Digging up an unwanted Laurel

[Jez]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Cut the tree down to a few feet from the ground and then dig a trench around the tree removing the earth from the main root, then rock the stump back and forth until the main root snaps off below ground, and remove all large roots. I had to do this to a huge forsythia a few years ago and it's hard work but I didn't get any suckering plants.

Thanks Ron for the advice..cheers

[Gill Catton]

I think birds do eat the berries and I used to love climbing the laurels in my best friends garden and they were the best place for a den underneath and you could easily pretend that the leaves were feathers for an indian headdress (of course that kind of thing is most convincing if you're 6).....

[thunder]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

I'm sure Tursiops is correct regarding the degree of toxicity of copper nails, however there may be another effect of hammering nails into the stump. Any interuption in the cambium is likely to introduce disease and it maybe that copper simply does this more effectively than iron, so the stump rots more quickly.


CM

Interesting thought. However, copper salts are effective fungicides (eg Bordeaux mixture against Potato Blight etc) so I'm not sure whether copper nails would be more likely to introduce disease.

henrya

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by thunder

Interesting thought. However, copper salts are effective fungicides (eg Bordeaux mixture against Potato Blight etc) so I'm not sure whether copper nails would be more likely to introduce disease.

henrya

In the realm of bacteria there's almost always something that will survive, and of course whether copper loving bacteria are plentiful or would even cause rot on wood is a different matter.

CM