Please help me kill the mulberry!

[Dixana]

A friend of mine whos dad works for the county gave me this herbicidal stuff and told me that for invasive plants to cut off all the ends I find and paint it on.
It isn't working!! Everywhere I cut and painted the stupid things are just growing new growth behind the area they were cut.
I am disgusted with this plant. It is growing EVERYWHERE. My yard. around every structure on our property, the garden, under the porch, even in the stinking gutters!
Any thoughts? I'll do anything except dump herbicidal killer on the ground. There has to be another way!

[lilturtle]

start pulling them out..eventally you will get them all. Make sure to pull anything that is big enough to flower and produce fruit first..then go after the seedlings.

[gixxerific]

Not sure how crazy mulberry is offhand. But I know some things won't die know matter what you do to them.

Hopefully that is not the case. But as lilturtle suggested try to pull them all. Maybe a little extra help would be to rip out the main offenders and lay down thick layers of cardboard. That may help them from returning. Not sure if that will help but it is a worth a earth friendly try.

Good luck

[Dixana]

You're joking right? You can't just "pull out" a mulberry. The stem/vine/base whatever you want to call it on them are an inch thick at minimum. On the edges of the property where they've been allowed to grow into trees the trunk is almost eight inches in diameter. I haven't cut those yet. One runner I pulled went 20 feet diagonally across the yard before it went to deep for me to pull anymore. Not to mention the ones coming up around the building structures are coming from UNDER the foundation.
No, there is no just pulling out a mulberry......

[lilturtle]

well you wanted suggestions so we gave it to you....we don't have majic answers..LOL You tried killing it and cant so next best thing is to dig and pull them out.

I have a 3 year old mulberry and it does not have a stem that thick so you should be able to yank out seedlngs pretty easy if you don't let them grow to long.

You could also try cutting them down then poisoning the trunk with bleach.

[Dixana]

I haven't yet seen any seedlings, but there are runners everywhere.
I may have to try the bleach thing, though I'm doubting that will work when a chemical so toxic it can't be used within 15 feet of food and 100 yards from waterfront isn't killing it Neither is vinegar or boiling water which were both dumped between the house and garage where a huge runner I have chopped off repeatedly keeps returning.
I HATE this plant Sorry if I came off snippy but this stupid tree/plant is ridiculous and seems to be taking over my life. Everytime I turn around there's more of it!!!!

You just wait mulberry, next spring the hubby is ripping up the backyard with a skid loader, lets see your stupid runners and roots survive that!!

[lilturtle]

ROFL

[gixxerific]

deleted

[Dixana]

Wow.... I said sorry. And if you looked Gixx, we posted pretty much at the same time.....

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Maybe you could try salting it. Heavily! . Or you could just embrace the mulberry lol ! They make good jam

[lilturtle]

LOL..I am looking foward to mine producing berries maybe next year:) I only have the one lonely bush. But it is plenty good enough.

[Dixana]

I haven't seen a single berry off either of the mature trees in the backyard. Perhaps they produce in fall?
I dunno but it isn't worth it. I just discovered one has grown into the underside of the siding on the house

[lilturtle]

I am really wondering if you have somthing other then a mulberry I have never heard of them being that invasive. And to have mature trees with no fruit is really strange also especially if it is healthy enough to grow everywere. I don't think the mulberry has that invasive of runners..most I have heard is it spreading through the berries.

[Dixana]

It is indeed a white mulberry. I've gotten conformation from three sources now. I'm thinking about taking a branch to the county extension office hoping they can help me kill it.
One of sources did say Ortho brush b gone works the best on invasive plants when applied to freshly cut branches.
The idea of buying that garbage makes me cringe

[lilturtle]

Hmmm wonder if there is a differance between the white and black mulberry then..I have the black one.

[Dixana]

I'm also thinking this is the fruitless variety seeing as I have yet to see a single fruit on it. From what I've read thus far red and black mulberry are nice trees, tasty fruit, slower growing non invasive, but messy.
Fruitless white and paper mulberry are evil and invasive. It will continue to grow from cut off roots I really hope someone at the extension office can help me Tomorrow I'll post a pic of this "stuff" growing out of house. It's insane. I don't know wether to cry or go kamakaze with a saw and massive chemicals.

[applestar]

If they're seedlings, then you should be able to pull them out, so I suspect they're root suckers. I wonder if you let one shoot grow, would the others stop pushing to grow too? If all of these are suckering from a single root system, will apical dominance take precedence?

Is there a more mature growth? Maybe it just needs to get older to fruit.

[Dixana]

Could be that it needs more time, but I doubt it. The one I cut down last night had five trunks two to six inches in diameter. The one in the abandoned church parking lot behind my house has at least three and the one trunck is at least eight.
I MIGHT be wrong here as it was dark out when I was doing this last night, but I think someone cut down the actual original tree itself. There's a very large stump on the corner of my garden I have my herb pot set up on. The stump seems to have new growth starting from the edges of it. If it is the original tree stumpI am THRILLED!! Elviss' dad told me it's easier to kill an invasine tree or vine if you can find the originating plant. Death to the mulberry!
Well........maybe......it certainly looked last night like the mulberry is the dominating foliage all along the fence line of the church lot.
I'm going to talkto them sometime this week and see if they'll let me clean up the fence adjacent to my yard.
I'm hoping with a little diplomacy and the fact they won't have to spend any money that they'll like my idea. I think mulch a nice clematis or something would look MUCH nicer than overgrown weeds an a huge mess. If they don't they're in for it because the city has rules against weeds higher than two feet within the city limits. They'3e weeds are more then the fence itself in some spots! I'm going to start a new thread on this later with pictures.