View Full Version : Leylandii-how to get rid of please?
Out hedge has grown out of control. The cost of having it removed professionally would be financially prohibitive. Is there some chemical/product we can pour into the roots, or something we can paint on the trunk. Or some other way to kill it?
Graham M
23-07-2007, 08:15
Surely the best way would be to get an Axe or Hatchet and remove it just above the roots and then dig the rest up, it's probably what a "professional" would do anyway.
TheDaddy
23-07-2007, 09:06
Surely the best way would be to get an Axe or Hatchet and remove it just above the roots and then dig the rest up, it's probably what a "professional" would do anyway.
I really wouldn't want to dig it up by hand ;)
---------- Post added at 09:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 ----------
Out hedge has grown out of control. The cost of having it removed professionally would be financially prohibitive. Is there some chemical/product we can pour into the roots, or something we can paint on the trunk. Or some other way to kill it?
You could always try one of these:
1. Drill a 1cm hole and fill with Ammonium Sulphonamte. Seal with a cork.
2. Water regularly with Sodium Chlorate or strong bleach
3. Copper. Copper poisons the sap killing the tree. you can either hammer long copper panel pins all the way up the trunk, about one every 8 inches, sinking them in with a dot punch, or for remote destruction buy copper hunting pellets for an air rifle, and shoot he tree at a safe distance. One pellet per foot of height should do. They sink in and the bark grows over, making this almost undetectable.
zing_deleted
23-07-2007, 09:15
or drill the hole pour petrol in and torch it lol old engine oil also kills them same way drill holes and pour it in
Wicked_and_Crazy
23-07-2007, 09:19
Chainsaw them to about 2 inches above the ground.
Drill the stump with loads of holes and fill them with a root rotter.
If you want to dig them out buy a matock which is like a pick axe and is very good at cutting the roots near the trunk. Digging them out is hard work ( i know i removed 12 from my garden) but gives the best results by far. IF your planning in digging them out first cut the trunk down to about 5 foot tool so that you leave a stump with a lot of leverage.
Surely the best way would be to get an Axe or Hatchet and remove it just above the roots and then dig the rest up, it's probably what a "professional" would do anyway.
This is a very old hedge, some of the tree trunks are over 2ft in circumference, if we used an axe we would be dead before the trees were.
I really wouldn't want to dig it up by hand ;)
No, bad for the nails lol!
---------- Post added at 09:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 ----------
You could always try one of these:
1. Drill a 1cm hole and fill with Ammonium Sulphonamte. Seal with a cork.
2. Water regularly with Sodium Chlorate or strong bleach
3. Copper. Copper poisons the sap killing the tree. you can either hammer long copper panel pins all the way up the trunk, about one every 8 inches, sinking them in with a dot punch, or for remote destruction buy copper hunting pellets for an air rifle, and shoot he tree at a safe distance. One pellet per foot of height should do. They sink in and the bark grows over, making this almost undetectable.
This is more like the type of solution we are after, thanks!
or drill the hole pour petrol in and torch it lol old engine oil also kills them same way drill holes and pour it in
Can't torch it Zing, people next door have a wooden fence. Someone did suggest diesel poured around the base (of the tree that is) lol, but sounds a bit dangerous to me.
superbiatch
23-07-2007, 10:29
or drill the hole pour petrol in and torch it lol old engine oil also kills them same way drill holes and pour it in
Just putting petrol in is enough, i did it a few years ago. Just remember not to light up near to them for a while :D
MovedGoalPosts
23-07-2007, 10:35
I'd advise against pouring anything like oil around the hedging. You don't want to be left with a load of contaminated soil.
Remember that if you poison the hedging without cutting it down first it's going to get rather brown and ugly, before it eventually starts to decay and becomes unsafe. Sooner or later you'll have to bite the bullet and chop it down. You might as well do that now and then poision the roots to prevent any regrowth.
Just putting petrol in is enough, i did it a few years ago. Just remember not to light up near to them for a while :D
I'd have to have a chat with my neighbour, and ask her not to do it in the garden (smoke that is) lol.;)
How long did it take for them to die off?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4595727.stm
---------- Post added at 10:40 ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 ----------
http://freespace.virgin.net/clare.h/ http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1127777 http://home.clara.net/tmac/urgring/faqleyld.htm
superbiatch
23-07-2007, 10:49
I'd have to have a chat with my neighbour, and ask her not to do it in the garden (smoke that is) lol.;)
How long did it take for them to die off?
Not long at all, approx 2 weeks for them to shrivel up from what i can remember ;)
I guess there is no easy answer. We don't have a couple of thousand to spare on it, and we are not in a position to do the work ourselves. Luckily the hedge is not cutting out light, as it's far enough away from the houses.
Not long at all, approx 2 weeks for them to shrivel up from what i can remember ;)
That might be the answer then, at the moment some of them are 8ft wide. It's all this darn rain that's made them so lush. However if that's all I've got to bother about, why worry? ;)
---------- Post added at 10:58 ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 ----------
How high are they?
About 12 to 14 ft I'd guess.
TheDaddy
23-07-2007, 11:02
I guess there is no easy answer. We don't have a couple of thousand to spare on it, and we are not in a position to do the work ourselves. Luckily the hedge is not cutting out light, as it's far enough away from the houses.
The easy answer is to cut the growth right back and buy a hormonal growth retardant from your garden centre
We inherited a similar height out of control Leylandii hedge which I have reduced over the years we've been here. The wood is very soft and easy to both cut and burn. We didn't want to lose the privacy the hedge provides so I decided to remove every other tree and reduce the overall height by about 3 feet. I cut up the logs with a chain saw and burnt the wood over a period of time. The south facing side of the hedge had become lush and green whereas our side was thin and brown in patches. I cut back both sides of the hedge removing most of the green from the south facing side. Initially this did leave a rather ugly row of bare tree trunks but within months new branches started to grow which subsequently covered up the trunks. Also, the extra sunlight allowed the branches on our side of the hedge to thicken and green up nicely. Although it took a couple of seasons, the result was better than I could have hoped for and avoided the need to remove the hegde and replace it with something else. Now I keep the top trimmed every year and cut back the south facing branches every two years or so to keep it under control and to stop our side of the hedge from being starved of sunlight.
Without knowing how long your hedge is I don't know whether this solution is practical for your situation but it may be possible to resolve your problem without having to remove the entire hedge.
zing_deleted
23-07-2007, 11:38
mine are over 30 foot and I aint getting rid of em. Neither of my neighbours bother with their gardens so they dont moan at me there staying :)
You can ring-bark them i.e. cut away a 6 inch strip of bark all the way round the trunk, this will stop fluids rising and will kill it.
Or put an add into your local shop window:
"HATE LEYLANDII TREES? COME AND VENT YOUR ANGER ON MINE FOR FREE!!!"
Your local council will take away most of the greenery if you make an appointment with them, the thicker stuff you can make garden furniture out of....
A great site http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/ might have other good answers in their excellent discussion forum.
Oh, and as a leylandii-hater, I thank you for wanting to kill the ones you have....
---------- Post added at 11:44 ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 ----------
Here in Wales we are charged £350 to get the local council to inspect overgrown leylandii hedges, and to issue an ASBO to get them permanently reduced to the maximum permitted size (which used to be 2 metres until Prescott got his hands on the simple law and made it a beaurocratic mess).
Chain saw to start with, then dig out with pick - the roots aren't too deep. I did about 12 in half a day (30 foot trees)
This is a very old hedge, some of the tree trunks are over 2ft in circumference, if we used an axe we would be dead before the trees were.Only if you don't know what you are doing with an axe or if the axe is blunt. Rent a chainsaw if you feel safe using it (watch out for the kickback) and do what Wicked and crazy (and progers) suggested.....
greencreeper
23-07-2007, 22:17
Sea water... Or was that a triffid :erm: Not much difference so I suppose you could try it :p:
Thank you for all your very helpful suggestions, will have to have a ponder now. :tu:
Rename the thing 'Roverii' and it will die off naturally in time.
;)
Thank you for all your very helpful suggestions, will have to have a ponder now. :tu:
This is what I am up against. The hedge not the dog!
Mere saplings ;)
Depends on your point of view............
Getting them out would improve your grass no end (which is also why you shouldn't put petrol or diesel round the roots).
Even cutting them back drastically would help (you may even be able to use a domestic hedge trimmer for that)
Getting them out would improve your grass no end (which is also why you shouldn't put petrol or diesel round the roots).
Even cutting them back drastically would help (you may even be able to use a domestic hedge trimmer for that)
The first picture is the result after half an hour's hard graft with hedge trimmer, loppers and shears. It would be like painting the Forth Rail Bridge, start at one end, get to the end, and start back again. When the neighbours start complaining, that will be the time for me to really start worrying. Thank you for your help!:tu:
Yeah a hedgetrimmer works well on mine. The wood is very soft so you can cut even quite thick branches like that. Why not try lopping a few feet off the tops and cutting the sides back a bit and see where that leaves you? If you still hate them then more drastic action is the only other option. Of course the really hard work has to be done now but they're not too difficult to maintain when they're in shape.
Incidentally although they're not my favourite tress they do make an excellent place for birds to nest - we've had robins, wrens, dunnocks and blackbirds this year :)
Incidentally although they're not my favourite tress they do make an excellent place for birds to nest - we've had robins, wrens, dunnocks and blackbirds this year :)
That is another thing that really concerns me, I know for a fact that we have blackbirds with young, nesting near by. I would hate to think that my actions would result in the adult birds abandoning their nests.:(
It looks like you need a chainsaw to lop them down to 3 feet tall or so and then hard work to uproot them....:shrug:
If you have blackbirds nesting they should be gone soon, just wait until you are sure they have departed then decimate the leylandii.
homealone
26-07-2007, 21:53
Depends on your point of view............
nice crop of tomatoes in your greenhouse, Tinky ;)
Just my 2p, whichever method you use to kill the trees you will still have the problem of the main trunks, and being shallow rooted that 'may' be a problem for later????
I'm sure someone told me Conifers only grow at the tips of each branch, so cutting back this years growth back to the brown wood, as you have in the other photo, will not grow back, so if you do the whole tree, then theoretically it will die....
- which still leaves the problem of the trunks...:erm:
nice crop of tomatoes in your greenhouse, Tinky ;)
Just my 2p, whichever method you use to kill the trees you will still have the problem of the main trunks, and being shallow rooted that 'may' be a problem for later????
I'm sure someone told me Conifers only grow at the tips of each branch, so cutting back this years growth back to the brown wood, as you have in the other photo, will not grow back, so if you do the whole tree, then theoretically it will die....
- which still leaves the problem of the trunks...:erm:
If you cut back branches too far they will not regrow but other green branches will quickly fill the void created. I removed virtually all of the branches from the south side of our conifer hedge but green growth from the north side soon replaced them.
Going.............joint result between myself and Mr Tink, with a little bow saw, and fourteen trips to the tip later. Alas Gaz, all the tomatoes nearly finished.
14962
blimey Tinky / Mr Tinky must've shifted a few lb's with all that gardening! looks like you've done a good job :tu:
blimey Tinky / Mr Tinky must've shifted a few lb's with all that gardening! looks like you've done a good job :tu:
Oooh! lauzjp, if only that were so. Trying hard to lose the weight, but it is not shifting, least not fast enough for my liking, my goal is getting further and further away.:( We shifted the branches in our little Rover RSi14.
Do you do contract work Tinky?
I have a stand of conifers that has to go, the roots have started to lift the drive and I am fed up of the carpet of pine needles they get everywhere.
I was thinking of offering them to the local council at Christmas time.:D
Jim.
Do you do contract work Tinky?
I have a stand of conifers that has to go, the roots have started to lift the drive and I am fed up of the carpet of pine needles they get everywhere.
I was thinking of offering them to the local council at Christmas time.:D
Jim.
Sorry iadom ,I know these trees are a curse, but you will need to find your own solution m8. Plenty of useful tips given previously in this thread, but what it boils down to is, either get a professional to do the job, or tackle it yourself, and believe me, it's hard graft. We plan to have the trunks removed later, by our friend who has a chain saw and a trailer.:) However yours look to be around 25ft tall wouldn't like to tackle that, too dangerous.
These are far to big to tackle, proper conifers not Leylandii, some of them well over 40 foot high. I do have a contact who is 'on the case' ;)
Jim.
homealone
25-09-2007, 20:14
Going.............joint result between myself and Mr Tink, with a little bow saw, and fourteen trips to the tip later. Alas Gaz, all the tomatoes nearly finished.
14962
Brilliant job - very hot & scratchy work, though, well done :tu:
- glad you enjoyed the tomatoes :)
I suppose you could try one of the other suggestions, trim them to poles and run a rope for climbimg roses, though how long the roots would remain stable after the tops have been hacked to death is questionable.
Equally, leave plenty of "post" if you want to extract the roots by brute force leverage, after giving them time to weaken.
Brilliant job - very hot & scratchy work, though, well done :tu:
- glad you enjoyed the tomatoes :)
Thanks Gaz!:hugs:
I suppose you could try one of the other suggestions, trim them to poles and run a rope for climbimg roses, though how long the roots would remain stable after the tops have been hacked to death is questionable.
Equally, leave plenty of "post" if you want to extract the roots by brute force leverage, after giving them time to weaken.
Good tip Matth, will bear that one in mind.:tu:
These are far to big to tackle, proper conifers not Leylandii, some of them well over 40 foot high. I do have a contact who is 'on the case' ;)
Jim.
Jim it's a pity they have to come down, 'cause they look so nice, but I know what you mean. Not only do they keep shedding, but it's amazing how much light they cut out! Perhaps you could post a pic when they are cut down.:)
Perhaps this (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=82d_1188116518) could help with the smaller branches lol!!
Wow, serious snippers :shocked:
I'm only taking the first 15 out, back to the garage, the other 25 or so up the side of the garage and round part of the back garden will stay, I'm fed up up trying to get thousands of pine needles out of the car inlet vents, the drains and gutters.
Jim.
It's going..
15066
going.....
15067
gone......
15068
here!!!!
15069
joglynne
10-10-2007, 01:04
Looking good Tinky. Now you have a lovely excuse to buy new plants for your newly exposed borders.:D
You could also invest in a chimera,
.....................https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/10/25.jpg
it would be a shame not to put all that wood to some use after all your hard work.
I'm reviving this oldish thread as I chopped down a tree in our garden today. The tree wasn't particularly large (the stump is about 5" across, the tree about 7 foot high), but the neighbours requested I take it down as the roots are messing up their drains. So, having got rid of the tree above ground, how do I tackle the roots? Would neat roundup do the trick, or do I need something else?
I haven't a clue as to what type of tree it is. It's got red berries and thorns if that's any help :dunce:
joglynne
10-02-2008, 00:21
About 4 years ago we were left with the stump of a Mountain Ash tree that was probably about 15" diameter. John cut it down to just above ground level and then chipped away at the heartwood making a hollow about 3" deep which we filled with Vitax SBK (Brushwood Killer) which we got from our local garden centre. We then tied a black bin bag over the stump to stop the crystals from washing away.
The tree stump died off quite quickly, 2-3 months if I remember, but it took quite a while to get rid of the dead wood. After about 6 months we got fed up with waiting and just hacked away at what was left of the stump, which was fairly rotten and obviously dead, and topped up the soil level. The tree had stood in our lawn and the SBK didn't kill off the grass. :)
We have since used the same stuff to get rid of ground elder and it was really effective.
TheDaddy
11-02-2008, 20:49
I'm reviving this oldish thread as I chopped down a tree in our garden today. The tree wasn't particularly large (the stump is about 5" across, the tree about 7 foot high), but the neighbours requested I take it down as the roots are messing up their drains. So, having got rid of the tree above ground, how do I tackle the roots? Would neat roundup do the trick, or do I need something else?
I haven't a clue as to what type of tree it is. It's got red berries and thorns if that's any help :dunce:
2. Water regularly with Sodium Chlorate or strong bleach ;)
I had the large stand of pine trees pictured earlier in this thread lopped to the ground last month, the amount of daylight coming into the kitchen now is amazing.
Someone has just posted this link on a trade forum I frequent, apparently his next door neighbour was having some building work done. He decided to 'borrow' the builders ladders whilst they were off site to do some treee pruning.:D
OOPS (http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee14/Simon46/?action=view¤t=Treefelling.flv)
Jim.
joglynne
12-02-2008, 22:23
Love the way the film taker couldn't keep the tree 'fella' in picture after his ladder was bent. You can almost hear him giggling. :D
We've found this old thread yesterday, and it's been incredibly helpful. We've just bought a bit of land to extend our garden, and it's ringed by Leilandeii, about 40 of them. A professional "tree-getter-ridder" quoted us £100 a tree. NOW we're going to get a man with a chain saw for a day and get him to cut them down to about 4" above ground, then chop them up. Then another man with a small van will take them away. total cost - £300. then, in a case of overkill, we're going to ring bark them, then drill holes in the top of each and pour in Vitax SBK (Brushwood Killer) and put plastic bags over the top. This thread has been wonderful! thankyou.
We've found this old thread yesterday, and it's been incredibly helpful. We've just bought a bit of land to extend our garden, and it's ringed by Leilandeii, about 40 of them. A professional "tree-getter-ridder" quoted us £100 a tree. NOW we're going to get a man with a chain saw for a day and get him to cut them down to about 4" above ground, then chop them up. Then another man with a small van will take them away. total cost - £300. then, in a case of overkill, we're going to ring bark them, then drill holes in the top of each and pour in Vitax SBK (Brushwood Killer) and put plastic bags over the top. This thread has been wonderful! thankyou.
Hello dupret, so glad this thread has been of help to you. I only wish I could post photos of the original hedge, but it won't let me. Is it really that long sine we got rid of it? Here is how the borders looked this summer.
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