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Hello, I'm Jody Gale, extension agent with Utah State University Extension Service.
Very pleased to have you here with us.
Regarding pruning, and tree trimming in this case, in the home yard.
Occasionally trees get too big for the places they were planted.
Good landscape designs are a way to properly select tree and plant
materials so that they can be planted in areas where there's enough space.
But when trees become overgrown or
too large in their place they need to be taken out.
This can be a very dangerous effort when attempted by homeowners.
It's recommended that professional tree pruners or
tree removal companies be hired to be able to remove large trees.
However, often when these trees are removed,
there's a lot of growth that comes back from the trunks and the stumps themselves.
So what we'd like to do is discuss briefly the technique of removing a tree, and
then show how to cut a stump off.
And then treat the stump in such a way with a herbicide so
that it will prevent the sucker growth from coming back on the stump.
Typically when very large trees are removed, on the side of the tree where
you desire the tree to fall, a large wedge is taken
out of the side of the tree such as represented with this piece.
You come approximately a third of the way into the tree on a very flat,
horizontal cut and making a downward cut taking a slice out and
completely removing that from the tree.
This is an undercutting technique that creates a place for
the tree to begin to tip as it's cut from the back side.
Once on the back side you make a downward slope, cutting down in and
leaving a hinge or a wedge of living tissue.
That hinge literally becomes the place that creates the direction or
the plane in which the tree will tip.
Once a cut is started with a chainsaw
leaving enough room to clear the backside blade of the chain.
Typical wedges are very helpful as they're pounded into that
opening area beginning to tip the tree just a little bit to get it to fall away.
That's essentially the technique on how it's done.
Again it's a very dangerous thing to do.
If trees or fences, or other things are nearby,
it can very easily be totally damaged by a tree falling in the wrong direction.
Only trained,
professional tree removal personnel should be used to make that type of a cut.
Now that this tree has been cut and removed, we're gonna demonstrate how to
cut the rest of the stump off and exposing the cambium area.
Which is the place that must be treated
on the outside edge of the stump with a herbicide in order to prevent from
sending up suckers as we will demonstrate in a few minutes.
Once the tree has been freshly cut it's time to apply the herbicide
fairly quickly.
The way the herbicide is mixed, again you should have on protective safety
equipment, glasses to be able to prevent against splash back into your eyes.
Some type of latex or vinyl gloves to protect your hands.
These particular products, even they're very,
very safe to use in their concentrated form,
you should make typical preventative measures to reduce your exposure.
What we will do is we will apply the herbicide in their undiluted form.
Typically, if you're gonna be spraying weeds around your yard using roundup, or
2-4-D, or some other product, you would use a couple of tablespoons
per the label instructions, per gallon of water in a very diluted mix to apply.
When treating tree stems, you use the materials in their most concentrated form,
treating just the cambium.
Therefore, you don't need to mix them with water.
So you apply a small amount of the herbicide glyphosate, which is the active
ingredient in the common herbicide which is marketed by the name of Roundup.
There are many products that contain glyphosate.
Roundup is just simply one of those marketing names that are used
that most all of us are familiar with.
Another name is called Killzall.
And numerous other versions of the active ingredient, glyphosate.
So we're going to add several tablespoons in a small container
of the herbicide itself.
We're going to add a surfactants or spreader sticker,
which reduces the cohesive surface tension of water and liquids
to help spread it out and we're going to add a small amount of ammonium sulfate.
Which is a liquid material, it's a fertilizer product actually, and
that helps to stimulate the tissue to uptake the herbicide and
absorb that down into the cambium area.
Once the herbicide, the spreader sticker and
the ammonium sulfate fertilizer have been mixed together.
Mix this carefully in just a small disposable container,
and then this concentrated material is painted
around the cambium of the stump in this manner.
The concentrated herbicide should be applied to the cambium
which is again the area just underneath the bark.
The outside of the wood of the innermost layer of the bark where active
translocation is occurring in the herbicide should be applied
in that band liberally all the way around the stump.
Applying it a concentrated product with a small brush is an easy way to get it on.
This surfactant helps to spread the material out so
it's more easily absorbed into the cambium.
And the nitrogen based fertilizer, the ammonium sulfate,
helps with translocation and will stimulate the uptake of the herbicide.
[NOISE] As you're applying the concentrated
herbicide these types of products should
not be come in contact with pets such as a dog or
a cat that'd maybe like to lick on it.
Some of the products tend to have a sweet flavor so
care should be taken with house pets.
Family animals that should be kept away from this product until it
thoroughly dries.
Especially with children, parents should give warning especially to very young
children that a poison has been applied.
They shouldn't touch it with their hands or play on the stumps until
a period of time is past where the herbicide is been somewhat absorbed and
deactivated by the sunlight, and the risk of exposure has passed.
I'm putting on a couple of coatings of this while the cut is very, very fresh.
Within a few minutes of the initial a cut from the chainsaw
is the time when the herbicide will be absorbed in it's highest quantity.
If you think about how large this tree is,
even though we're putting on a concentrated herbicide, there's a lot of
underground tissue that the herbicide will need to be translocated into.
In order to be able to kill the root system and
kill the stump so that it does not regrow.
The results of this should become very apparent within
a couple of months as the spring turns into summer.
When the tree would normally be actively absorbing the material.
And at that point the grill should cease on the tree.
As you apply the material make sure you use all the herbicide that you
have prepared and mixed.
So that you don't have a disposal problem or
a storage problem with the concentrated material that you'll put there.
Again, applying a very liberal amount to the cambium area so
it can be absorbed down into the trunk with what remains.
As well as in to the root system.
You can see from the color change it's beginning to occur that the herbicide
is now being absorbed in to the wood and it's characteristic with this type of
preparation that the herbicide leaves this characteristic yellow appearance.
With Roundup herbicide, or the active ingredient called glyphosate.
Glyphosate is a very calm and very safe homeowner-type herbicide to use.
It's a great weed-control product.
It also works well for this type of an application.
With all herbicides, you should read, follow, and
understand the instructions that are the herbicides label, protecting yourself,
protecting the environment so that there is no contamination that's not intended.
From the practical standpoint, the active ingredient glyphosate is totally
deactivated when it comes in contact with soil, unlike many other herbicides.
Many other herbicides are active in their various forms of the various
chemistries that are present in the many products that are commercially available.
Roundup was discovered many years ago, it's been in widely use for
a number of years.
One of the great features of the herbicide is that it's totally, totally deactivated.
Were bound up on soil particles, making it not available to the environment.
So if this stump were to have been exposed to dirt, or
if the wind was blowing hard and it was a very dusty day, and
the stump was coated with dirt and if we attempted to apply the herbicide.
The dirt would bind up the herbicide and
prevent it from being absorbed down into the stump.
This is particularly important to remember any time you use round up in any
application.
If you have a period of time where you're doing active weed control in your yard,
if there's a day or two before, if the wind has been blowing
maybe there's been just a few raindrops, just enough to make the plants wet.
That there's been a lot of dust in the air and a lot of wind activity,
as those plants become coated with moist rain or maybe leftover melt from snow.
And if dust is blown onto the surface of that plant that coating of dust on
the surface of the plant will bind up the Roundup, the herbicide glyphosate,
and prevent it from being absorbed into the plant and it will not kill the plant.
Often I'll receive complaints at the office that someone has applied
the herbicide glyphosate for a particular application, and
it didn't kill their weeds.
And upon further discussing with them the circumstances and weather conditions
I'll often find that there's been very dirty or very dusty conditions.
So anytime you use a product such as the herbicide Roundup
the active ingredient name called glyphosate.
Remember to read and follow the herb or the label instructions,
apply it correctly protecting yourself and the environment.
But they're great tools to use because this will kill this stump and
prevent the suckers from growing, and avoid a problem on another stump that I'll
be showing you in just a moment, for this was not accomplished.
When it was cut down.
This is the stump of a hybrid poplar that was cut down a year ago, and
this is what happens when the cambium
area is not treated with the herbicide as we have demonstrated.
You have this, a very vigorous shoot growth.
Some of these are approaching 11 feet tall.
All of these are very vigorous sucker growth, making a nuisance to be able to
continue to cut off a year after year until the stump eventually dies.
So the advantage in applying a herbicide is you kill the stump preventing
this type of growth from occurring.
This very vigorous shoot growth from this
hybrid poplar stump does have very actively growing tissue in it.
In the case of hybrid poplar is they're very easy to propagate if you want it
to develop a new tree.
It would be impossible to develop a tree from these sprouts that are coming
off from the stump and likely be successful.
These are very weak wooded where they come out of the stump.
They break off frequently as you can see from this one in my hand.
However you can make a cutting out here on the tip.
Capturing four or five buds early in the year such as in early March.
They can be planted in freshly tilled soil and you can develop a very young,
tender tree.
That over a period of a few years you can eventually grow into
a large tree such as this.
Again, thank you for joining us in this segment of tree care in the home yard.
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