I just moved in a few months ago and need to start figuring out the mess of a yard. I have probably a hundred of these through out the yard and barely any actual grass. What are they and what is the best way to get rid of?
Update. Looked closer at the two MASSIVE trees in the back and they are the same leaves. So am assuming I am completely screwed. And now I know why both my neighbors cut down their trees.
by Tiny_Act5987
14 Comments
TREE OF HEAVEN. Its evasive in most places. Id poison it.
Its amazing how we as homebuyers rarely look at whats growing in the yard when shopping for houses. We look at whether its pretty or not, but if I ever buy another house, I’ll be looking at what invasives are growing in the yard. I should really should impact the value of the house.
You will need to research how to get rid of it. If you don’t follow the timing and technique it will just resprout from the root system. All you can really do, until late summer, is glare at it and think unkind thoughts.
If you have time and love gardening you can overcome a lot of I picked every weed by hand in the yard of the old house I bought, I used a colander and sat in the grass and dirt by the driveway to get rid of small rocks. It’s been a labor of love. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine.
Pretty sure the culprit is the big tree in the middle. If that’s ailanthus, good luck
Use you phone. It will tell you everything you need to know.
Time to go to war. There will be many battles. your enemy is slow and stupid but it is relentless.
What state are you in? If you report this to your local extension office they’ll come take a look and may help you eradicate this issue. This is the beginning of a severe invasion. You’re going to need some professional help.
Use a pitch fork, need to loosen the soil, get under it and the trailing roots. Wear garden gloves and try to pull out as much of the root system you can see.
There is a penn state guide.
The babies/small plants that are a foot or smaller you can spray with round up. That’s a temporary solution, as they’ll come back over and over again, but you should keep them from getting bigger. The big tree needs to be dealt with.
I had about 5 trunks in my yard when I bought my house. They are dead now, didn’t leaf out and the trunks are splitting, so I’m about to cut them down but it’s still shooting up babies and likely will for about two more years. I used hack and squirt method and bought very concentrated glyphosate and that seemed to do it. [penn state guide is here. this is your new bible](https://extension.psu.edu/tree-of-heaven)
That’s a Tree Of Heaven. They’re invasive, hard to kill, and emit enzymes that stop other plants from growing. To verify, and I know this sounds dumb, grab a limb and break it off, then smell it. To me, it smells like cheap gas station nacho cheese that’s been burned.
I hit the ones we had here with round up, vegetation killer, diesel mixed with oil, tree killer, and none of it worked. Cut it down and it was 3 feet tall in 2 months. My mom gave me a bottle of something she got at the ranch, just a mason jar labeled “poison” and filled with some of the strongest stuff they had. I guess these things will spread massive systems from roots, because when we poisoned the main group it killed ALL the others. Haven’t had them for years now
Plant Bamboo and let them fight it out
The doodle bob.
I had a few of those that were a bit bigger and I used tryplocor (I spelled that wrong). Like others have said, you want to deal with that larger tree first. If it was me I would buy the brush and weed killer with the main ingredient I mentioned and then drill some holes in that tree trunk and pour some in the holes so the tree soaks it up i to its root system and then have it cut down. Once the larger tree is gone then tackle the rest of the yard.