Getting rid of lilac root growth: how to solve the problem forever. How to get rid of lilacs on your property forever: methods for removing roots and shoots How to get rid of lilac shoots

Is chemistry effective?

Usage chemicals – effective way destruction of shoots. However, herbicides pose a danger to all other crops that grow on the site. The product is washed off by precipitation, absorbed by the soil, and then spreads with groundwater throughout the entire dacha area.

Not every experienced gardener can fight lilac root shoots. We offer you a way to prevent unwanted escapes from occurring. The method is radical, but effective and accessible to everyone.

Lilac. Photo used under standard license ©site

Lack of moisture. If you do not systematically water the plant, it will take root closer to the surface of the earth, in a place where the ground is moistened by precipitation. Against the background of such development of the root system, shoots are formed.
Heavy pruning. This is one of the most common reasons for the formation of shoots. If a large number of branches are removed, the plant will experience shock, causing it to produce new shoots.
Physical damage. Mechanical and thermal damage to the plant often leads to the formation of shoots.
Exposed roots and ailments.

Photo used under standard license ©site

Is chemistry effective?

The use of chemicals is an effective way to destroy growth. However, herbicides pose a danger to all other crops that grow on the site. The product is washed off by precipitation, absorbed by the soil, and then spreads with groundwater throughout the entire dacha area.

Lilac is a shrub that tends to grow when it appears unfavorable factors. Root system plants are able to spread over considerable distances, releasing young shoots. Not all varieties of shrubs produce shoots, and an already captured area can be cleaned without much difficulty. There are different ways How to quickly and effectively get rid of lilac growth, every gardener can choose the most convenient one.

It is easier to deal with growth if you know why it appeared. Lilac profusely produces new shoots when exposed to unfavorable factors.

Poor planting site

Lilac actively produces shoots if the place of growth is uncomfortable for it and threatens with disease. This is how the plant tries to preserve itself if the mother bush dies.

Insufficient deepening of the root system

In shrubs that are not deep enough when planting, the surface roots suffer from a lack of moisture in the upper soil layer and begin to actively produce shoots. The solution to the problem is to deepen the roots. You just need to add soil to the area around the plant.

Different types of shrub damage

A slight injury to the trunk is enough for the bush to begin to actively produce shoots. When bark and wood are damaged, circulation is disrupted nutrients in tissues. The root system, trying to save the above-ground part, starts the process of rejuvenation of the plant by releasing numerous shoots.

What harm can it cause?

Uncontrollably growing lilacs can take over the entire area in a few years. Each year, lateral roots produce several offspring, which can appear at a distance of several tens of centimeters from the trunk.

A 50-year-old bush covers an area with a diameter of more than 10 m.

Gradually, the shoots begin to produce offspring, and the captured territory expands even further. It is impossible to use the captured area for either beds or garden plantings.

How to get rid of lilac growth on the site?

Some gardeners strive to completely remove lilacs from their plot, others want to leave a beautifully flowering bush, they are not satisfied with just the growth. There are many ways to clean the area: they use chemicals and folk remedies, or remove them manually.

Use of chemistry

To quickly get rid of lilac shoots, strong herbicides are used. Tornado and Roundup will do. However, if the growth is severe, standard spraying with these chemicals is useless.

To be sure to get rid of thickets, treatment at the beginning of the growing season is carried out according to a special scheme:

The shoots are not sprayed, but coated with a brush so that the active substance penetrates the plant tissue faster and in greater concentration.
If the mother bush is large and its growth is abundant, then you will have to treat the shoots 2-3 times.
When the growth of young plants stops, it is advisable to cover the area around the bush with dark material and leave it until the next season.

If you want to get rid of thickets faster, you can use arboricides - chemicals that act on tree and shrub vegetation.

Arboricides are potent substances. It is necessary to strictly observe dosages and use chemical protective equipment.

Manual removal

Many gardeners use simple and old way eliminating overgrowth - uprooting the bush. This method is usually used if etching with chemicals is undesirable.

Algorithm of actions:

The trunks of the mother plant are sawed off.
Each shoot is cut off at the root.
Remove the topsoil to expose the roots.
Use a shovel to uproot large sections of the root system.
They take hold of the lateral root layers and pull them all out of the ground.

Folk remedies and recipes

If you don’t want to bother with a shovel, you can use effective folk remedies:

Cover the overgrown area with salt (1 kg per 1 m2). Pour boiling water over it. Cover with roofing felt or other dark material. Leave for a year or two.
Cover the ground in the area with fresh manure. The procedure is carried out at the end of the growing season, the soil surface is covered with dark material for a year. Due to the saturation of the soil with organic matter, the plant will begin to actively grow instead of preparing for winter dormancy. The offspring will lose a lot of strength and die.
Sodium nitrate works similarly. It is also added to the soil in high concentration at the end of the growing season.

Set of preventive measures

Experienced gardeners share tips on how to avoid lilac overgrowth on your property.

Many owners of country lands inherited long-developed plots of land or bought them from summer residents of the Soviet period. Then the approaches to decorating a dacha were much simpler, and the possibilities were modest. The main decorative element was fragrant lilac bushes. Several decades have passed, and today's gardeners are struggling with the question of how to get rid of lilac growth on the site. The point is not that growing lilacs is no longer fashionable and you need to get rid of them forever. The uncontrolled growth of overgrowth over the course of decades led to the aggressive takeover of the entire surrounding territory.

Reasons for the appearance of overgrowth

The multi-trunk shrub, beloved by the people, reproduces by seeds, root suckers, and shoots that appear on the site of the stump remaining from the felled trunk. The plant lives for about a hundred years, actively producing young shoots throughout its life.

Lilac thickets

The superficial lateral branches of lilac roots produce several root suckers each year. They appear even at a distance of half a meter from the mother bush. The result is a bush that is 50–60 years old, growing more than ten meters around. The growing juveniles themselves begin to develop the territory, squeezing out the remaining plants.

Ways to fight

This indomitable growth of lilacs has become a headache for gardeners: the land is idle, it cannot be used for any purpose. garden crops, nor for decorative purposes. For some summer residents, the goal is to destroy the lilac altogether, while others are looking for methods to get rid of its shoots. In the fight against lilacs for territory, a number of measures have already been developed, proposed by agricultural technicians, chemists, and experienced gardeners.

Trimming overgrowth with pruning shears

Mechanical removal

The "cleanest" safe way remove lilac thickets from the site - uproot them with your own hands. This is a very labor-intensive, lengthy process that does not provide a 100% guarantee that a new shoot will not appear from the remaining fragment of the rhizome. But to uproot the bulk of the roots - necessary condition for opponents of the use of chemistry.

Gardeners who have already completed this stage recommend the following technology:

cut off the main trunk and shoots at the root;
If possible, remove the soil from large roots along the entire length;
Using shovels or crowbars, pull the roots out of the ground, starting away from the trunk, pulling out most of the branches.

Uprooting overgrowth

When the peripheral root shoots do not hold onto the ground, it is easier to pull out the central part. To do this, you will again have to use shovels, crowbars, and other suitable tools. There is even experience in pulling using a tow rope or slings using automotive equipment. After removing the bulk of the roots, the area should be carefully dug up, pulling out all the small roots.

To guarantee success at this stage, you should use one of the proven folk remedies to finally get rid of the roots:

Cover the entire area with regular table salt based on a kilogram per 1m2 area. Pour boiling water over it. Cover with any material that prevents the penetration of light - roofing felt, roofing felt, black film, sheets of metal, etc. - for 1–2 years.
Instead of salt, use fresh manure or sodium nitrate in high concentration. The procedure is carried out towards the end of summer. The effect is that overfertilization stimulates growth at a time when the plant should be preparing to rest. Stimulation weakens and destroys the young. For the winter, cover the area in the same way and leave it for 1–2 years.

Apply fresh manure

Proven technology allows you to remove all the roots of shrubs that have become weeds, environmentally by safe means. The only negative is the labor intensity and time-consuming process.

Chemicals

If you need a fast-acting remedy to destroy lilac thickets, then you need the help of herbicides. Regular Roundup or Tornado is unlikely to cope with mature shrubs, at least in traditional dosages. To be more confident, lilacs are treated with herbicides at the beginning of the season according to a separate scheme:

Having cut off all the shoots and the main trunk at the root, they expect young growth growing from the roots - the tender sprouts will become suppliers not of food, but of poison.
Each shoot is treated with a chemical, and it is more effective not to spray, but to “paint” it with a brush. This application of the drug will ensure maximum coverage and rapid penetration of the active substance.
If the bush is mature and strong, then shoots will continue to appear for some time. Each sprout should be treated with the drug once or twice.
Having recorded a stop in the growth of juveniles, treatments are stopped, and the entire area is covered with light-proof materials until the onset of the next summer season.

Cover the area with black film

If you need more effective means Before poisoning lilacs, you should pay attention to arboricides that can destroy lignified crops. Drugs in this group inhibit the vital activity of shrubs and trees.

Among the approved products for combating lilac growth, “Arsenal New” (registration until 2020) and “Arbonal” (current registration expires by the end of 2019) are suitable. Both drugs are characterized as highly effective agents, but they must be used in compliance with dosages and safety measures.

Installing a protective screen

Gardeners, whose goal is not to destroy lilacs, but to control the spread of its offspring, use protective screens to contain the growth.

Having decided on the territory to be allocated to the bush, 1–1.5 m in diameter, a ditch 40–50 cm deep is dug along the border. A fence is installed along the entire perimeter without gaps or gaps, and a ditch is dug. It’s not bad if the fence, going 50 cm deep, rises 5–10 cm above the surface - inside the perimeter, a thick layer of mulch also restrains the growth of the bush.

Material for protective screen board panels (impregnating them with antifungal agents will increase their service life), sheets of metal, roofing felt.

Preventive measures

A huge number of lilac varieties attract gardeners today, but there are none that do not produce shoots at all. A new generation of landowners, savvy with knowledge, will avoid mistakes when planting lilacs and caring for shrubs for many years.

When preparing a hole for a lilac seedling, the installation of a protective screen is immediately taken into account, adjusting the diameter and depth of the planting site.
When a shoot appears, it must be cut off without the stump, at the base. You should not hesitate to remove them so that the young shoots do not gain strength.
Mulching with a thick layer inhibits the growth of suckers and makes them weak - these are easier to remove.
After flowering, the brushes are pruned, otherwise the seeds will germinate, and unplanned lilac bushes in unexpected places will create new problems.

Pruning lilacs after flowering

The aroma of blooming lilacs excites even people indifferent to gardening. The sight of bushes covered with the foam of flowering brushes makes a city dweller’s heart skip a beat. There's no point in denying yourself the pleasure of enjoying it ornamental shrub. You just need to tame the lilac.