Suckers – Xtremehorticulture

Sucker Control Under a Wall

Leave a Comment / palm seedling, root barrier, Suckers / xtremehorticulture

Q. My neighbor’s tree is sending out suckers that go under my cinder block wall and come out in my planter. I try to pull them out and spray them with weed killer, but to no avail. Is there anything I can do to keep them from coming up? I have the same problem in the front yard but it’s the neighbor’s palm trees and seeds. They root in the front yard. Anything I can do to kill them too? Palm seedlings A. Actually, these are two separate problems. The palm seedling cure is the easiest to fix. When palm seedlings are about 8 to 12 inches tall, pull them out. It works best in wet soil after irrigation. Palm seedlings will die if the bud in the top of the plant, the terminal bud, is removed or killed but it leaves the rest of the plant which can be unsightly. There are sprays that will kill the plant. They are sold as woody brush killers, but they must be sprayed only on the problem areas. The first problem requires more work on your part. There is no spray, but you will have to remove the planter, remove or cut the roots that are suckering, and put in a physical “root barrier” and then put everything back.

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Texas Olive Froze at 25F or More

Leave a Comment / cold tolerance, cordia boisieiri, cordia parvifolia, dead, freeze, littleleaf cordia, Suckers / xtremehorticulture

Q. I have a Texas olive tree that may or may not have survived this past winter. We have had the tree for several years now and it has always bloomed and grown. I don’t have any new leaves or blooms except the suckers on the bottom. All our other trees like our sumac, Palo verde, and fruit trees are doing fine. But not this one. Is there anything I can do at this point beyond just watching it? Texas Olive, Cordia boisieiri, hardy during the winter to about 25F, about the same winter temperature as Myers Lemon. A. That particular tree, Cordia boisieri, is native to the desert southwest Chihuahuan desert and survives to a winter temperature of about 25F; around the same winter temperature as Myers lemon. Because it’s from our desert southwest it is considered xeric in its water use. Lots of good that does you if it is winter killed or severely damaged. A better choice might be Littleleaf cordia, a smaller tree and found growing on East Flamingo in Las Vegas. A better choice might have been another xeric tree from that area such as little leaf cordia, Cordia parvifolia, which seems to survive to a slightly lower winter temperature. I suggest in the future, permanent trees in your landscape should have a minimum winter temperature of 20F. Suckering from the base is a good indicator it died to the ground, or the trunk was severely damaged. You do not need to replace the tree unless it looks horrible. It is grown on its own roots. Let one or more of the suckers replace what died. Suckers grow very quickly if the roots were not damaged. If a tree does not normally produce suckers at its base, the production of suckers can sometimes indicate the trunk is damaged either from borers or sunburn or both! If you decide you want to keep it, water deeply and infrequently and fertilize it in the spring. Two handfuls of tree and shrub fertilizer about two feet from the tree each year will be enough. Wet the soil, create a slit in the soil with a shovel about 6 to 8 inches deep, drop the fertilizer into the slit, step on it to shut it and water it in. Xeric trees grow rapidly with water applied to them like mesic trees. You will have to search to find this tree at local nurseries.

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I Cut Down Mesquite Tree. Now What?

Leave a Comment / kill roots, root growth, Suckers, tree removal / xtremehorticulture

Q. I cut down a mesquite tree I thought might lift my walkway leading to my residence. I was worried about waterlines and roots. Will the roots die or will they continue to grow? Velvet mesquite, an Arizona native tree, can sucker when younger but many of the mesquite stop suckering from the base when they get older.https://mswn.com/plants/prosopis-juliflora-arizona-native-mesquite/ A. If the mesquite tree was cut down so that its top was removed (the part of the trunk at the soil surface and a little bit below) the roots should die. I dont see any suckers from this tree when it gets older so it should not sucker once it is cut down. There are some trees which grow from the roots after they have been cut down but most mesquite trees do not. There can be some genetic differences. Let it grow the following year, give it some water, and see if produces some suckers or not. Roots of most mesquite trees usually do not sucker and continue to live after the tree was cut down. If you see no new growth from the roots after the tree was cut down, then the entire tree is dead and the roots will slowly decompose in the soil in a few years. Kill Living Roots If a short stump remains after the tree was cut down, consider taking a 1 inch wood bit and an electric drill and drill vertical holes as deep as you can in the remaining stump. Drill them within an inch of the outside bark. Drill as many as you can but put them no further than 1 inch apart. It is not necessary to drill vertical holes in the center of the trunk because that wood is already dead. You dont need to drill holes in the center of the tree because that is already dead unless of course it is a palm tree.https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-remove-a-tree-stump-painlessly/ The only living part of the trunk is close to the bark. Pour salt down these holes, copper sulfate or anything concentrated to kill the crown or use diluted weedkiller (look at the ingredients for glyphosate, dicamba, triclopyr) if the label permits it. Some like salt and other homemade remedies are not systemic like glyphosate is and technically are not permitted. Read the label and it will tell you what the dilution should be but it is usually the same dilution that is recommended for weed control.

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Olive Tree Suckers Easily from Many Locations

Leave a Comment / control, olive, Suckers / xtremehorticulture

Q. An olive tree on the property of our homeowner association is sending up suckers from its base and along the trunk. I am thinking it’s because the tree is not getting enough water. Our landscaper continues to remove them and thinks otherwise. Who is right? A. Suckering from the base can be a sign of a lack of water in some trees but olive trees also sucker from the base and along the trunk easily. If you look at the base of older olive trees you will see some “knots” or swellings attached to the lower trunk, trunk limbs and root flares as they get older. There can be so many of them the tree becomes disfigured. It gives olive trees a great deal of character in their old age. Olives sucker easily from clusters of immature or unopened buds hidden on the trunk. You can spot them as bumps or gnarls. A limb was removed from this olive tree which encouraged the suckers to grow. These swellings along the trunk and limbs develop from clusters of immature buds embedded in woody growth. Suckers can originate from these “knots”. These knots or “burls” can get quite massive in older trees. Burls are common in other trees as well particularly trees that are prone to damage from fire or animals like coastal redwoods. Burls are valued by many woodworkers but despised by the construction lumber people. Suckering from the base of some trees, however, can be in response to drought. There may or may not be obvious swellings at the base of these trees. The tree finds it difficult to deliver water to its top when water is scarce. This tree rose suckered from the rootstock after the top of the tree, or scion, died back. These clusters of undeveloped buds, previously asleep, begin growing from the base. Some are scattered through the wood and others are in clusters. Growth from the bottom is easier to support when water is scarce then growth at the top. Some trees like many ash trees don’t have that survival mechanism. When water is scarce, their leaves begin to scorch, push very little new growth and limbs dieback particularly during hot weather. You could still be right. The tree may not be getting enough water and that just makes suckering even worse. It’s best to look at the tops of the trees to make a drought determination. When water is scarce, the canopy growth suffers and when water is really restricted there is leaf scorch and dieback by the tallest limbs. If the tree is growing nicely and has lots of leaves then I would say it’s getting enough water. The suckering at the base of the tree is probably normal. However, if the tree is sparse in its canopy and growth is poor and it is suckering from the base then I would worry about enough water.

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Trunk Is Suckering Due To Damage

Leave a Comment / roots, Suckers, trunk / xtremehorticulture

Q. My tree is sending out shoots all around the trunk about one third of its height. Is there anything I should do to help the tree? Suckers coming from the base of the tree can mean damage higher up on the trunk. Some plants sucker more at the base than others. A. The tree has been “girdled” around the trunk and the trunk responded by suckering just below the damaged area. Look closely at the trunk, just above the sprouts, you will see that the bark and “sapwood” have been removed all the way down to the dead inner core (wood). In other words, the tree trunk has been damaged beyond repair. When both the xylem and phloem aka, sapwood, have been removed, the top of the tree usually dies quickly. It looks like this tree did not. This means the outer phloem has been removed but some of the xylem still remains. Suckers coming from the trunk due to trunk damage The xylem is mostly responsible for transporting water up the tree to the leaves, through the trunk and stems, from the roots. The phloem, on the other hand, is mostly responsible for transporting sugars and starches from the leaves and stems downward toward the roots. Starches are stored in the trunk, roots and limbs. This tree appears to have been grafted with a sucker coming from below the graft. With the loss of the phloem, the tree trunk beneath this damage will no longer get any of the benefits from the green leaves. However, with some of the xylem present, water from the roots is still pushed up towards the leaves keeping the top from dying. If the tree does not die outright, it will die a slow death as the roots exhaust its food supply which can no longer be replenished. The tree is a goner and should be removed unless you like to see it die a slow death. The suckers are responding to the damage to the trunk. It is trying to grow a new canopy because it knows that it cannot support the existing large canopy. You could regrow the top from the suckers but it will look funny for a long, long time.

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Don’t Bet on Good Fruit from Rootstock Suckers

1 Comment / fruit trees, rootstock, Suckers / xtremehorticulture

Q. I had an old peach tree of about 30 years die. We cut it down and had it removed. Last year several suckers sprouted from below the ground. They have different leaves so I know it is not peach. What are they? Should I leave them alone and allow them to grow? A. Having a 30 year old peach tree is quite an accomplishment! They are normally a short-lived tree as far as fruit trees go. Peach is hit very hard by borers and may start to decline around 12 to 15 years of age. A 20 year old tree is really getting up there in age. Rootstock on apricot When you purchase a peach tree from a nursery it is grafted (budded) onto a different tree called the rootstock. Basically, there are two different trees joined together; one is grown for its fruit and the other is grown for its roots. Frequently, the tree selected for its roots does not produce particularly good fruit. That is not the reason it was selected. It was selected because its roots had some particular quality that was desirable for the entire tree. Remove these suckers from the base of the tree. They will grow but the fruit produced will be low quality compared to the peaches that you enjoyed for so many years.

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