotextile under the mulch?

[Jeff Monson]

Did you lay down a layer of geotextile under the mulch?

No Ole I did not, we bought the property with the tree and landscaping the way it is now. Do you think that would help?

[Ted Calver]

I would get a good brush clearing herbicide from one of the big boxes, cut the suckers close to the ground and brush the herbicide on each stump. I would re-cut the main trunk (if still there) and brush the herbicide all around the cambium layer next to the bark. Be careful and don't saturate the soil, just the individual suckers and main trunk stumps...the herbicide may remain in the soil and affect anything new you plant. This works for me. YMMV

[phil harold]

When trees sucker it is because they are stressed...
Too much mulch starves the roots from oxygen

that all my black and blue thumb knows...

[Jerome Stanek]

I would get a good brush clearing herbicide from one of the big boxes, cut the suckers close to the ground and brush the herbicide on each stump. I would re-cut the main trunk (if still there) and brush the herbicide all around the cambium layer next to the bark. Be careful and don't saturate the soil, just the individual suckers and main trunk stumps...the herbicide may remain in the soil and affect anything new you plant. This works for me. YMMV

I don't think he wants to get rid of the tree just the suckers.

[Ole Anderson]

No Ole I did not, we bought the property with the tree and landscaping the way it is now. Do you think that would help?

Yes. Just rake the old mulch away from the tree, trim the suckers, lay down a good layer of geotextile, overlapping joints by a foot and reinstall the mulch. But as stated, suckers usually indicate that the tree is stressed, so there may be more to it. I have a flowering crab also, but I keep it well watered and trimmed, with no suckers, but I have geotextile under the gravel top layer.

[Jeff Monson]

Yes. Just rake the old mulch away from the tree, trim the suckers, lay down a good layer of geotextile, overlapping joints by a foot and reinstall the mulch. But as stated, suckers usually indicate that the tree is stressed, so there may be more to it. I have a flowering crab also, but I keep it well watered and trimmed, with no suckers, but I have geotextile under the gravel top layer.

Thanks Ole, thats sounds like some sound advice. I have another flowering crab in the yard with no suckers. Its pretty amazing how trees get stressed, I had no idea suckers was an indication of this. I piled mulch too high on the base of 2 apple trees a few years ago, they got major stress to them and produced no appples and very little leaves. I removed the mulch from the ball of the stump and viola, both came back to produce nice crops since.

[John McClanahan]

Don't spray weed killer on the suckers! I did that on a Crab Apple tree in our back yard and killed one third of the tree. The good news was that the tree had outgrown its location and needed to be removed.

John