Lilac suckers, anyone?

elsien

i’ve been in my house 25 years and there is a lilac tree that was already well established when I moved in.

It’s planted on a little bit of a bank with very dry soil. Various plants also there but also some quite big stones to give a garden edging. The suckers are coming up more often than they did last year and some of them are in places that inaccessible to get right down to where they are growing out of the soil which means when I cut them off, they sprout again fairly quickly.

Any suggestions as to how to persuade the tree to throw out less suckers or to deal with them when it does. AI told me to use glyphosate on the tips of the cut-off shoots which I am absolutely not convinced by, so I’ve come over here for some sensible advice.

thanking you in advance

Sapindus

If possible, rip rather than cut. This makes it more difficult for the tree to just grow back from the same point. It's easier to rip them earlier in the season than this. Appreciate your problem seems to be with suckers that are difficult to get down to "ripping" level, sorry!

twopenny

I used to have the same problem and did my best with long handled pruners to get into difficult spots.

Easier to make a start on in winter.

I think it's the constant search for food and water in these scorching summers that sends roots and shoots into overdrive. And age. My old plum tree started to throw out suckers when it was aged.

Ages ago my uncle used to prune the tree hard back and it then didn't have the extra energy to throw out suckers.

A small bit of glycophosphate shouldn't harm a big tree but it's going to have brown suckers then which will probably reshoot.

Farway

AI told me to use glyphosate on the tips of the cut-off shoots which I am absolutely not convinced by, so I’ve come over here for some sensible advice.

Wise move, do not use glyphosate on suckers. It will eventually work it's way in & kill the tree, may take a few years, but it will.

I used it on suckers of ornamental plum, when I was still green & gullible and so long ago I even had a full head of hair. It took a few years but the tree gradually withered & died

I've also managed to kill, by accident, a buddleia with drifting glyphosate spray

Not sure if something like Weedol, which kills green stuff by contact only and does not get into the plant would work?

fatbelly

I wouldn't go near anything I liked with glyphosate.

My lilac also threw up loads of suckers earlier this year. I pulled them off, potted them on and gave them to my local church for its plant sale. I don't consider them a big problem