On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 08:18:28 -0700, ritagoldman101 wrote:

How to deal with this ?

My aunt ( a very old person) has a house in California...

She has had the home over 18 years now.

There are 2 trees whose roots are lifting the concrete pretty high.

How does one deal with this problem ?

She has been told that she needs to get rid of the trees and that there is
a "special something" that needs to be applied on the cut trunk ...or
something...

Would anyone know what needs to be applied to the cut trunk to permanently
kill the trees?

Can anyone suggest a better way to get rid of these 2 trees ?

What do people normally do when the roots of a tree lift the concrete ?
How does one rectify such a situation ?

Does one have to remove all the roots or can one just kill the tree from
the trunk ?

Thank you all in advance for your input, Rita

Good day Rita. The "special something" that your looking for would be some
type of non-selective herbicide that will translocate through the tree's
root system. I use a product called 'crossbow' (triclopyr ester + 2,4-D
ester) and I have also used a product called 'finale'(glufosinate-ammonium)
with good results. Either way, what ever chemical you choose to use, make
sure it's a non-selective herbicide that will translocate (move through
the trees' internal system).

There are a few different ways to deal with the tree. The first option is
to kill the tree _before_ you have the tree cut down. To do this you would
want to take an axe and make cuts into the trunk on a sharp angle about a
foot from the ground. Once the axe is in the trunk, you would want to peal
the bark back a bit to form an area to hold liquid herbicide. Repeat these
cuts all around the base of the tree with the goal being to have _no_
cambium (green inner bark tissue) left connected to the upper reaches of
the tree. After this is done, fill these cuts with the herbicide and
re-apply as needed untill the tree dies.

The second option would be to have the tree removed first. With the tree
gone and the stump exposed, take a drill and a 1/2 inch to 1 inch drill
bit or 'paddle bit' and drill deep holes into the top of the stump. Take
your non-selective herbicide and fill these holes _half way_. Half way is
an important step due to the tree's attempt to expell the herbicide. I
plug the holes with wax to prevent this from happening while others rap
the stump with plastic bags. Re-application maybe needed.

The thrid way would be to remove the tree and then have the stump removed.
This is done with a machine called a stump grinder. This will remove the
main reserve of engery of the root system and may do the trick right off.
If you have sucker growth from the remaining root system, then you can
apply a non-selective herbicide to the new growth. Before you apply
herbicide to the new growth, let the suckers get to 12 to 18 inches first.
The new growth is using the root systems' engery reserve and you want to
deplete it as much as you can before spraying.

Good luck.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com