Willows: invasive?

[davidwyby]

Went to look at butchering some mesquites for a guy, he has a few of these stumps in the corner of his yard.

 

[Burnham]

Might consider this, if he wishes to avoid resprouting.

Cut stump treatments?

Howdy, so the title says it all for the most part. What do all y’all like for cut stump treatments? In general we will just tear out the offending vegetation and haven’t used any chemicals in a long time but have a job that we can’t do that. For what ever reason is beyond my understanding of...

www.masterblasterhome.com

 

[davidwyby]

Sorry for the bad lighting angle. Local college has a bunch of them and they seem OK even if they are sending up shoots everywhere. I wonder if they start shedding bad once they reach a certain age like mine. @Bermy? Or maybe too much water and they outgrow their strength? Probably should just remove mine.

 

[SeanKroll]

Root "suckers" and seedlings can be mistaken for one another, FWIW.


Aspen like to send up suckers.

IDK about willow.

 

[davidwyby]

I think I have attempted to yank up the suckers of my wattle like seedlings and found them connected to roots.

This is mine…maybe I am pruning wrong? The regrowth breaks off like crazy. I think I’m gonna remove the whole thing. Or cut it down to the height of the sapling next to it.

 

[davidwyby]

Or maybe I just need to watch the regrowth very carefully and often….which is hard to do since I don’t climb and can’t get the lift to it.

 

[Burnham]

Classic willow growth and subsequent breakage...like I said, an overall crap tree .

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The willow is good enough if we leave it alone, but an occasional prune due to a congested area brings up the troubles. On the other hand, pollarding (regular systematic heavy prune) allows to keep your tree going in a reasonable size by removing all the new material. Weakly anchored or not, it doesn't matter because every so often you cut it back to the big wood of the permanent structure. A convenient average time is 3 years but it can be done yearly. The limbs/sprouts are easy to cut and manage, with small diameter wounds.

 

[davidwyby]

That hard pollard thing is exactly how most people do trees around here. I don’t like it but did this on my lunch break yesterday at my shop. Very hack but good enough for who it’s for, and all done in an hour (with the Telehandler). The big tree gets trimmed once a year, usually not this hard. We don’t water it but it must have found something like my wattle at home. This is mesquite. They are darn tough.

Forgot to grab that bag

 

[Al Smith]

Around here willows are basically a swamp tree .As such they can send out roots that will clog up drain lines if left go in yards .So basically they are considered weeds .Kind of hard to kill once they get started . About the only thing the wood might be used for is fish creels and baskets .Perhaps snow shoes if you lived in Alaska .

 

[Mellow]

FYI, that is topping, not pollarding. Two very different animals.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I cut down a willow once for a HO that said they would clean it up. He got all the brush gone, started cutting on the trunk and stopped. Called us a couple years later to do some more work. Mentioned over the phone about finishing up the trunk for him since the wood was heavy.

EVERY BIT of that stem rooted back into the ground and proceeded to grow new spouts straight up trying to make new trees.
It took a bit of doing with ropes, dingo, saws, axe and loppers to seperate that damn stem from the ground.

 

[Al Smith]

Willows are a little like star fish .Leave a little branch lay on the ground and it will morph into another tree . I watched a guy locally do battle with a big fat plump one over a 20 year period .Weeping willow about 5-6 feet at ground level .Finally got it down to the ground and piled old tires over it and set it afire .Fact I'll go past it today and see if they killed it yet or not . It's right on the bank of a creek so it's got plenty of water for the roots and I seriously doubt if it's grave yard dead .