Honey Locust Tips

[Daver]

they will sucker all over the place

To be clear, when I think of "sucker" I think of the type of new growth on above ground limbs that one would find after pruning say an apple tree. What I have seen with locusts that are simply sawn down is that there will LOTS of new shoots coming out of the ground adjacent to the sawn tree. These are new shoots coming up out of the ground from the "orphaned" root system of the "not dead yet" tree.

When you cut a locust that you do not want...you want to kill it dead, like with Tordon on the stump dead. Or you will get zillions of "volunteer" new shoots. Now then, I have also really restricted where and how I use Tordon, because that stuff is serious about killing the root system of the applied tree, INCLUDING any below ground, intermingled roots of adjacent species that you want to preserve.

So use Tordon very judiciously...but I think you are going to need "something" there on that stump to kill it.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

To be clear, when I think of "sucker" I think of the type of new growth on above ground limbs that one would find after pruning say an apple tree. What I have seen with locusts that are simply sawn down is that there will LOTS of new shoots coming out of the ground adjacent to the sawn tree. These are new shoots coming up out of the ground from the "orphaned" root system of the "not dead yet" tree.

When you cut a locust that you do not want...you want to kill it dead, like with Tordon on the stump dead. Or you will get zillions of "volunteer" new shoots. Now then, I have also really restricted where and how I use Tordon, because that stuff is serious about killing the root system of the applied tree, INCLUDING any below ground, intermingled roots of adjacent species that you want to preserve.

So use Tordon very judiciously...but I think you are going to need "something" there on that stump to kill it.

This x100

 

[Obsessed]

This x100

So locust trees are similar to rhizomes, in that they push out and pop up, repeat, repeat? How do we know that these new locust saplings aren't from seeds now germinating due to the canopy being opened up because the larger locust trees have been killed?

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

So locust trees are similar to rhizomes, in that they push out and pop up, repeat, repeat? How do we know that these new locust saplings aren't from seeds now germinating due to the canopy being opened up because the larger locust trees have been killed?

The cutting stimulates them to do that.

 

[Jerry Gille]

I sometimes wonder about the same question Obsessed asked. And, if all the new seedlings popped up from roots or grafted roots associated with cutting and not applying herbicide, shouldn't you be able to cut one or a few saplings, apply herbicide and kill the other 1000 that sprouted off the original roots?

I'm not disagreeing that they sprout from non treated cut trees. That seems very likely. But sprouting from latent seed seems possible too.

 

[Obsessed]

I sometimes wonder about the same question Obsessed asked. And, if all the new seedlings popped up from roots or grafted roots associated with cutting and not applying herbicide, shouldn't you be able to cut one or a few saplings, apply herbicide and kill the other 1000 that sprouted off the original roots?

I'm not disagreeing that they sprout from non treated cut trees. That seems very likely. But sprouting from latent seed seems possible too.

I do think that there are at least some new shoots that are pushed up from the roots of the existing trees, but that they are more located around the tree bases. It's the new saplings that are 20, 30, 40 feet away that I question as not being caused by seed germination due to increased sunlight reaching the ground.