This is a little off topic but I have a problem with volunteer trees and honeysuckle bushes growing in my hedges. In this situation I was wondering if anyone has had any luck poisoning them with copper wire? Seems like this would be a safe method if it works.
Dave
Just girdle them and have done with it...
I have a rhododendron garden near a woods. Volunteer walnut trees grow in the woods which is problem since their roots kill my rhododendrons. I girdle the larger walnut trees to kill them. It takes about 3 or 4 years to kill a tree when you girdle it. The sap still flows up through the sap wood and the tree keeps looking normal until the roots are completely depleted of nutrients. Then the tree dies, but then it is still standing there dead another 20 years while it rots in place and the smaller branches drop off and it eventually falls over. So "have done with it" is a very slow process.
I girdled a 50-foot elm tree early winter 2006. It leafed out in spring. Suddenly in June (9 months later), it dropped all of its leaves. I guess the draught helped it along. I drilled several deep
1" holes in the stump and keep these filled with 34-0-0 fertilizer. The stump is beginning to rot as it consumes the nitrogen. I guess it will take at least until next spring to completely remove the stump. Looking back, it is better just to cut the tree down, than to girdle it. I think the OP will benefit from a nice pair of double-hinged loppers.
Well, I cut them off and they come back. Is cutting only the bark more effective? The honeysuckle bushes I'm sure would just sprout new branches.
Keep cutting them 3-4 times a year. Well-established plants will take longer. I had to do this with poison ivy, honeysuckle, bugle vine, raspberry, blackberry, thistle, and (pulling out) cattails in the water garden.
The reason I girdle my walnut trees is to deplete the roots so they can't force new sprouts. As you mention, most trees that are cut down will put out new shoots. Girdled trees don't. But they take several years to die.
If you look at the research about chemicals to make stumps rot, the apparent thing that works is the drilling of holes. The chemicals put into the holes seem to have little effect. Drilling holes that allow air and water into the stump accelerate decomposition. Putting nitrogen fertilizer into those holes will help a little more the first year. In subsequent years, the addition of sugar is better.
Many chemical stump removers include directions to burn the stump. If you do this, it is best to keep lots of fire wood to keep the fire going. Once the fire gets underground, it retains heat and burns rather well but very slowly and produces lots of carbon monoxide.
Ah, but then you don't have to deal with a million suckers and root sprouts. And once it's dead, you can easily fell it -- you don't need to leave it standing unless you're after wildlife habitat.
You might want to read this:
Many species will stump or root sprout when you just cut off the tops, and then you've got eleventyseven more stems to treat. If, however, you ring the cambium (the greenish layer under the bark), the plant can no longer translocate materials from the top to the roots. Roots are not photosynthetic and will starve, thus killing the top of the plant, too.
If you simply remove bark but don't remove the cambium, you haven't girdled the tree and there's some chance it may survive such a wounding.
Occasionally, you'll see a girdled tree put out some sprouts below the girlding. Just pull those off as soon as you notice.
Kay
For the smaller trees, cut them down with a pair of loppers. Use an eyedropper to apply full strength, out-of-the-bottle, weed/brush killer to the cut stub, taking care not to get any on your shrubs. Works for me and I've never lost a shrub.
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