Elm trees seem to have a way of popping up everywhere. Some people use ammonium sulphate. Some people use girdling to try and kill them which does not work well for me. Some people use glysophate which doesnt eork for me. Some use vinegar, salt, dishwashing liquid in the ratio of 1 cup salt, 2 quarts white vinegar , 2 1/2 tbsp dishwashing liquid. Some people use a propane torch. I have lots of trees in a fence row i need to kill. Is tordan my old surefire method? I hate the long residual time of tordan and the trees are popping up very close to an underwater pipe that brings water to the house. The methods of killing a tree i got though effective from locals might be overkill eg. Diesels and borrowing a bulldozer have been mentioned. What are your suggestions to kill 6" + elm sprouts that have grown 10ā + in the last year?
This PDF suggests herbicide, yet I have never tried it myself, we tried using a tree stump remover that involved pouring in a chemical and lighting a fire in to the chemical inside the stump and that did not do much to the stump of our former red elm, i hope one of their suggestions works for you, yet you might need to use a toxic long lasting chemical of some sort https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5410128.pdf
Glyphosate seems to work better on grass than trees. Triclopyr would probably be my go to. If theyāre big enough to make it difficult to apply as a foliar spray, perhaps give this method a shot.
Iām plagued by Siberian elm. Iāve had the most luck by cutting them off, dilling a hole in the stump, and filling it will salt. Iāll usually put a plug of wax or clay on top of the salt to keep it from getting everywhere.
Siberian elms are a true trash tree. Our neighbor has one that litters our yard like crazy. They sprout up everywhere and are ugly!
@BrambleberryMeadow just how much hole do you drill? Iām guessing a 1/2" x 8"?
Deep as you can manage, and if there is room, more than one hole.
Crossbow herbicide works.
For large treesā¦you might build a ācampfireā with the elm trunk in the center of the kindling and wood. Getting the bark hot enough will accomplish the desired result.
Crossbow, Tordon, - and I have had decent success with full strength (41% or 50%) glyphosate squirted liberally on cambium on fresh-cut stumps or girdles.
@clarkinks
Same problem here. The state thinks that cedars are a problem. No, they are easy. If you use herbicide (such a tordon) on stumps on bigger elms, I had heard that timing is a key and works better toward the time the trees are going dormant so the tree will pull the herbicide back into the roots and you donāt get resprouting. I havenāt tried it myself and could be bunk.
Iāve got some stumps that Iāve been stubbornly cutting off regrowth and they will eventually die but itās painful and not a solution on a larger scale. I have killed some big standing elms by girdling with a chainsaw but sometimes it takes more than once (if they heal the cut)ā¦and works best if the cut is notched rather than just a chainsaw width.
The unfortunate thing about this conversation is that, at least around me, I believe that all of the native Elm trees are succumbing to disease. I was under the impression that they used to be great sources for mushroom hunting.
As a child I played under huge native elms.
By the time I was in college, all had died or in the process of doing so.
Rare to see oneā¦most are hybridized or are Siberian anymore.
I did find a chestnut along Brushy creek in Madison Co, KY yesterdayā¦about 15 inches in diameter.
Native elms are one thing. Siberian Elm is a pestilent invasive.
I will probably plant some of the newer Dutch Elm Disease resistant hybrid elms.
But the Siberians seem mostly determined to break up the driveway or foundations or otherwise be a PITA. They gotsta go. Along with the Russian olives.
Siberians elms were unfortunately planted in great numbers on the plains in the windbreak planting programs (1940s give or take). The seedlings grow as readily as grass. A weed of the highest order. The 80 year old siberian elm has some nice wood though if a person were so inclined.
We do have very old american elm growing out here, and they have survived evidently due to less disease pressure somehow related to lower humidity levels or something.
We battled them in Kansas and won. Fell 14 huge trees to stop the seeds, then cut hundreds of seedlings and treated with Tordon. A few years of mowing finished off the viable seeds. Weāre only on 6 acres though. Our neighbors hate them as much as we do, so we should be done.
Iāll take bindweed or Bermuda grass over Siberian Elm!
Iāve killed trees by drilling holes near the base and pouring in pure glyphosate, but timing is important. Late summer works for most species. It may take a couple seasons for them to die, but trees killed this way donāt come back.
Others just cut the trees to a stump at the right time and then paint the stumps with herbicide of choice.
How and when where you applying glyphosate?
Siberian Elm sucker readily, so bulldozers often make the problem worse. Girdling will do it but put Tordon in the girdled area to slow suckering.
When Iāve chainsawed to the ground and treated the outside ring with Tordon RTU, Iāve had very minimal suckering. Also, wait at least a year to burn or pull stumps if possible.
Get them when theyāre young because once they start seeding it gets way harder!
It has worked for me diluting glyphosate 50% on a tree with 18 inch diameter.
When bark is slipping in spring some trees can have a 6 inch or wider strip of bark removed completely around the tree by hitting with a sledge hammer and tree eventually dies. It has worked on oak trees for me.
Years ago, my grandfather cut down a bunch of big siberian elms and buried them fairly deep in a trench in a different area. The result? He then had an elm forest in a completely new area 
I use a mattock - mattock blows downward around the root ball till all the horizontal roots are severed. Finish with hooked blows under for the taproot. No coming back from that, in my zone anyway. I usually get after them before they get 6" though, so not sure how fast itād go at that size. Youād probably want to pull some dirt away from the foot ball first. If you leave the trunk in place you can use it as a lever to help break off the roots.
Native elms here (in NE Iowa thatās U. americana (American Elm) and U rubra (Red or Slippery Elm)), are very common. They rarely live past 25 years because of Dutch Elm disease, but thatās plenty long enough for them to reseed. So we have a continuous crop of small to mid-size trees (12" - 15" trunk diameter) at woodland edges and other colonization spots. Weāre on the the third such generation on our place. The dead ones are great firewood sources, and I love the lumber from Red Elm in particular. Iāve also had some beautiful ābirdseyeā figure in American Elm caused by trees partially succumbing to Dutch Elm, then recovering, before eventually dying. And as you say, the roots of the dead ones are prime feedstock for morel mushrooms.
I have planted some disease resistant American Elms among them, figuring it will accelerate the spread of resistance genes. And, there are occassionally partially resistant old trees adding to the genetic mix. We have one in our yard that was growing in a field fencerow when we bought the land. It has been liberally exposed to the disease due to the continuous cycling described above around it, but itās plugging along, healthy as ever yet this year.
Unlike the American Chestnut (and unfortunately, all of our Ash species), I am confident the American Elm species will evolve on their own to some kind of resistance to the imported disease/pest that plagues them. Their precocious seed production, and relatively late onset of the disease gives them a fighting chance.