I have a few sweet gum trees in my yard that are to big to cut in the yard and I need to know how to kill them so that they will slowly died and NOT make anymore gum balls. Thank you.
2007-03-17 01:49:40 · 9 answers · asked by bcsback 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Garden & Landscape
If you want to kill them, girdle them. This is accomplished by cutting a strip of bark a few inches wide all the way around the trunk. This exposes the cambium (living part of the trunk) and it drys and dies--and then the tree dies because water and nutrients cannot go up to the leaves.
But I have to ask, are the balls that much of a problem? I have a sweet gum and I like it.
2007-03-17 02:57:49 · answer #1 · answered by college kid 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
To start with, if it is too big to cut in the yard and you kill it, you are diffenetly going to have a posibility of it falling on whatever it can reach.
Be it your house, car, outbuilding, fence etc. If it is that large it will not fall all at once. If you kill it, it will take a couple years and then the ends of the limbs will start falling off, one by one. And then larger parts of the limbs will fall etc. but let me tell you, even one large limb can go through your roof, or tear a car all to pcs.
Now to answer your question, the best way to kill a tree is to debark a belt around the base of the truck about 6" wide. This stops the flow of sap because that is where the sap flows in a tree. You can take a chain saw, a skil saw, or with some elboe grease, even a hand saw and cut threw the bark all the way around the tree two times. About and inch or inch and a half will do it Make these tow cuts about 6" apart and then make one cut straight up intersecting bout other cuts.
Them take a flat bar or crow bar and hammer and get under the ring of bark and peel it off. After you get it started it will come off fairly easy. I do this to trees I want to cut for fire wood next year so they will dry while still standing and not lay on the ground rotting. If you catch it before the sap goes back up this spring, it won't even bear another leaf.
This also make limbing a tree you plan on taking down easier as all the small limbs will have already fallen off and either be rotted or cleaned up without you haveing to cut all the little twigs as you go.
Hope this helps you out.
2007-03-17 03:12:13 · answer #2 · answered by dennis_phillips7 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I hate sweet gum trees and yes they are a pain , even when u cut then down u still have lots more come up from there roots, we cut down three and now have 20 more , even grand out the stumps, so now what do you do to just kill them all the way out
2016-02-28 18:23:56 · answer #3 · answered by Brenda 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Best thing you can do is have a tree company remove them. If you kill them, Sweetgum is a pretty softwood tree. They will rot fast and end up falling, usually in the worst spot. Bite the bullet and have them removed.
2007-03-17 04:14:35 · answer #4 · answered by jimdc49 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sweet Gumtree
2017-03-02 17:23:04 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok if the trees are to big to cut down you dont wont them to die from a spray they will die and a big wind will come and they could fall on the house try calling your power company if there under the power lines then you may have to hire someone to come in and cut them down
2007-03-17 03:04:25 · answer #6 · answered by mountainchowpurple 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you kill them they will fall aand may hit the house or a neighbors fence. Best to have them removed by an insured contractor
2007-03-17 02:00:00 · answer #7 · answered by fortyninertu 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
KILL, a tree are you crazy?
2007-03-17 02:09:13 · answer #8 · answered by HEAR TO HELP 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I think it depends
2016-08-23 21:24:15 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋