I have a crab apple tree that send up suckers all the time. Will landscape fabric stop these? I tried roundup last year, but I think it hurt the tree. They just come right up through mulch, no matter how thick it is. Any ideas? In the mean time, I keep having to prune them.
<font color="blue"> Will landscape fabric stop these? I tried roundup last year, but I think it hurt the tree. They just come right up through mulch, no matter how thick it is. Any ideas? In the mean time, I keep having to prune them. </font color>
Ah, I have them too - I have plums and pears and the main root stock is very agressive at sending out suckers. Bane of my existance. Well, one of 'em [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]...
Landscape fabric won't work. I've tried it - the suckers will come right through it after a surprisingly short time. And then you'll have scraps of torn fabric wandering around for years.
Your right about the Roundup, too. I've tried that as well - and it definately kills trees. Lost a few that way [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]. Plenty more where they came from, though [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]...
What we do is to just prune 'em off once a year. That isn't often enough to keep them gone all year, but it is such a hassle to do and hard to do it often enough to keep up. The "best practice" is to pull 'em off when they're still really small, but like I said, keeping up is more work than we have time for (got lots of trees). But for the few we have in the yard I try to pull off (or up, as the case may be) suckers when they are as small as possible - I generally do it each time I mow. That works best.
Any better ideas would be appreciated - this is one of my least favorite activities [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img].
I've found that if you twist the suckers off, it inhibits the roots ability to grow another at that sight. Yes, a clean cut is best, but I use a pair of pliers, and just grab and twist. They come right off and I've have yet to have a problem with injury to the trees.
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