Hoping to find some help here. When we first built our house we wanted some quick shade and without doing some research I planted a couple white poplar trees. 20 years later I am fed up with the root system and the suckers that pop up all over our yard. We recently removed the trees using a back hoe and dug up the root ball. My question is, with removing the main roots, will this kill off the remaining roots that have spread across our yard? If not, is there a good way to kill off this system? Wish I had done my research long ago before planting, but live and learn. Thanks in advance.
White Poplar root system
- Thread starter eschmidt31
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You did well by removing the root ball with a backhoe. You may still get suckers popping up for a while. The trick to eliminating them is to keep cutting them down when they first sprout. Cut them short and keep cutting them; they will lose their energy reserves and die. However, if you let them go feral, they will develop new root systems, grow again, and be a problem.