How do you prevent sweet gum trees from dropping so many "tree balls"?
Question:I have two and a half sweet gum trees that have these round spiky balls on them. The trees shed these little missiles all year around. They are impervious to mowing, bounce away when you rake them and not to mention deadly when stepped on barefootetd. What can I do to the trees to reduce this problem? Or, is there a good use for these things?
Answers:
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cant do a thing live with or cut them down
You can either cut down the tree, or learn to deal with them. There is no way to prevent a tree from seeding. If you do cut down the tree, I believe there is a sterile species that does not produce seeds. Liquidambar styraciflua 'Rotundaloba' is the name if I remember correctly. The leaves have more rounded lobes, but still resembles the sweetgum.
Update: Florel will only supress flowers for 6 weeks or so. You would have to spray the entire tree for one, second its a Plant Growth Regulator. Your tree will be shorter, not grow as fast, and have much more branching. I wouldn't recommend this approach, especially for a tree. Florel is good for perennials and herbaceous plants, but not for trees.
I have a few of these myself and hate them! Going to be cutting them down in the fall. They make the yard look crappy.
According to my Sunday paper today, there's a product called FLOREL that can the blooms from mid to late bloom. The other involves an injection of something. Both should be done by an arborist and neither are cheap. According to the story there a 2 options, deal with them, or cut the trees down.
I had one for years. Treated it like I was told but still got the gumballs. I recently had it removed.
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