Blackthorn runners?

At the bottom of my next door neighbour's garden is what looks like a piece of hedgerow. I'm guessing they were told they had to leave it when they built the houses.

I don't have an issue at all with it being there as it's nice to see the wildlife.... but I get blackthorn runners coming up through the patio. I'm thinking the roots under the patio are MAJOR so there is no real way of digging them out other than by lifting the whole patio.

I tried a ready to use spray weedkiller (SBK I think) and it has browned the tips but they are still there.

I have 3 cats that are outside during the day but locked in at night.

I hate weedkiller under normal circumstances but I feel this is a situation where I am not going to win any other way.

Firstly, will round up do this or will I need to do something more? Sodium Chlorate?

I don't want to harm the hedgerow, just stop it growing through the patio. I have a very old pollarded ash tree (which will feature in it's own post in a while) in the corner of the patio and I REALLY don't want to harm that either.

Also, if I put this down when we lock the cats in will it be safe for them in the morning?

 

Hi Tilia

If you use any weedkiller it could end up affecting the entire tree, not just the part you spray. You'll be better off just snipping them off.

 

If its any help, I've had suckers from my peach tree and a neighbours plum tree coming up in various places around the garden and allotment.

I understand what Harmony is saying, but I've sprayed them with "round up", (glyphosate), on many occasions, without damaging the parent tree.
I'm thinking that a sucker is a very small part, and cannot take in enough of the weedkiller to actually harm the tree in question.

 

Blackthorn runners travel in more or less a straight line from the parent tree (assuming there are no obstacles in the way), and they travel just under the surface. With that in mind, it is usually easy to work out where they are at any point along their length.

I'd dig a short trench near the parent tree, just on your side. You'll then find the runners. Slice them off with your spade or some loppers if they are two big for the spade. Then close to the new shoot, slice off the other end of the runner. The new shoot will almost certainly still be able t survive, but then you just spray it with Round Up, as there will be less mass for the glyphosate to disperse into. Alternatively having cut it off from the parent tree, just keep chopping the shoots off as they appear, until they run out of strength and just die.

Incidentally, Blackthorn is a fantastic tree. Left to do its own thing, over many years the parent tree will send runners out in all directions, and form a circle of new trees. Eventually the parent tree dies off, leaving a dense roughly circular thicket with a clearing in the middle. That clearing is protected from browsing deer, so the seeds of other trees get a better chance to grow. The taller trees eventually shade out the blackthorn until it dies (it will actually move on to the next area). Because of this interesting characteristic, some texts refer to it as a pioneer species, and the some of the 'less scientific' (ie superstitious) beliefs have it down as 'mother of the woods' (the dense circular thicket being likened to a protective womb for other more vulnerable tree species).

 

Clueless1.. thank you so much, both for the practical advice and the interesting detail...

There is one growing in the garden too but I am keeping that and just keeping the runners at bay, they're even in the lawn!!!

I'll have a look at digging the trench and see if I can find the runners, there is a small patch of gravel between the patio and the fence. It may be a "hands and knees with a trowel" job but I'll give it a go. In the meantime I'll just keep slicing the tops off then. It's just so frustrating!!!! :fingerdrum:

I'm fighting what I think is Russian vine in the same way. Every time it dares to pop up a shoot it gets yanked out! I will kill it, if it's the last thing I do!!!!!

 

If there's no room to dig a trench, you could just slice in with the spade and jiggle it a bit so that the runners are cut but in place.

Russian Vine is a different battle. I fought a well established one in my last garden for about 3 years. As is often the case in such battles I started off not having a clue, and became battle hardened over time until I defeated it.

The strategy that I found worked was this:
1. Spray it with Round up. It will need repeat treatments every week or so over a few months.
2. I then stripped away all the vine I could find, and burned it in a bonfire (or you could take it to the tip if a bonfire is not an option).
3. Working around the very chunky stump, I used the pick axe to smash off as much of the roots as I could.
4. Now for the back breaking bit (which may not have been necessary but I was taking no chances), I lifted out the roots. They ran right under my lawn, and with brute force lifting from one end, I managed to rip massive chunks out. For one of them, I ended up with a slice in the lawn about 10 ft long by a couple of inches deep as I forced out this massive root.
5. I couldn't get it all out, so I had to keep up regular Round Up patrols over the next few months to make sure nothing got a chance to grow back.