Oak tree saplings in yard

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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Pway
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Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by Pway » June 30th, 2020, 10:36 am

I’ve got more than a dozen mature oak trees in my backyard and it seems there were an inordinately high number of acorns last fall. I’ve probably got 200 or more that have emerged as couple inch saplings. I mow at 3” to 3.5” so they are below the cut line. I assume that as they grow the mower will chop them but they look like hell now. Nothing to do but cut them as they grow with the mower? I kind of expected the pre-emergence to block them but I guess that was a dumb expectation. I’ve been here for several decades and this is the most I’ve seen by a magnitude of 10x or more.

Aether
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Re: Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by Aether » June 30th, 2020, 11:37 am

I don't know of any tree selective preM. I've read a few online posts that said you can use higher rate grass/weed preM for tree seedlings, but what rate or will it also harm desirable grass, don't know. The most common recommended homeowner method of tree sapling removal is to mow with a sharpened blade and after a few weeks the tree saplings will be gone.

Liquid3d
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Re: Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by Liquid3d » June 30th, 2020, 1:06 pm

I hit the ones in my yard with triclopyr (CCO killer)when they showed up this year as i also had them below the cut line for months last year. seemed to take them out in a couple weeks

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 30th, 2020, 3:49 pm

We deal with most of our maple and oak saplings by hand pulling them. The maples aren't too bad, but the oak saplings are tough to pull -- that buried acorn isn't easy to pull out. However, we only have about 12500sqft, whereas you have a lot more than that.

As mentioned by Liquid3d, triclopyr works on them, too. I just did my first herbicide spraying yesterday, which was CCO, primarily for clover, but I also sprayed the various little 3" tall maple and oak seedlings in the lawn while I was at it...

Pway
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Re: Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by Pway » July 1st, 2020, 8:31 am

Thanks for the input, guys. I guess I’ll keep mowing and not worry about it, or maybe hit them with triclopyr once the weather cools.


pristinegreen75
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Re: Oak tree saplings in yard

Post by pristinegreen75 » July 2nd, 2020, 2:59 pm

Ditto here....thanks for the info Liquid3d and ken-n-nancy same problem here. Some of those oaks are tough to pull out!!

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