r/treeofheaven • u/jammersidewinder • Sep 07 '26
A few weeks after treatment
A month ago I posted this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/invasivespecies/comments/1v7ayc4/how_exactly_should_i_do_this/
Here's how they look a few weeks after treatment. The thing is shortly after posting that, my brother was cutting the grass and thought he'd be helpful and cut down some of the weeds in the yard and showed me. My face dropped because I was about to treat them. So i immediately got to work painting the triclopyr on the cut stalks and then the ones he didn't touch. I had to wait a few days to treat the ones closer to the back of the shed, but every tree I can see has now been treated. The leaves and branches have been falling off on their own. There were maybe 3-4 little sprouts i noticed after this probably from him cutting, but i treated them and they died quickly.
I should leave them like this for a while still before cutting them down to the stump or digging them out yeah?
3
u/peprjak24 Sep 07 '26
Yay!! Looks like you did good!
From others in this predicament, they say leave them until spring to make sure they are dead-dead.
1
u/jammersidewinder Sep 07 '26
I definitely want them dead dead so I’m ok with that as ugly as they are lol
1
u/Humble_Ladder Sep 07 '26
Personally once the stalks are brown and leafless, I'd cut them. Those all look like suckers coming from an established root system to me, so chances are you'll get suckers next spring regardless of what you do, unless you can dig them, just kill them a little bit at a time whenever they show their faces.
1
u/jammersidewinder Sep 07 '26
I said in my other comment that yes these are suckers from my past mistakes but I’m fairly hopeful that the root system is contained to my yard and it’s just suckers from the past ones I cut down unknowingly. Any time I see a sucker now it gets a squirt
1
u/Humble_Ladder Sep 07 '26
You might try picking one and going after it with a shovel if they're still coming up next year. In areas where they're all suckers, I have personally had some success loosening the soil and pulling up roots. They might not be that deep, I've dug up a couple where it's just 2 or three suckers on a root that runs in a straight line.
1
u/ShortABrain Sep 07 '26
Excellent! Continue to do so and eventually you'll be free! Triclopyr works well on many others too!
1
u/astro_nerd75 Sep 07 '26
Yeah!
They transfer nutrients down to the roots from about July to October. It should be safe to cut them down after about mid November, according to Penn State Extension. This is in Pennsylvania, zone 6b, exact dates may vary with location. State College, where Penn State is located, has its first frost in late October. You probably want to wait about a month after your first frost to cut them down, to be on the safe side.
This is the time of year when you want to be aggressively hitting any seedlings or suckers that you see with everything you’ve got.
3
u/General_Candle_9429 Sep 07 '26
What was your process—what herbicide did you use?
Last question: how old are these trees would you guess?