David Combs wrote:
SUBJECT:
How to poison weed-like squirrel-planted YOUNG-trees after scythe-ing
off the stalks.

In the back yard we have this large patch of pakasandra (sp?),
which each year turns into a jungle of thus-far-juvenile
trees. (Each year they get planted via squirrels burring
nuts, some of which they clearly don't locate later on.)

Anyway, this year I got this (home-depot) serrated-edge scythe
and went out there and chopped them all, shortening them
from maybe 5 to 8 feet tall to 2 or 3 foot-high
truncated stalks.

How to get rid of these things -- so at least *this* batch
doesn't grow back?

I was thinking that since I want to preserve the *desired*
plants (eg pakasandra(sp?)), I'd want to be super-careful
with any poison.

Obviously (I think) I wouldn't want to spray anything over
the entire area.

So, I was thinking that maybe I could carefully "paint"
some poison directly on the chopped cross-section of each of
those remaining stalks?

(At this point, there's no leaves left, just the roughly-chopped
stalks.)

QUESTION: does this make any sense?

If so, what *kind* of poison -- that would hopefully be
just enough to kill *that* attempting-to-be-a-tree stalk
(and roots?), but that wouldn't propagate out to roots
of *other* plants.

Ideas?

Thanks!

David

I have had great succes killing perenials (flowers, trees, shrubs)
using RoundUp.

Any substantial plant has energy stored in the root system & will
continue to generate leaves until this energy is exhausted.

As PipeDown suggested you can continue to harass the little trees until
they run out of steam.

Alternatively I would chop them all the way down (remove as much woody
material above the soil as possible)

I would then water & fertilize lightly tthis will encourage a new leafy
structure to develop.

When it established (about a foot or two) I did hose it down with
RoundUp

Us the super concentrate 42% ? 50% ? at a 3oz per gallon dilution.

They'll all be dead in few weeks.

cheers
Bob