Tree of Heaven Removal

Feb 19, 2023 12:36:02

Haven't been on in a while.

Some of you may have picked up bits & pieces of my attempts at getting rid of a bad Tree of Heaven colony in recent years. I'll go ahead & describe exactly what I've done so far & how it's going.

So, the basic plan was the girdle the trees (remove all the layers of bark, down to bare wood, in a complete circle around the trunk), to cause everything above the girding to die off, then remove all further new growth, suckers and seedlings as they came up, until- hopefully- the tree eventually died for good. I did a couple trees as a test two years ago, then did several more last year.

So, first year, the girding did damage the trees, but it took an entire year for the tree above the cut to die off. They still produced seeds which produced seedlings that first year, which had to be removed the following spring. They did not produce leaves or seeds the second year. It was hard to know exactly how long it would take for these trees to start showing signs of actual death, but it looks like the two year old trees did not attempt to produce new growth or suckers last fall whatsoever & a colony of ants have moved into the base of the tree. The other trees that are also at the two year mark do not show signs of life so far, either. I know this is February, but it's been giving us April-like weather almost every day for weeks now & things are beginning to attempt growing. I'll add pics of one of the trees at the bottom.

Now, there have been some difficulties. These trees produce tons of seedlings & if those aren't culled & they all grow in, their root systems merge into one giant colony, which is probably going to be much harder to remove. There is one such colony & it's growback was a lot more aggressive than many of the single trees scattered around the area. Some trees were easy to access in early spring or late fall, but damned near impossible to reach if they started showing signs of growth in summer, so I had to lt those be, until now. I don't know if those trees will be as easy to kill. Railway did more aggressive clearing alongside its tracks last fall, for some unknown reason & that has left several more trees a lot more exposed. Also, ants & bees are super attracted to these cuts, which also causes spiders to move in & build nests right in the new growth, turning attempted removal into a bit of a horror movie that I don't relish dealing with.

But, yeah... I think I actually did it. I found out how to kill Trees of Heaven. It just takes, at least, two years.

Feb 19, 2023 14:14:15

What are the issues that bought the demise of the trees?

Feb 25, 2023 06:20:25

John C Daley wrote:What are the issues that bought the demise of the trees?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. How did the trees die, what do I think ultimately cased these specific trees to die, or why did I feel like I had to kill them? Or something else I'm not thinking of?

Feb 25, 2023 07:00:21

I don't think they are such a problem in Australia, so John is probably asking why it had to die.

Feb 25, 2023 07:35:57

Oh. They are considered one of the top 3 most dangerous invasive species in Ohio, alongside kudzu. They pump chemicals into the grounds that stop making native seeds sprout & very few native plants are immune. They grow like wildfire & are very hard to kill. Large colonies will create their own microclimate & raise the temperature around the Grove a few degrees. They suck up water like crazy & they're the primary host for the Emerald Ash Borer, which is endangering all of our native ash species'.

Feb 25, 2023 08:03:41

I've been fighting those nasty things for years here in SE Indiana. I finally found a technique that is easy to do and seems to work pretty well. Last spring before they leafed out. I put a 1/2 inch bit in my battery powered drill and shot them full of holes as deep as the bit would go and as close to the ground as I could. I also did it to any exposed roots. They smaller ones just died; the bigger ones leafed out but didn't make seeds and dropped all their leaves in mid-summer. I'll know in a couple of months if they are dead as well, fingers crossed.

Feb 25, 2023 16:18:37

That sounds like a great solution Mark.

Feb 27, 2023 04:24:58

It's massively invasive here in central Virginia. Tree of heaven, privet, English ivy, and Japanese honeysuckle are the 'big 4'.

I must be missing something here, just slice the tree off at ground level, done. No girdling or hole drilling required. And you get a bunch of (admittedly meh) firewood.
[Edit: Now that I think about it, if you slice the tree off, water shoots will appear and start to grow. Real easy to kill those at that stage though.]

Also, isn't the ash tree, the primary host of the ash borer? I never heard of the tree of heaven being a host, let alone primary.

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