Trees can be a blessing and some times an annoyance.
Trees provide shelter, reduce noise, enhance landscape and great to climb on when young and even suitable for a tree house. They can be a safety place to climb on during a flood.
But for some they are annoying if blocking a view or shading an area making it damp and miserable. They will also reduce your suitable land area to have garden beds.
They can also invade raised gardens with their roots and ruin the ability to grow plants in raised gardens.
A very important point to remember is if you are going to have a raised garden which is sitting on the soil; Instead you must ideally sit it on a concrete slab or pour about 5 cm of concrete to cover the base of the raised garden.
The reason being is that trees or other plants will become aware of the lovely food content in your raised garden and will send out feeder roots which will come up into the bed and create a dense mat of feeder roots.
After which you will find that plants just don’t grow in the raised garden any more.
You can to a certain extent, grow plants in the roots zone of a tree but they will need continual applications of food to grow as the tree will be stealing a lot of the goodness.
Now here is another important tip if you are going to cut down a tree you should ring bark it first and let it die before cutting it down.
The reason is that ring barking will kill the canopy and the root system which helps prevent lots of suckers appearing all over the place for years to come.
Suckers are small trees that emerge from the root system and are a real problem on some trees such as poplars.
Many trees can produce suckers, which are shoots that grow from the roots or base of a tree, but some species are naturally more prone to it than others.
Trees like poplars, willows, sumac, and some fruit trees (like cherries and plums) are known for freely producing suckers.
Additionally, trees that have been grafted, or those under stress from injury or disease, may also produce suckers as a way to try and survive.
Some ornamental trees that are prone to creating suckers are grafted onto non-suckering root stock to prevent a forest of saplings.
Ring barking, also known as girdling, is the process of removing a complete ring of bark around a tree trunk or branch, effectively cutting off the flow of water and nutrients.
This disruption can lead to the death of the tree or branch above the damaged area.
The alternative is to treat the freshly cut stump with chemical herbicides to kill the root system and help prevent suckers developing later on.
Products that can be used to Kill the Tree Roots and Prevent Re-Sprouting are Kiwicare Weed Weapon Stump Stop Gel which is formulated to effectively kill tree roots without causing harm to surrounding plants.
Cut the tree down and immediately paint Weed Weapon Stump Stop onto the whole cut surface of the stump.
Weed Weapon Stump Stop actually is…. Active Ingredients: 100 g/L Glyphosate as the Isopropylamine salt.
If you have the problem from a tree that has been cut down in the past which can easily be a tree on a neighbour’s property producing suckers in your lawn and gardens, then these can be treated like a freshly cut stump by cutting then down low and applying the Kiwi Care product or Yates Woodyweed killer.
Active ingredients: 100g per litre 2,4-D and 50g per litre dicamba, both as amine salts in the form of a soluble concentrate.
Now afterwards you still have the stump and unless you want to use it as a seat or make some sort of garden feature out of it then you will likely want to get rid of it.
There are contractors that have stump grinders which will pulverise the the wood to bits but often the place where the stump is cannot be accessed by the grinder. Also stump grinding is not free and can cost you a bit to have done.
Here is a price guide…Tree stump removal costs $100 to $400 on average, depending on the size, diameter, and removal method.
The cost of stump removal is $2 to $6 per inch for stump grinding with minimum fees of $80 to $160. Tree root and trunk removal costs $75 to $200 per hour.
So if you are not in a hurry to get rid of the stump or its in a situation where a grinder is not an option then you have Wallys Stump Rotter which is potassium nitrate or often known as Saltpetre.
Saltpeter, also spelled saltpetre, is a common name for potassium nitrate (KNO3). It’s a white crystalline substance with a salty, bitter taste and is known for its use in gunpowder, fertilizers, and as a food preservative.
(Potassium nitrate (KNO3) is used as a food preservative, primarily in meat curing, where it helps prevent bacterial growth, enhance colour, and extend shelf life.
It is particularly effective in inhibiting the growth of Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that can cause botulism, a serious form of food poisoning.)
To use Wallys Stump Rotter on stumps you simply drill holes in the stump as shown on the label and pour the potassium nitrate prills down the holes.
You don’t plug off or cover and leave it to eat into the wood.
I am often asked how long does it take?
A difficult question to answer as it depends on the size of the stump, the type of wood it is, the number of holes drilled and the diameter of the drill used.
Feed back has indicated that after about 6 months to 12 months the stump starts to break up by hand.
Stump rotter will not kill the stump or stop suckers it is only used to break the stump down, quicker than what would happen in Nature if nothing was done.
Another great use for potassium nitrate is as a weed killer.
Its an old knowledge thing where with a plant such as a dandelion growing in the lawn or else where you sprinkle some potassium nitrate onto the crown of the plant when its dry
and then with the moisture from the plant it will burn the plant out.
No harm to the soil life and an easy way to individually treat weeds like the dandelions.
As the potassium nitrate is in a prill form to use on weeds it is better to crush the prills to obtain a free flow powder.
There is also another product called Wallys Super Stump Rotter (Ammonium Sulphamate) which will also eat into wood and is sprinkled over a freshly scoured stump and then covered with a plastic bag to protect from weather.
A lot more of a hassle to use and really Super Stump Rotter should be used instead to kill hard to kill weeds and watered over the likes of oxalis to rot/compost the bulbs in the soil.
Its 200 grams in the container which you add to one litre of water of which about 250 mils is watered over the foliage of an oxalis plant going down into the soil to compost the bulbs and help clear up this pesky plant.
The one litre can be sprayed over weeds ideally on a sunny day when the ground is on the dry side to compost the weeds where they are growing.
Potassium nitrate is also used as a fertiliser to boost plants growth during the growing season.
It is best mixed with Ammonium Sulphate.
Comprising of two parts Sulphate of Ammonia and one part Potassium Nitrate.
Mixed at these rates it has a final NPK of 18.5:0:13. Used to boost growth of cucumbers and other cubits such as pumpkins, melons, squash, gherkins, zucchini and gourds.
Sold all ready to add to water as Wallys Cucumber Booster.
Watered generously on the plant’s root system area, once only per week and recommended to be used on that day as a replacement for normal watering.
The product has two measuring spoons supplied with full instructions on the label for mixing and use.
TO USE: Dissolve 50 grams, (one level scoop of large spoon supplied) into 20 litres of water. (Half scoop for 10 Litres).
Or Dissolve 12 grams (6 level scoops of small spoon supplied) into 5 litres of water.
The 300 grams of product will make up 120 litres of this cucumber food.
One should bear in mind however that Cucumber Booster is not a complete plant food, rather a growth booster.
Image credit: Darius Bashar
Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz
Problems ring me at: Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
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Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz
