Nine lives Willows!

cowboydoc · May 2, 2001

I remember we were talking about how hard willows were to kill awhile back. Well yesterday I was riding down in the one pasture where I had cut a willow out when I redid my creek. There was about a 6 foot piece that I left in the pasture that I was going to cut up for firewood. Well it's completely cut and just laying on the ground as a log and there are about 10 sprouts coming off of that thing!!!! Now how does that happen? Talk about your tough to kill trees. You can't even kill them when they're dead!

DarinRay · May 2, 2001

cowboydoc- I was just by our creek yesterday and was picking up dead branches and burning them when there was this branch on a willow hanging on by maybe a tiny bit and there were little sprouts (about 10) off that. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif wow!

Another thing that I was wondering is what kind of work did you do on your creek? I am trying to control some erosion effects but am clueless what to do becuase I don't want to make matters worse than before. It is a protected trout stream so I'm sure I will have to get some permits or have someone come over to look at what I CAN do. Did you post your projects here?

Darin
Western New York

bcarter · May 2, 2001

I had helped a neighbor cut down a huge willow in his yard late one spring. The trunk was easily 4ft in diameter and the tree had a spread of close to 50ft. The tree had 3 large branches that were about 15-20 ft up the trunk. We dropped the three branches first and cut them up into 2ft lengths, then piled the brush. It took a while for us to get the logs moved out of the way and it took even longer for him to get a chipper in there to get rid of the brush. The net result was that the 20ft tall "stump" remained upright for that whole summer. (the fact that his ski boat was in the water, and that it constantly beckoned us to go water skiiing also contributed to the delay /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). We noticed a few sprouts on the trunk over the summer but nothing major...

He had to travel for work a lot that fall and winter so it was decided that the first chance he got in the spring, we'd take down the stump. We came back in the spring to find the stump had sprouted and it was now a 20ft willow bush, over 15ft in diameter! We also discovered that all of the logs that we stacked had sprouted as well. Branches were poking out from everywhere!

In the end, the willow did indeed give up the ghost. It took burning the logs, and building a brush fire over the shortened stump to finally do it in.

Willows are one tenacious tree!

Bill

scruffy · May 2, 2001

"Willows are one tenacious tree!"
Bill, the NICE thing about Willows, when you need something for erosion control, or a privacy 'fence' they are very easy to propogate! Just go hijack some branches from your neighbors willows, stick them into the ground, and next spring you have a very good start on solving your problem! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Just don't plan on getting rid of them as easily! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

RichS · May 2, 2001

I was one of those individuals that wanted to get rid of my willow. Wife loves it, (Why is it women love willows so much? Some romantic movie?), I despise it. Dropping little hanging sticks all over the lawn, creeping roots that get into every pipe around it. Well Scruffy the privacy fence thought, just might do the trick.... Wife loves the willow...Ok No problem,l take some of it's branches and build that privacy fence between me and the neighbor. That was one of the projects for this spring anyways. Then I can cut down/dig up the one that is in the middle of the lawn..... Plus with the mess digging it up will make, more seat time for ME!!!!! Everybody happy.

Thanks for the suggestion.....

Rich S.

DaveNH · May 2, 2001

I have mixed feelings towards this tree. As a beekeeper, the trees provide a valuable source of pollen early in the spring for my bees but they are so messy in the fall. The leaves dry up small and are very hard to rake out of lawns, plus all those small thin branches (I call them whips). The roots also like to run high which has caught a mower blade or two!

The best place for a willow is about a quarter mile away from the house, right next to the pond, where the prevailing winds blow everything away from the house. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

We're all in this together! (3)
Executive Ex-Yuppie Tractor Owner
[Advertise your business here]Edited by DaveNH on 05/02/01 11:20 AM (server time).

dmccarty · May 2, 2001

CowBoyDoc,

There is a non-native tree in Florida called the Malucca(sp) that was imported from Australia back in the 20s and 30s. The tree sucks up water like a sponge so they were brought in to "drain" the swamps of South Florida. I have seen newsreels from the 20-30s of planes flying over the Everglades tossing boxs full of seeds out the window.

The problem with the tree is that it grows like a weed in very dense forest that squeezes out all other native life forms. So in the 80s-90s the state started to kill the things. But How? If they are cut down and left on the ground sprouts appear out of the stump AND the trunk. Burning is part of the life cycle of the tree so any controlled burns just caused it to shower seeds on the ground. The only way to kill them was to cut them down, burn the wood, and then pull the stump. OR take a spray can that had some diesel and some sort of plant killer, RoundUp?, strip the bark from around the tree and spray the raw wood. The tree would suck the poison up to the leaves and down to the roots which would kill the tree. We would do this on Holly/pepper bushes as well.

There was one place west of Miami that was just mile after mile of these trees. On Alligator Alley you would see clumps of the trees along the road and out in the 'glades. Last time I was down there they had gotten rid of all the trees in those areas. I would hate to think how much money it cost to get rid of them.....

Later....
Dan McCarty

LazyK · May 2, 2001

Hi Scruff...hope all's well... still in LA,CA...speaking of 'nine lives',don't fergit that the Hiedleberg Fencing Scar of tractor drivers is slashingly referred to as the,
"Welt of the Whipping Willow!" Knowwhattamean?

Lazy K - Chip Edited by LazyK on 05/02/01 08:25 PM (server time).