Help me kill all these mulberry trees?

[mittengardener]

I have the unfortunate luck of living in a neighborhood that has a number of mature mulberry trees. My neighbors also have one that it about 15 feet tall right on the other side of our fence. This obviously results in having to fend of dozens of new mulberry trees trying to take root every year. I have accepted that pulling the little guys will be a part of my yard maintenance.

But there are a number of them that were allowed to get established along a chain link fence before I bought my house and a few times each year I cut them back, but the sawed off stump just keeps sprouting more and more. They never stop coming!

Is there a way for me to stop these stumps from shooting out new growth? Since it is along a chain link it would be very difficult to remove the stump/root. Maybe there is something I could poison the root system with?

I know there aren't many people on here in favor of using poisons, but I hate Mulberry trees. I want to kill these ones for good.

[mittengardener]

A thought - maybe there is some kind of substance I could brush onto the stump? Maybe I could use exterior paint to paint it a nice bright color? lol

[rainbowgardener]

You can just paint it with glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round-up, but you can buy just glyphosate).

I don't love poisons, but I use glyphosate sometimes on poison ivy and occasionally on Japanese honeysuckle shrubs that are too big to remove other ways.

If you just paint it on the stump, it will do minimal environmental damage. If it has been more than 2-3 days since the stump was cut, cut it again, so that you have an open wound. That way the plant will suck up the poison much better. After a few days, the cut is calloused over and won't intake the poison very much.

[rainbowgardener]

PS (no edit function) this works while the plant is actively growing. If it is dormant it won't take in the poison very much either.

[mittengardener]

Thanks for the advice!