Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

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Avonlea22
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Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by Avonlea22 » August 17th, 2011, 9:53 pm

My neighbour has a large Crape Myrtle about 12' from my raised bed, and its roots have been heavily invading my soil. It's too the point that it dries the bed (4' x 12') out within a couple of days after a heavy rain. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to address this, other than removing the culprit? I've actually thought of asking my neighbour if she would allow me to cut it down.

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simpson
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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by simpson » August 17th, 2011, 10:06 pm

Slowly start putting full bottles of round up at the base of the tree.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by Avonlea22 » August 17th, 2011, 10:09 pm

I thought about spraying it with roundup, but I was afraid of drift. Will pouring roundup at the base really work? Red cap?

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by MorpheusPA » August 17th, 2011, 10:17 pm

Pouring red cap won't work; uptake through roots is pretty poor, if any at all depending on the plant.

I have a crape myrtle myself (a Dynamite, which manages Pennsylvania winters fine in a warm micro-climate, which it has). The roots do travel a lot and seem to head for the richest, moistest places they can find. In your case, the vegetable garden.

Barring getting rid of the shrub (and most will happily resprout after being cut to the ground), or chopping out roots and installing a barrier, there's not much you can do.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by simpson » August 17th, 2011, 10:45 pm

I was for sure round up would work. What if you cut one of the roots in the garden and stuck the root inside a bottle or round up? The root up take should make the tree sick?

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by MorpheusPA » August 17th, 2011, 11:07 pm

Clueless. As a general rule, roots don't seem to uptake glyphosate very well--whereas greenery does. This does not necessarily preclude a Terrible, Terrible Spraying Accident.

Contact with soil deactivates glyphosate very quickly, but I'm not certain about root-application directly in a bottle or glass. I've never tried it and I've never seen a study on it.

I'd hate to do that to a crape myrtle, though. Lovely things, and most definitely not if it weren't mine.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by texasweed » August 17th, 2011, 11:08 pm

simpson wrote:I was for sure round up would work. What if you cut one of the roots in the garden and stuck the root inside a bottle or round up? The root up take should make the tree sick?
RU is systemic meaning it is absorbed via leaves and carried down to the roots.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by simpson » August 17th, 2011, 11:10 pm

Sometimes things need to be done. If that was getting into your beds ans sucking the life out you would do something about it Morph.

If you plan on killing it make sure not to ask the person about removing it first.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by texasweed » August 17th, 2011, 11:17 pm

Crepe Myrtles are extremely hard to kill, and one of the best defense mechanisms of all plants. Cut it down, and a thousand sucker plants pop up everywhere from the roots left in the ground.

I wished I could tell you how to block and remove the roots encroaching your property on a live tree, but I can't as I do not know a way. The only way I know of is to cut it down, leave about 6 inches of the stump above ground, drill the stump with holes and fill the holes with salt and horticulture vinegar mixture (20%).

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by MorpheusPA » August 17th, 2011, 11:23 pm

...and then burn the whole thing to the ground. You MIGHT get it then.

At least this far north, a severe winter will kill the myrtle back to the ground. That's a non-issue as it'll simply re-sprout in spring from the deeper root systems that were unaffected by the weather.
Sometimes things need to be done. If that was getting into your beds ans sucking the life out you would do something about it Morph.
Naw, I have a similar issue with both of the trees near the curb. They completely sterilize the beds around them by sucking the water and nutrients away from the plants.

My particular solution was a passion flower in the one bed. It's sloppier than I like, but capable of withstanding the stress. I haven't solved the other bed issue yet, but I was thinking of trying a Jackmanii clematis daughter off my existing vine. Maybe a nice salvia would do there; I haven't tried that yet either.

If the situation were reversed, I'd be furious if somebody killed one of my plants. Particularly my crape myrtle, which had to be on CPR for two years before it could withstand our winters.

My solution would be to remove the existing roots as well as possible and install a deep border block around the entire bed to stop invasions in the future. Then deal with the inevitable suckers that come up from the broken, but still entirely viable, roots.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by Avonlea22 » August 18th, 2011, 5:53 am

Thanks everyone. I can tell you that my neighbour has the poorest maintained house and property on the cul-de-sac (lucky me). She doesn't have a front lawn and doesnt maintain her back yard (another neighbour just mowed it yesterday for the first time in 2 months!). I highly doubt she would even notice for a year that her Crape is even dead. That is also why I feel she may be ok with me cutting it down. I'm just afraid of her possibly saying no, because then I have no options.

Btw, the roots are very fiberous and placing them into anything for them to suck up poison would be futile.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by xxryu139xx » August 18th, 2011, 7:34 am

different people care about different things. my neighbor couldn't care less about the grass, but when i offered to kill some crabgrass creeping up her beds, she said no thanks on the brown. a week later, she ripped out the some of the crabgrass and dumped some mulch over it. she is letting me trim her creeping groundcover thats starting to cross a 2x2 plywood and onto my side.

she may not appear to care about her lawn in general but she may love her plants and might notice that tree dying. she probably just dont have the capacity to take care of the property or the funds to hire someone else to do it for her. i'm sure it won't hurt to ask her if you can prune it back for her.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by bernstem » August 18th, 2011, 10:28 am

I'm with Morph. I think your best option is to defend your property rather than attack the tree. You need to be realistic. You have to live next to this person and killing their tree is rather un-neighborly and may leave you liable for replacement.

Digging a border around your garden bed (cutting the tree roots in the process - you may need a saw for the larger ones) and putting in some root block should keep the roots out and you aren't likely to kill the tree. For a Crape you may need something like this: http://www.berkeysupply.com/bamboo-barrier.html I have no idea if that one is good or not, it was the first hit on google for bamboo root blocker.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by likeasponge » August 18th, 2011, 11:56 am

You could go "old school"; make a pie or cake, maybe a plate of garden fresh veggies and actually talk to your neighbor. Tell her the situation, your plan and ask her for input. Go from there!!

Then again, it's always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by Wally » March 25th, 2013, 10:07 pm

You might need some corrugated metal along the border. I wonder if some dry ice might kill it?

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Re: Neighbours Crape Myrtle invading my beds

Post by crabgrass » March 27th, 2013, 4:16 pm

Here's a medieval approach:

Dig out a barrier trench at the border with a fence pole digger, as deep and narrow as possible. Cut all roots you encounter on both sides of the trench, gly the ones on your side within 5 minutes with a paintbrush. Pour concrete into the trench. If anything sprouts on your side from the roots, cut down the saplings, drill holes in the stumps and add gly within 5 minutes. Make sure the barrier is long enough to prevent future roots from getting around. You should be able to leave a few inches at the top to allow soil to cover the barrier.

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