Dealing with late aspen root suckers
New aspen growth years after the original trees have been eliminated |
Fortunately, these suckers are very sensitive to herbicide, and basal bark with Garlon 4 in oil works magic. The paint stick works very well, and a swipe at the bottom of each stem will kill it. An alternate is to spray about a 4-6 inch strip up the base of each stem, using a hand spray bottle. Either method is quite economical of herbicide and damage to nearby good plants should not occur. (I killed two aspen stems with no visible effect on a flowering wood lily plant that was less than a foot away!) I don't recommend using a backpack sprayer instead of a hand spray bottle, as it uses a lot more herbicide and can potentially cause peripheral damage.
Early June is a good time to canvas an area for aspen suckers, because they are easy to find. The photo below shows a fairly typical patch of aspen that it took about 10 minutes to treat.
Small aspen plants that were treated abut 2 weeks before with Garlon 4 basal bark. |
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