I have 5 Little Leaf Lindens spaced out around the perimeter of my corner lot. I don't particularly care for them as they are quite sappy and the ones near the driveway and mail box leave a sticky mist coating that is very attractive to yellow jackets. I'd take them all out, but they apparently belong to the county, so I can't touch them. They all grow suckers at the base of the tree which makes them very unsightly. If I spray these with Round Up or Ortho Brush B Gone, will it kill the saplings without harming the tree? I currently rip them off at the trunk base, but they just grow back.

Also, I had a Bradford Pear that my brother came and cut down to the ground. My then 5 year old son was learning to climb trees and he and his friend were trying to immitate Diego (Nickelodeon preschool adventure character) and kept climbing up the tree with a nylon rope with the intention of repelling back down. I had visions of one of them getting the rope stuck around their neck and decided I'd just take the tree out. So now I have little sapplings coming up around the trunk base (trunk was cut down and is currently about 3 inches above the ground) and from the anchor roots that are at ground level. Any ideas of how to get rid of these permanently?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Flo

simpson wrote:Not much you can do about the suckers but mow them down. Even if you were able to kill the suckers more will just grow back.

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That's too bad - they are so unsightly! I'll keep cutting them back on the Lindens. I guess I could try to get the Bradford Pear's stump out and see if that would do the trick on those.

My neighbor "paints" stumps that he doesn't want to come back with dirty oil from his oil changes...he swears that it works.

tulipfrills wrote:My neighbor "paints" stumps that he doesn't want to come back with dirty oil from his oil changes...he swears that it works.

Yikes - that doesn't sound very environmentally friendly. I wonder if the stuff you use to paint tree limbs after you cut them off might work? I'll just keep cutting the little things. I'd take all of the lindens down if they actually belonged to me. Really not the best street trees. That, and whoever planted them for the county 20 years ago planted them about 18 inches from the curb. Not a smart thing to do with any tree.