What is the best way to get rid of wild sumac in my yard.?
Question:The neighbor's property has very large woody sumac trees right up against my property to block out the view of my house. The roots have multiplied at an unbelievable pace and have about taken over my whole yard.
Answers:
Believe it or not, but it is quite difficult to get rid of sumac. Others are correct, if it is poisonous, you should not wait. Some will tell you to burn it but this plant grows faster by the root zone than any other way. Your best bet is to somehow contaminate the soil. Lime, sulfur, round up, even bleach if you become desperate. Just make sure you can seperate yours from your neighbours or else his will be killed too. Dig a trench seperating your trees from his, about six feet down making sure to cut all the roots that you come across regardless of size. Once this is done, take your plant poison of choice and spray or apply to the peremeter of your trees at the base of the tree. Water this in as if this were fertilizer. Continue this process once per week and do not add any further waterings until the leaves turn brown, sickly weeping and dropping. This is good. Once all the leaves are gone, then cut the trunks down to the ground before winter and turn these into a bonfire (lol). The following year, if the 'colony' attempts to grow back, try using direct liquid bleach to one spot and see what it does. If this works, then apply to your whole problem. Kill the roots, kill the colony. I should warn you, if you do use bleach, that area will be contaminated for a while. Don't forget to dig up the colony and replace the soil. Once that is done, you can plant a tree such as a black walnut or a chestnut tree. These trees release a chemial through their roots that does not allow anything else to over power it. hope that this helps even though it's really long and detailed. :)
Add on: My dad recommends to place copper nails in the soil once you've seperated your trees from your neighbours. This, however, will take many, many years to work. My suggestion is the quickest. You could add the nails as a helper.
Are these poison sumac trees? If so, you need to get together with your neighbor to get rid of them. If that doesn't work, talk to your town about ordinances. Be careful not to get a rash.
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