Poplar roots can really make life difficult with their sapling frenzy. In the following article you can read what is behind it and how you can get rid of annoying visitors on your garden lawn.
The only surefire way to prevent cottonwood from regrowing is to remove the roots
Poplars and their propagation methods
Poplars are extremely concerned about their survival. On the one hand, they reproduce generatively via seeds, which fly through the air in thousands of fluffy white flying hairs in June. On the other hand, deciduous trees are also very productive vegetatively. They are only too happy to form saplings in the immediate vicinity - a nuisance for garden owners, of course. Because the small mini poplars disturb the lawn and, above all, are almost unkillable.
interim balance:
- Poplars reproduce very effectively
- Generative via many flying seeds
- Vegetative via root suckers
More details on the roots of poplars
Poplars have relatively deep horizontal roots and are therefore classified between horizontal and heart roots. In contrast to the taproots, they do not have a clearly developed main root strand that leads vertically downwards, but rather several coarse and fine roots that branch out in all directions.
The so-called side roots, which grow horizontally away from the trunk and are connected to the main root, are responsible for the development of the shoot.
Stimulating reproduction by felling
When a poplar is felled, one might think that the saplings would also run out of sap. But the opposite is true. By pruning the upper part of the tree, the poplar only considers it all the more urgent to ensure reproduction in its last stages of life. Since there is no generative seed propagation without a crown, she concentrates fully on vegetative propagation and the shoots sprout stronger than ever.
possible solutions
Mow off saplings
To get the mini poplars off your lawn, you can of course simply rasp them off with the lawnmower. This gives you peace of mind, at least temporarily and, above all, optically. The problem: The trees are not killed by mowing, but soon sprout again undeterred. In addition, the stumps in the lawn feel hard and prickly.
Remove root stump
The only permanent solution is to render the root stump of the mother poplar harmless. To do this, it must either be dug up with great effort or left to rot. You can speed up the decomposition process by sawing the burl wood several times in a grid pattern from above with a chainsaw and filling in either compost that promotes microorganisms or a petroleum-nitrate mixture to burn it out. However, the latter method is environmentally unfriendly.