ammonium sulphamate isn't "too bad", but will persist in the soil for some months, and certainly isn't organicly approved - use w/ caution as it is a 'total kill' chemical - can't you just cut it down and rip out the stump?

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: re stump removal and A.S.

Thanks for the replies... I was definately a little suspicious of the ammonium sulphamate, just because something is a lesser evil doesn't mean it's any good....

I have cut down the trees and they regrow at lightning (I'm talking metres in months) speed after ringbarking... which I do after chopping the tree down...

I suppose I could do the trunk digging method but was trying to avoid the labour... some of the trees are too thick to put your arms around...

I guess the hard slog is probably unavoidable.

Thanks again,
Devin.

{{gwi:144563}}
:)

Bill

Hey... looks like fun. Better give the neighbours a bit of warning though.

Am also considering bringing in a napalm strike for the weeds... is this organically sound?

Thanks for all the advice,
Devin.

Do you mean ammonium sulfate? If so it makes a great snail and slug killer. It is a great source of chemical nitrogen and will kill all of your soil's beneficial fungi nearly immediately.

I vote with chain saw and a stump grinder. Chip all the branches under 5 cm in diameter and use the chips for mulch where your soil is weak.

Regular use of a brush mower (once a month or so) should do it over time. There are hand-held, walk-behind, and tractor mounted versions available.

BTW: girdling is a very good method if you have time to wait. The point of girdling isn't that it kills the tops of the trees, but that it kills the roots! What you're removing when you girdle is the phloem, which is the part that transports sugars from the shoot to the root. The tops still look fine for a while, because the xylem is intact, and the leaves can still pull water and nutrients from the root. The tops finally die off when the roots die and rot away. The main thing with girdling is to cut off any shoots that emerge below the girdle line.

Hi,

We have just started renovating our yard after much neglect and had lots of maple and other saplings to deal with. Most were only about an inch diameter trunk, but there were some larger ones. Only one was very large and that was about 10 in diameter. That one was a weed at the base of another maple that had been there for a long time. It was too close to the trunk to dig it out so we just cut it to the ground and so far it has sprouted back 3 times this season. Every week I just visit it and rub off any new growth. I figure if I do that all season sooner or later it has to give up.

The smaller saplings we have just been digging out. It wasn't as difficult as we thought it was going to be actually. Backbreaking if your not in shape but doable. Now that we have got 99% of them out, and only have a few more to go, everyone is feeling pretty satisfied with themselves. It is quite an accomplishment and a relief to have it done and have a new slate.

Adam

I would also love to find some organic yet not terribly hard/involving heavy equipment methods of killing trees. We have unwanted volunteer trees all over the place. My land has been neglected for YEARS, so that means I have huge trees in the middle of flower beds needing sun and so on. We have a chainsaw and a nice lopper, but a lot of things just regrow. Due to the location of many of the trees I don't want to even try to dig out their roots, as they are in the middle of the poppies, tulips, lilacs, etc.

A lot of the trees are black walnuts, which makes them even worse, also buckthorn, boxelder, silver maple, plus dogwood everywhere. We pull out and cut down things regularly, but it seems like we make no progress as so many things regrow so fast. I remember at my last house we cut down a walnut tree and it regrew about 20 feet the next year.

Marcia

Thanks for all the advice guys... In a week or so when I've got some help am going to get going on digging the smaller trees out and try my luck with the others...

Someone told me you can try rotting the stump by drilling holes in the top, filling them with water and keeping the water top'd up??

Well, I suppose we'll just have to see.

Thanks again,
Devin.

would boiling water work? I dunno...

-Annette

To girdle a tree- you need to make 2 rings and strip the bark right down to the wood all the way around. The wider the swath that you strip- the more effective it will be.

Also- doing this in early spring (end of the dry season down there, I suppose) makes it most effective. Trees have a much harder time sustaining injury in spring when their sap is about to flow and they effectively "bleed to death". Pruning is done in the dormant season when there's no sap flow, or in mid-summer, when there's less flow and when sap exposed to high heat will dry/gel up and seal the injury.

Devin, do you know what kind of trees they are?

I should add- cutting down a tree negates the effect of girdling. You can't cut- then girdle. Girdle, let it die, then cut months later.

If I cut down a tree then it may trigger suckers growing- using that whole root mass to draw up energy and then you see explosive growth. Girdling for some reason kills the roots as well- they're sucking energy for no good reason.

If you drill holes in a stump & pour sugar or sugary stuff (old jelly, fermented fruit juice, stale beer, etc) into the holes & water it in, the stump will compost.

For small "stumpettes", like the 1" ones someone mentioned, just pour sugary stuff all over them & water it in.

If the sugary stuff draws insects, cover it with a layer of carbon, such as autumn leaves or shredded bark (just like any other compost pile).

If you drill holes in a stump & pour sugar or sugary stuff (old jelly, fermented fruit juice, stale beer, etc) into the holes & water it in, the stump will compost.

That's all there is to it? We want to cut down our carrotwood tree (seedlings are too invasive) to a tall stump. I'd like to avoid using herbicides if possible, but I'm afraid it will sucker if we don't. Does the sugar treatment prevent suckers from spouting too?

I have been dealing with an incursion of Norway Maples (Acer platanoides) on my lot - literally hundreds of them ranging from tiny seedlings to the largest, original tree which is almost three feet (1 meter) in diameter.

This past spring, a friend with a chainsaw and I worked on removing most of the Norway Maples trees. He cut anything over 1 inch and I used the weed wrench on the saplings under 1 inch. He also girdled 2 large trees with the chainsaw.

Earlier in the Spring I had ordered native seedlings from the New Hampshire State Nursery and happened to be talking to one of the nurserypersons about the Norway maples I wanted to girdle. He advised us to girdle the trees by making two cuts around the entire circumference of the tree about 1-2 inches deep and about 1 foot apart. He also said that mid-summer was the best time to girdle, because most of the trees nutrients would be up in the leaves and there would be less likelihood of root sprouting.

So that is what we did (except we did it in May not midsummer). I can't tell you how well this is going to work because the trees don't look any different so far. But I'm really curious to see what happens.

Here is a photo of my buddy girdling one of the trees. Note the additional Norway maple saplings in the background to the left of the tree - gives you an idea how vigorously they spread.

{{gwi:141104}}

I don't know how much it would help against the suckers sprouting up from roots but to compost a stump there is another method other than sugary stuff. Try urine! I had a friend that got rid of a stump by pouring a soda bottle worth of pee on it every day for a year. Something that might have lasted for decades was rotted away in less than two years. If the smell offends, cover with leaves or other carbon material.

Terrene,

I was curious as to what happened to your girdled trees? Did they die?

We have some locust trees that we would like to remove and they are about 1.5 to 2 feet in diameter. Girdling seems like a good, non-poisonous way to kill them.

Drill holes 1/4 - 1/2 inch in diameter, angled 45 degrees down (or steeper), down just an inch or so, every few inches in a ring around the tree. Fill with saturated copper sulfate solution with an eyedropper. May possibly need to reapply once or twice, but probably not. Copper sulfate is found naturally as a mineral (though the product you buy in a hardware store as sewerline root killer is probably synthesized). Wait a few months. You can do this with a rechargable drill and don't need a chainsaw.

Hi biogeek gardener, if mine were locusts, which are native trees, I would have been thrilled! These blasted Norways are a pain! There are about 8,000 seedlings coming up out there this Spring. Btw, I've heard Locust wood is very hard and useful wood.

So, after the trees were girdled last May, we had a moderate drought for about 10 weeks through the summer. The girdled trees started to look a little rough around the edges. New growth at the tips was dying out and they both started losing leaves early.

Then in November I had tree work done where they removed 2 large Norway maples (not girdled). One of the girdled trees was topped and converted into a snag. The one in the picture above was partially topped where it was choking out pine trees behind it. Now there is only 2/3 of the girdled tree and the largest Norway remaining on the lot. Still trying to decide what to do with the really big tree.

What's left of the remaining girdled tree has not died yet. I was kind of expecting that, as there was another poster on the Woodland forum who had girdled Norways with a hatchet, and his also leafed out the following Spring. It is leafing out but doesn't look as leafy as the one that is still healthy. It may take up to two years to die, but I'm still debating topping the whole thing and leaving one trunk as a snag.

Here are some pics:
October 30, 2007 - Canopy of NOT girdled tree (removed 11/30/07) -
{{gwi:144564}}

October 30, 2007 - Canopy of girdled tree (partially topped 11/30/07) you can see this canopy is not nearly as green and lush -
{{gwi:144565}}

May 14, 2008 - Girdled tree leafing out -
{{gwi:144566}}

PS one thing I didn't think about when the trees were girdled, and my arbortist buddy pointed out, is that a girdled tree will slowly be dying and drying out, and becomes unsafe to climb after a certain point.

so to girdle the tree, how deep beyond the bark do you need to go. you need to remove the bark between the 2 cuts? i've girdled a lot of sassafras and now have found a guy who sells firewood who will cut them down for free. maybe i should wait till the slow dying process is over?

Hi Guys,

i am in South Africa and i have found this site so informative and helpful. Thanks.

i recently girdled a tree in the corner of my property. As it is a very large tree (trunk approximately 3m in circumference) i would imagine it will take months before it dies. i have no problem with this...i just want to make sure that i have girdled it correctly and that it will eventually die...i would hate it, if 18months down the line, the tree is still healthy, alive and kicking. i am not sure what type of tree it is (perhaps someone can help me with that). i live in a Mediterranean climate.

I have taken some pictures of the tree...but i don�t know how to load them for you to see them?...can some advise me on this as well please.

Thanks
Bonescx