Siberian Elms: very destructive, need to be banned

[Queen K]

Perfect. If I don't do something like that I'll be fighting suckers forever.

Thanks to you both.

[Queen K]

Get and use the good round-up though. Not the 3% solution the hardware stores sell. get some 30% from the farmer's supply house.

Anyone out there with the "good Round-Up" laying around in their garden shed? PM me as to the details in how we can get together and do an exchange, of sorts.

[RR24K]

Anyone out there with the "good Round-Up" laying around in their garden shed? PM me as to the details in how we can get together and do an exchange, of sorts.

[mtnman1]

You might have to have a pesticide licence to purchase this full strength stuff. I suggest calling the farm supply place. I think it is over near the truck wash.

[Cumungala]

If you see a seedling like with 2 tiny round green leaves in your garden.... POUNCE IMMEDIATELY!! Its probably a seedling of a Siberian Elm which is a tree that is taking over Kelowna. It looks terrible, has weak wood, can, and will grow anywhere and can grow up to 2 meters per year. What people dont realize is that this tree is almost unnoticeable until its too late. If you live in an area with lots or even a few seeds you may want to check your gardens. The seeds are round, beigey- brown and have a little seed in the center.

The seeds just fell a few weeks ago and now mini sprouts are coming up. Trees grow in gutters, vacant lots, alleyways, roadsides, or pretty much anywhere. There is a 95% chance you have this tree either in your neighbourhood or in the area.The tree has flat green oval leaves and long stringy twigs. The branches have a fishbone effect.

What absolutely blows me away is that people actually PLANT this tree!! Its like they think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. They like it because you can have a nice shade tree in 5 years, and because it looks beautiful. Are you high?! The thing does not look beautiful dude! If I had control over this I would make a $500 cash reward for information leading to and or arrest of individuals responsible for planting this tree. Unfortunately I dont have control over this, but the city will remove this tree if its on city property. That means I will look for sites where this tree is on city property, report it and hopefully they will remove it. If everyone did this, I cant imagine that the situation wont get better. Its just that people wont do this! Nobody seems to care.

[MAPearce]

Hey man..I helped a buddy fell a few trees this year.He said one was a Chinese elm.Sounds kinda the same as you described.Is there a possibility that Siberian elms and Chinese elms are the same??

[Big Bacardi]

Yup 100 % right...it is chinese elm...good luck getting rid of it!!!

100 ft high in rutland every where....like I say good luck!!!

[LoneWolf_53]

The thread title makes it sound as if this is something new? Not!

Chinese elms have been around for ages and yes they grow very quickly and as a result the wood is soft and not great at withstanding high winds.

Perhaps not so much here but in some parts of Canada it was often used as a quick and inexpensive hedge.

I don't care for it much myself as it does have all the characteristics of a weed plus there's a certain type of insect that loves to attack them and can strip the leaves in short order.

Plenty of the stuff growing along the roadside all over the place with high concentrations of it in Rutland.

[grammafreddy]

http://www.floridata.com/ref/u/ulmu_par.cfm

[ferri]

those things drive me nuts! it is snowing Chinese Elm seeds right now. you can see the drifts along the streets in the gutters when there is a wind. i curse them. i know every single one of those seeds with sprout. there is never a dud.

what we need is for a big flock of Evening Grosbeaks to show up. they eat the seeds. but they are so darn dumb they don't migrate like normal birds.

[Al Czervic]

I have been fighting these dammed weed trees for years. It’s like fighting socialists …they just keep sprouting up all over the place trying to take over.

[Advocate]

Siberian elm (U. pumila is sometimes sold as U. parvifolia,(Chinese Elm) but Siberian elm fruits in the spring, has rough bark, and is not nearly as desirable an ornamental, with brittle branches that are constantly breaking off and leaves that are unusually susceptible to insect damage.

So, not the same then.

PHOTOs:

http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=sib ... CCkQsAQwAA


More info:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6157601_siber ... -tree.html

Thanks for this info! Didn't know this tree before now.

[Cumungala]

Apparently this tree showed up in Kelowna in the 1950's. The tree was introduced to North America sometime in the mid 1800s. They MUST have known how bad this tree was by the 1950's. Nothing much, just some selfish ignorant *bleep* that just HAD to plant this tree in Kelowna. Like I said, nobody seems to care. If people did, we would be coming up with long term plans to deal with this tree.

[vinnied]

What absolutely blows me away is that people actually PLANT this tree!! Its like they think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. They like it because you can have a nice shade tree in 5 years, and because it looks beautiful. Are you high?! The thing does not look beautiful dude! If I had control over this I would make a $500 cash reward for information leading to and or arrest of individuals responsible for planting this tree. Unfortunately I dont have control over this, but the city will remove this tree if its on city property. That means I will look for sites where this tree is on city property, report it and hopefully they will remove it. If everyone did this, I cant imagine that the situation wont get better. Its just that people wont do this! Nobody seems to care.

someone correct me if I'm wrong but, are the Elks and Kings stadiums perimeter not full of these things?

[strwbrrydvl]

Oh these trees drive me nuts!!! I took out 6 of them from my yard last fall in hopes the little seedlings popping up throughout my garden would disappear. I was wrong. My neighbour has an overgrown maze of them, they probably spew enough little papery pods to seed the entirety of Lake Country! To those who have them, and for whatever reason actually wish to keep them, hack them back to about 5-8ft every 1-2yrs in the fall. I say hack because it doesn't have to be a professional, pretty job. They are weed-trees. They grow so fast that come July they will look like normal trees again with less seeds and no chance of hitting a neighbours house in a windstorm!