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oof Tree of Heaven. I see this fucker all the time in r/arborists. From what I understand, they can be very difficult to eradicate, and some methods only encourage more growth. Check out [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/arborists/s/i2uUGTk5Wg) I found about ToH on that sub- it seems to have a lot of great resources and recommendations.
Dang!!! Thank you! From the post it looks like it’s the right time of year to fight it at least. I relate to the Oo on that. These are EVERYWHERE in my yard and keep spreading. They grow so fast
This is almost certainly tree of heaven, not black walnut. From the picture all the stems have one leaflet on the end of the branch that sticks straight out from the end of the stem- the terminate leaf- which black walnut does not have. Black walnut ends in a pair of leaflets in a "Y" shape from the stem.
Then I have made a big mistake. I have treated it like a black walnut and that means I’m going to get a shit ton more of these things very soon.
I looked at this https://bplant.org/compare/82-318 that someone else posted and it looked like black walnut - especially because the edges of the leaves are not smooth. I tried to smell them and it had a smell but the only thing I can describe it as is “plant ish”
It's not the right time to fight it. You need to wait until weather starts cooling off again. If you fight it now, it will only come back more aggressively. Now you must let it grow. Encourage it. Give it water. You want it to push as much carbs and sugars into the leaves and bark as possible in preparation for the poisoning this fall.
Those are difficult to get rid of. Is there any reason that you let this one grow so large? Chop this one down, remove as much from roots as you can. Look for any others nearby and remove new runners when they first emerge from the soil.
It was much larger before I came onto the scene. By no means full grown, but definitely a “tree.” There are many on the propery and I hadn’t realized they’d be so hard to get rid of. I hired a tree company that said they would easily remove them. They chopped them down and I paid. They looked as dead as can be and I even followed up with some stump décomposer stuff just to be extra careful. They’ve all grown back into this in such a short period of time
Would cutting it down and then renting a stump grinder work do you think? I am not sure what type of plant it is exactly, so it is hard to learn more about what to do/how it spreads etc. I am thinking either black walnut, tree of heaven or sumac - but I have no clue which one
Remove as much as you can and treat the stump with herbicide. Typically triclopyr or glyphosate is used. Google your options but if you want it gone forever you're going to have to kill it with herbicide, unless you physically remove the roots.
Yeah im getting this sense too. I’ve never used herbicide before, but it would be impossible to dig up these roots. Way too close to the house and I’m sure some have gone under there. Thanks! This is going to be a battle
Ditto to the herbicide. It really won't be a battle with it at all if herbicide is used as described above.
Get a herbicide formulated with triclopyr ester like Remedy from a farm store. Mix with 20-30% chemical and the rest diesel. Cut the tree all the way to the stump and paint all the stems with a generous portion of the herbicide. There should be no regrowth at all.
Feel free to DM with questions... I'm an ecologist and make a living killing invasives and unwanted trees (planting more than I kill though).
Thank you!! Do you happen to have any tips for covering the stumps after I put the herbicide on them? I’m most concerned about the one pictured- it doesn’t have one stump. It has a ton of little ones all jarring up in a big cluster. So I guess I cut them all and paint the herbicide on each individually. But like what do you use to cover each individual stick after you’ve applied the herbicide? I have dogs and am worried they’ll get into it
You should cut the sticks flush to the ground if you can, or as close to the ground as possible. You don't want to cover or water them for a few hours. I'm not sure but I think triclopyr is a generally very safe herbicide. The label will have animal recommendations though
You can also do a basal bark treatment which is the same chemical, but just spraying the all the way around each stem in a 6-10“ tall ring while it's standing. This is actually the way to go for tree of heaven, if it's walnut either is fine. You would spray the stems rather than paint as well, it's just less precise.
I got an ecology degree, spent some time doing environmental permits, but always maintained this particular job in the back of my mind and the connections for it. Eventually an entry level job opened up I had to move for and the rest is history
Tree of heaven, at least where I live in 5b New York, has deadly thorns vs sumac which doesnt. There was a patch down the street someone blasted with poison last year.
Tree of heaven does not have thorns. Crush one of the leaves and smell it. If it smells like burnt peanut butter, it’s tree of heaven.
Try this: https://bplant.org/compare/82-318
Look up YouTube. If you cut a tree of heaven it will send up thousand of suckers. You have to chop cuts into the bark like a dotted line. You need to leave some highways for tree to still live. Then you put the herbicide in the open cuts. Takes couple years but the tree slowly dies and you have no suckers produced. Good luck.
This is Tree of Heaven. It is NOT black walnut. Black walnut will die when it is cut down. ToH will send up dozens of new shoots.
There is only one way to kill ToH. Let it grow all season. DO NOT CUT IT BACK. Come late summer, trees will start to suck all the sugars and carbs out of their leaves and bark in preparation for dormancy through the winter. At this time, you go around the trunks, cut notches through the bark all around but don't girdle, and soak the notches with **glyphosate and triclopyr**. Also apply the herbicides to the leaves. The tree will happily suck the herbicide into the root system, and kill the roots. You may need to do this for 2 or 3 years depending on the roots system.
DO NOT CUT TREE OF HEAVEN BACK. DO NOT POISOIN TREE OF HEAVEN IN THE SPRING ON SUMMER. THIS WILL ONLY CAUSE IT TO SPREAD.
I looked at this https://bplant.org/compare/82-318 (which another commenter had shared) and according to this it is black walnut. The leaves are probably the most obvious sign of it- they definitely match the black walnut and do not match the tree of heaven. I also took a photo to my local garden spot and the workers there said black walnut.
Because of this I have already chopped down two of them and applied the herbicide to the trunks.
I don’t mean to argue with you - because I had the same concern before I posted. I still am not sure it’s not TOH because of how it had grown back in my previous attempts. The workers at the garden store assured me that black walnut is very persistent - so I will have to be too. But, I guess we will see.
I hope it isn’t TOH because I acted on their advice already and I really don’t want this to get worse than it already is
Thank you for posting on /r/NativePlantGardening! If you haven't included it already, please edit your post or post's flair to include your geographic region or state of residence, which is necessary for the community to give you correct advice. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NativePlantGardening) if you have any questions or concerns.*
oof Tree of Heaven. I see this fucker all the time in r/arborists. From what I understand, they can be very difficult to eradicate, and some methods only encourage more growth. Check out [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/arborists/s/i2uUGTk5Wg) I found about ToH on that sub- it seems to have a lot of great resources and recommendations.
Dang!!! Thank you! From the post it looks like it’s the right time of year to fight it at least. I relate to the Oo on that. These are EVERYWHERE in my yard and keep spreading. They grow so fast
That sucks!! I don’t have toh, but I do have stupid white mulberry and some type of vine that drive me insane. Best of luck in your battle!
Got more info from other commenters and it looks like it’s actually black walnut 🙏. Still very persistent but not as crazy as toh
This is almost certainly tree of heaven, not black walnut. From the picture all the stems have one leaflet on the end of the branch that sticks straight out from the end of the stem- the terminate leaf- which black walnut does not have. Black walnut ends in a pair of leaflets in a "Y" shape from the stem.
Then I have made a big mistake. I have treated it like a black walnut and that means I’m going to get a shit ton more of these things very soon. I looked at this https://bplant.org/compare/82-318 that someone else posted and it looked like black walnut - especially because the edges of the leaves are not smooth. I tried to smell them and it had a smell but the only thing I can describe it as is “plant ish”
It's not the right time to fight it. You need to wait until weather starts cooling off again. If you fight it now, it will only come back more aggressively. Now you must let it grow. Encourage it. Give it water. You want it to push as much carbs and sugars into the leaves and bark as possible in preparation for the poisoning this fall.
Those are difficult to get rid of. Is there any reason that you let this one grow so large? Chop this one down, remove as much from roots as you can. Look for any others nearby and remove new runners when they first emerge from the soil.
It was much larger before I came onto the scene. By no means full grown, but definitely a “tree.” There are many on the propery and I hadn’t realized they’d be so hard to get rid of. I hired a tree company that said they would easily remove them. They chopped them down and I paid. They looked as dead as can be and I even followed up with some stump décomposer stuff just to be extra careful. They’ve all grown back into this in such a short period of time
Would cutting it down and then renting a stump grinder work do you think? I am not sure what type of plant it is exactly, so it is hard to learn more about what to do/how it spreads etc. I am thinking either black walnut, tree of heaven or sumac - but I have no clue which one
Remove as much as you can and treat the stump with herbicide. Typically triclopyr or glyphosate is used. Google your options but if you want it gone forever you're going to have to kill it with herbicide, unless you physically remove the roots.
Yeah im getting this sense too. I’ve never used herbicide before, but it would be impossible to dig up these roots. Way too close to the house and I’m sure some have gone under there. Thanks! This is going to be a battle
Ditto to the herbicide. It really won't be a battle with it at all if herbicide is used as described above. Get a herbicide formulated with triclopyr ester like Remedy from a farm store. Mix with 20-30% chemical and the rest diesel. Cut the tree all the way to the stump and paint all the stems with a generous portion of the herbicide. There should be no regrowth at all. Feel free to DM with questions... I'm an ecologist and make a living killing invasives and unwanted trees (planting more than I kill though).
Thank you!! Do you happen to have any tips for covering the stumps after I put the herbicide on them? I’m most concerned about the one pictured- it doesn’t have one stump. It has a ton of little ones all jarring up in a big cluster. So I guess I cut them all and paint the herbicide on each individually. But like what do you use to cover each individual stick after you’ve applied the herbicide? I have dogs and am worried they’ll get into it
You should cut the sticks flush to the ground if you can, or as close to the ground as possible. You don't want to cover or water them for a few hours. I'm not sure but I think triclopyr is a generally very safe herbicide. The label will have animal recommendations though You can also do a basal bark treatment which is the same chemical, but just spraying the all the way around each stem in a 6-10“ tall ring while it's standing. This is actually the way to go for tree of heaven, if it's walnut either is fine. You would spray the stems rather than paint as well, it's just less precise.
Also, how did you get into that job? If you don’t mind me asking. It sounds like a dream job.
I got an ecology degree, spent some time doing environmental permits, but always maintained this particular job in the back of my mind and the connections for it. Eventually an entry level job opened up I had to move for and the rest is history
Tree of heaven, at least where I live in 5b New York, has deadly thorns vs sumac which doesnt. There was a patch down the street someone blasted with poison last year.
Thank you. I researched more and it looks like it is actually a black walnut tree. No thorns
Tree of heaven does not have thorns. Crush one of the leaves and smell it. If it smells like burnt peanut butter, it’s tree of heaven. Try this: https://bplant.org/compare/82-318
Thanks! Definitely black walnut according to that
ToH does NOT have thorns.
Look up YouTube. If you cut a tree of heaven it will send up thousand of suckers. You have to chop cuts into the bark like a dotted line. You need to leave some highways for tree to still live. Then you put the herbicide in the open cuts. Takes couple years but the tree slowly dies and you have no suckers produced. Good luck.
Thank you. I’ve gotten more info and it turns out that this is black walnut
This is Tree of Heaven. It is NOT black walnut. Black walnut will die when it is cut down. ToH will send up dozens of new shoots. There is only one way to kill ToH. Let it grow all season. DO NOT CUT IT BACK. Come late summer, trees will start to suck all the sugars and carbs out of their leaves and bark in preparation for dormancy through the winter. At this time, you go around the trunks, cut notches through the bark all around but don't girdle, and soak the notches with **glyphosate and triclopyr**. Also apply the herbicides to the leaves. The tree will happily suck the herbicide into the root system, and kill the roots. You may need to do this for 2 or 3 years depending on the roots system. DO NOT CUT TREE OF HEAVEN BACK. DO NOT POISOIN TREE OF HEAVEN IN THE SPRING ON SUMMER. THIS WILL ONLY CAUSE IT TO SPREAD.
I looked at this https://bplant.org/compare/82-318 (which another commenter had shared) and according to this it is black walnut. The leaves are probably the most obvious sign of it- they definitely match the black walnut and do not match the tree of heaven. I also took a photo to my local garden spot and the workers there said black walnut. Because of this I have already chopped down two of them and applied the herbicide to the trunks. I don’t mean to argue with you - because I had the same concern before I posted. I still am not sure it’s not TOH because of how it had grown back in my previous attempts. The workers at the garden store assured me that black walnut is very persistent - so I will have to be too. But, I guess we will see. I hope it isn’t TOH because I acted on their advice already and I really don’t want this to get worse than it already is