Many of our trees, shrubs, and woody vines are very prolific seed producers. We often see these seeds or seed pods, and don’t give a second thought as to what’s next. The maple helicopters go twirling across in front of our car. The cottonwood cotton floats everywhere and aggravates everyone. The little elm seeds go fluttering along with the lightest breeze and amuse us with the wind blown patterns.

But then the rains come along and the seed lands in an inviting location and boom. You’ve got a seedling. If, by chance, the seedling is where you need a tree, well then lucky you! But more likely the seedling is in a flower bed, in your garden, your yard or your fence row. If you catch this seedling when it is fairly small it is often an easy thing to pull it out by the roots. But maybe you don’t notice it, or at first it doesn’t bother you. So on it grows. Now your problem is bigger, literally! You take the clippers or saw out, take down a ten foot elm tree, and a month later you have eight sprouts from the stump instead of just one stem.

Trees are divided into two groups when it comes to how they react to being cut off. There are sprouting species and there are non-sprouting species. If you cut a cedar, pine or spruce tree off below the last branch, it will die. These are non sprouting species. They do not have the ability to generate new growth buds. If you cut off an elm or mulberry, it will sprout from a new or dormant bud and continue to grow. This is a sprouting species.

Some very large, very old sprouting species will die upon being cut. For whatever reason, age, location or something else, they simply can’t or won’t sprout and keep growing. This explains why burning a pasture does such a good job of controlling cedar trees, but why clipping off an elm sprout doesn’t kill it. Worse yet, some species, such as Osage orange or locust, will not only sprout from the stump if cut off, but they send up sucker sprouts from the roots as well!

For the homeowner, non sprouting species aren’t much of a problem. The sprouting species present quite a challenge. The good news is, that there are herbicides that we can apply to these sprouting species that will kill them. The bad news is that these herbicides don’t know the difference between the elm tree you’re trying to kill and the rose you’re trying to grow. You have to be very careful with these herbicides. We usually apply these as cut stump treatments. As soon as you cut the sprout or tree off, you apply the herbicide to the cut surface. If you apply too much, and it runs off onto the ground, it may be taken up by the roots of desirable plants causing damage.

One trick that I use, is to cut the offending tree a foot or two above the ground. That makes it easier to apply the herbicide and it is further to the ground so you are less likely to spill any on the ground. Read the label directions for what you are using, but most products simply say to use a small brush and apply the stump killer full strength on to the cut surface. On small seedlings, I have even used a cotton swab to apply the herbicide. Roundup herbicide also has a label for cut stump treatment. I have never used Roundup in this manner so can’t give you any first hand testimonials on how effective this is. But one advantage to Roundup is that it doesn’t have any soil activity. As long as you keep the concentrate off the leaves of desirable plants there shouldn’t be any problem.

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