How can I **KILL** some suckers from a long gone crabapple.

Hello. This is my first post, I hope it's in the right forum. I apologize for the length of it.
Here's my problem. I cut down a large/overgrown crabapple tree a couple yrs. ago and then had the stump ground out.
The summer after the stump was ground out, I noticed suckers coming up here and there between where the tree was and the west end of my shop bldg. The shop has an asphalt driveway/entry pad into the overhead doors. The asphalt pad is about 50 feet from where the tree WAS.
The next summer (last summer) after the stump was removed and ground out, I started seeing crabapple suckers starting to poke up *through* the section of asphalt in a few spots so I took a backhoe and virtually dug the portion of stump and large/long roots that were still remaining deep underground wher the tree once was.
This spring I still see the suckers, more than ever coming up which have by now pretty much left the asphalt destroyed.
The odd part about this is that the -now long gone- crabapple tree is only about 6-8 feet from the front lawn and I've seen NO suckers in the lawn or imediate area of where the tree was at, but they are thick about 50 feet away and -underneath- the asphalt.
I've been dumping Roundup and Buccaneer on and around the edges of the asphalt and flooding with a hose etc. to soak through the destroyed asphalt areas and in the ground perimiter... So far they are still alive and well.
I'd appreciate any ideas on how to once and for all KILL this stuff before they start going under concrete floor!
Thanks... D. Walker

 

Hello D.Walker and welcome to our Stew from Texas here.
Go to your local Feed and seed store. They should have a good shrub and brush killer.If not they should be able to tell you where you can get one. Or call your Agriculture office and they should be able to tell you what to use.

 

Thanks for the reply, glendann. Yes, I've talked to a couple of places but haven't got much help. As far as the brush type killers, I should've mentioned that there hasn't been much foilage to work against, except just small leaves in a place or two that's ever been exposed. I spray or dump some Roundup etc. on that part of the foilage when it's there. But in the asphalt, there is just several cracks with a buldge where something is working on pushing through. There's a few places where a small amount of foilage will poke through from time to time and I'll spray it hoping I kill that spot before it has a chance to do too much more damage.
My problem is that it's to the point that there's just cracks and buldges all over in the asphalt where the foil;age is *wworking* on coming through.
I think I'm going to have to probably rip up the asphalt (30x40 ft.) and use a large amount of ground killer there and all around the area. I'm just not sure if that will be the cure or not, I would *think* that would do the job on it but haven't been able to find anyone that can say for sure one way or the other.
My big concern is hopefully finding a way of killing it before it has a chance to get underneath the concrete floor itself. That could be a big problem!

DW

 

Wow, I haven't a clue for a solution but that sounds awful and I wish you a lot of luck solving the problem. Have you ever asked the stump grinding people? Maybe they have some tricks to making sure stumps are gone, including suckers. Just a thought.

 

Actually, I had thought a couple times of talking to the guys that took the stump out but hadn't figured they'd be of much help either. It IS worth a try though and will.
I put 3 pics. in the photo section here of the asphalt. Look close and you can see the critters trying to poke through in one of them. I sized the pics. down but looking at them now, I maybe should've left them at the higher res.?
DW

 

To give an idea of how determined the suckers are, the asphalt runs 2-3" thick.
DW

 

Wow. It's like a sci-fi movie. It's so weird that they travelled 50 feet to come up under the asphalt instead of taking the easy route to the lawn or somewhere else. You're sure it's the crabapple tree and not some other thing? Did you put in the asphalt pad the same year you cut down the tree? I hope you find an answer. I would like to know what happens.

 

I guess I had an extra year in there. Looking back, I see that the stump was taken out in June of last summer. Then in August of last summer we had the driveway along with the area in frnt. of the shop doors done with asphalt.
I don't remember seeing any suckers until after the asphalt was down, between that time and early fall is when I started noticing the suckers between where the tree once stood and out towards the shop asphalt.
In roughly Oct. last fall I decided that I maybe should rid the stump remainder completely so I took the backhoe and dug out the remaining underground part of the stump that the grinder didn't get along w/a large amount of roots, big roots. The remainder of the underground portion of the stump resembled a dead cow when it ripped out. It was about that big!
I also then took the hoe and dug about a 3 ft. trench at the edge of the shop asphalt thinking I could stop/kill the roots that seemed to be migrating that way. I did actually cut up quite a few roots in doing that but apparently the only thing that I actually killed for good in that dig was the phone line that was down there.
The suckers are still there, more than ever at least under the asphalt. Maybe it's just the few that had already got there that's thriving and no longer need any main roots to continue trying to grow?

The shop along w/the asphalt was just originally part of a pasture. There's never been anything there but grass in the 20 yrs. we've been here. It's crabapple suckers that's trying to grow. But as you mentioned, I also find it extremely strange that they're going out and or went out to underneath that asphalt area instead of an easy and soft dirt trip into the yard, very strange.
DW

 

You must detest those suckers... sorry I am not more helpful but I sympathize.

 

We have the same problem with a flowering cherry on our back hill, we cut them down. We haven't found anyone at local nurseries who seem to have any other good advice. One suggested cutting them down and then using stump out, but the seedlings are too small to drill a hole into and pour the stuff into. So we just keep cutting them down. Good luck with your problem.

 

That's been the situation here in my local area as well, no one really has an answer. Probably what I should have done was after I cut the tree out and before I had the stump ground out was to drill several holes in the stump and use a killer in the stump until it seemed safe to grind it out. I just didn't even think about this being a problem at that time.

I think my best move from this point is to probably just rip the asphalt up and use a good ground killer for the balance of the summer, then re-evaluate the situation this fall...

Thanks for the replies... DW

 

What about one of those garden torches to burn them out? I've never used one but I've heard about them for removing grass between bricks and things like that. Just a thought.

 

Thanks for the ideas. The only problem I see w/the torch idea is that it will melt the asphalt and also there isn't really enough foilage sticking through it to do much good.
The day before I made my original post here, I dumped a full 2.5 gal. of *Bucckane Plus* on the drive area and all around it in the ground to get it through the breaks in the asphalt and also soak into the ground as well. I took a hose and watered it in good, plus we've had quite a bit of rain here and looks to be more rain for the next few days. I'm hoping that maybe it will soak into the areas underneath and kill it.
Not being a ground killer though, I'm not sure how much good that's going to do. I plan on getting some *ground killer* and do the same w/it and then watch it for awhile to see if any new stuff continues to appear through the asphalt.
I thought I'd give this idea a try (one last shot) as a cure before I just go ahead rip the asphalt out.

Thanks again... Duane Walker

 

I have ONE MORE idea (keeping in mind I really don't know what I'm talking about). It seems like such a pain to rip out the whole driveway. I wonder if you could cut out a section around the suckers and treat with ground kill through the hole (maybe better saturation than trying to get it to go down the cracks?) Then patch the hole after you're sure it's gone? Just another thought.

 

Daisybeans, that was actually one of my exact thought as well but...
Today I bought a 25 lb. bag of *Paramitol-5PS*? and used about 2/3 of it around the asphalt pad out to about 10 feet or so. I took the balance of the granuels and put them in a 5 gallon bucket of water and stirred it around until they were finally desolved. Then I dumped a little of the water at a time on the asphalt in and around the cracked areas and *broomed* it in through the cracks the best I could. ??? Time will tell I guess.
Thanks again or your ideas.

DW