On Jul 9, 11:33?pm, BobK207 wrote:
On Jul 9, 7:05 pm, Bill C. wrote:





There is a city tree, an American Elm, that has a diameter of about
4'. It is a source of sewer backups, the roots get into the pipes.
This tree is on the tree belt and between two houses. I don't really
care for all the extra trouble because of the tree but don't want to
see it destroyed. Today a neighbor told me that he had poured copper
sulfate around the base of the tree. I understand that this is
poisonous to the tree roots.

Can this really kill a large tree?, it's about 80 ft tall with a
spread of at least 50'. Is there something I can do to neutralize the
copper sulfate? If the copper sulfate does harm the tree what should
I look for and what kind of timetable?

Is there something that I can put around the tree that will absorb the
copper sulfate if the neighbor adds more?

The tree is in MA and I think that this is not legal. Any ideas on
how to best proceed to first save the tree and second stop this nut?

I was worried about using a root killer myself so I did some internet
researching

commercial root killers are copper sulfatehttp://www.spotfree.net/rootout.htmlhttp://www.roebic.com/catalog/root.htm

It turns out that the copper sulfate does not move very far into the
root system & only the roots directly exposed (ie in the pipe) die &
wither away.

Not to worry about the tree it'll be fine & your sewer will be root
free.

I've used after researching it & my 70 year old camellia "trees" are
still going strong.

cheers
Bob- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

a buddles neighbor used copper sulphate root killer that had invaded
his sewer line.

killed two 200 year old trees, one owned by the fellow using the root
killer, the other tree was my buddy.

neighbor paid for both dead trees to be removed