I am in the final stages of planning my fall planting.
This year I will plant mostly windebreaks.
On the south side of the property there is a line of poplars in pitiful conditions, but they are large and they give proportion to the property (and my wife really would like to keep them). My initial idea was to take them out and replace them with a nice row of serbian spruces. Now, I have gotten the quote for the removal of the poplars and it is quite steep (several thousands). I was wondering if it would make actually more sense to plant the row of serbians underneath the poplars. In the closest cases, they would be 3-4 feet away from the poplars trunks. Is this suicide? The serbians will take ~10 years to form a decent hedge. In the meantime the side of the property would look bare like a typical suburban grassy "landing strip" garden. Will the serbians manage to survive the competition with the huge poplars?

any advice is welcome

Kind regards

I assume these are Lombardy poplars? "pitiful" condition seems to be extremely commonplace for these trees :-)

Personally, I'd recommend removal before replanting. They have extremely aggressive root systems and I think you may be fighting a losing battle attempting to get another species established so close. Plus, the poplars have a huge reputation for breakage and wind/snow damage due to weak wood - I'd hate to see you invest $$ in the spruces only to have them fall victim to damage by falling poplar parts.

Also plant more than one species of evergreen. A lot of people have been learned that the hard way and some disease or bug comes through and knocks out everything, and is no better than fast growing trees.

are you in the country.. can you burn???

what i did in said circ's... was pay to make them fall down.. at 1/4 to 1/5 full removal cost [often the guys clearing power lines.. work cheap for mad money on w/ends] .... then got out my chainsaw.. and started a real big fire ... which is legal with a phone call to the fire chief ... but i do live in the country ...

there is usually no wind at the crack of dawn.. so i get the big burn out of the way then .. and then just keep adding stuff.. once the coals hit about 1000 degrees.. lol ... and i do it on a 60 degree day .. because its hot work ...

i agree with gal.. its a fools errand to do it bass ackwards ... though you might take every other one.. or take 2.. leave one.. take 2.. etc .. so you could plant in the dead spaces ... and pray if those left standing .. dont fall on the babes ...

and surely.. do NOT waste money on grinding out stumps .. just apply full strength round up on the stump cut to the ground.. and keep cutting and dabbing suckers with roundup for two years ... they are persistent in their struggle to live...

more facts???

ken

heres how i do it .. that pile was dried for a year ...

I spent the afternoon figuring out exactly where the windbreak would be with respect to the poplars.
As you can see in the link below (the white flags are where the Serbians will go)they would be quite close. Any idea how likely it will be for them to survive such massive competition?