Hello everyone, I am new here. Looking for an input how to choke to death a chinese heaven tree growing at my neighbor's yard next to the fence its quiet tall 20+ its keep pushing up suckers..no surprise there and i do I kill them all.  But knowing the fact that this tree has an allelopathic effect on other plants/trees trying to grow in its vicinity makes it a bad neighbor. My yard is on a slope in full sun and I wish to plant a tree for shade and to prevent erosion.  
No the neighbor won't cut the tree :(
Thanks

I understand your situation and have a similar problem with a neighbor on my west side who has planted (or allows volunteer trees to grow) within a couple feet of the property line.  I think the law in most places is that you can trim the limbs that come over the property line but you cannot trim roots on your side to the point where it kills the neighbor's tree.  I have used ~ 30 inch root barriers in some places just inside the fence.  That and tree trimming several times a year is how I deal with it.  Unfortunately, the trees are getting taller and harder to reach each year.  Anyway, be careful what action you take - having extremely poor relations with a neighbor is not fun.

We have that very problem but its in our own yard.  It was here when we purchased the property two years ago.  It's a Silky Oak from Australia and is the messiest tree ever!  Same thing Alleopathic.  NOTHING grows under it!  BUT it has killer roots that are lifting the bricks over our septic area.  No concrete.  Just bricks that are now bumpy due to those killer roots.

Why haven't we removed it?  $$$$!!!  Plus it gives great shade to the house from the West.  We do plan to remove it and replace it, but it's about 30 years old, and we won't last that long for another tree to grow that big.

Too bad you can't round it up!

But a good neighbor is a good thing.  Bad neighbors make life miserable.

Good luck!

Suzi

What you do in this situation is : over the next two years you slowly poisen it. But not to fast make them believe it was a natural death!!! I watch to much lifetime! !!

I do not condone such activity, but...i wonder what the salt tolerance is for that tree??? a little epson salt worked into the soil along the fence could be of use in this situation...

Welcome to the forum ????

Cajun!  I was just reading on the Epson Salt package.  Epson salt makes things grow!  Jim had a huge splinter removed from one of his fingernails, and the doc told him to soak in Epson Salt, so the package is sitting on my counter.  It helps plants GROW and flower!  I don't think that kind of salt would work, but maybe rock salt would..........

Suzi

Cajons on the tree side suzi!!!! Tree hugger. Lol just kidding cajon.

Thank you everyone for your time :) yes...slowly killing would be my choice of action... Since the fast one is illegal..lol
I was thinking to plant an eucalyptus tree on my side right next to it..hence it grows fast ( sadly not overnight...) so it can block all the sun and when the hell tree dies I can cut my own eucalyptus ... how is that for desperate? Lol I am just really tired of cutting the suckers out.. I have to take an antihistamine to do it.. (I am allergic to the stink)
Thanks again :)

I see no reason why you can't use round-up on the suckers that pop up on YOUR side!  We removed a Liquid Amber tree that suckered like crazy even after it was removed.  Took one year fighting those suckers, but the big root is finally dead.  By rounding up the suckers on your side, a little round up will travel to the main root.  Could be a slow death but those suckers belong to you.

We had a neighbor with a beautiful shade tree on his side of the fence, long before my fig days, and we designed a gorgeous shade garden for our side of the fence.  The neighbor moved and the new owners cut down the tree and ruined my micro-climate!  You just can't control what a neighbor is going to do.

Suzi

Yeah Rock Salt...oops...You guys crack me up...lol

For what it is worth
It is up to you to decide how you want to handle this situation

Applying roundup to the suckers on your property won't have an effect on the parent plant because it is a foliar active herbicide. In situations where you want to kill a tree entirely you need a soil active herbicide that actually kills the root system. There are various options with products containing the active ingredient imazipyr being useful.

Keep in mind that any plant having roots within the treatment area would be negatively impacted and new plantings would not be recommended for 6 months to 1 year.

If you only take issue with the suckers you could install a plastic barrier. Just google products to prevent bamboo spread.

You don't want to apply salt because it would be bad for your future plantings.

I've always wondered about injecting a herbicide directly into the roots.

You now have to go and pay $200,000 for a friggin plastic barrier?  Round it up baby!

Suzi

James
No need to inject the root. Soil active herbicide is still either applied to foliage during active growth and is translocated by the plant to the roots.

Another option is to make one hack with a machete for every three inches of diameter and squirt one squeeze of concentrated herbicide into the hack.

Soil active herbicides can take a while for the plant to start showing the effects, but usually are dead as a hammer by the following growing season

I use Element. It is lethal to trees, fortunately all are on my property. It can be applied in holes drilled in the bark of the roots or trunk. I have been using it on Chinese tallow and crape myrtles. Both are very difficult to kill but Element does it well, Round-up don't faze them. I gave Wills some to kill a huge oak tree with. Ask him about it. I would reccomend applying it when the tree was dormant and it just wouldn't bud out in the spring. It only took 3 days for all of the leaves on Wills tree to be brown all the way to the top of a 60'+ tall tree. I have only found it available 2.5 gallons at the time though and it isn't cheap. I would try to be a good neighbor though first and foremost.

Say it's not so, Wills killed a granddaddy oak? No way! Well, okay, I guess only tree rats eat acorns.

If I found out that my neighbors were furtively killing my shade trees, I'd set a lawyer on them.

Oh wait. I actually did that when the neighbors were harassing my ten ants about the fact that our trees dropped leaves on their lawn. Let me tell you: the cease-and-desist letter was a thing of beauty.

Last spring I forgot a bag of  

 
under  evergreen big tree, bag was open,  in no time my tree was dead.   Ops.......