How to get rid of lilac shoots: best methods and preventive measures
Lilac is a shrub prone to growth when unfavorable factors appear. The root system of the plant is able to spread over considerable distances, releasing young shoots. Not all varieties of shrubs give growth, and an already captured area can be cleaned without much difficulty. There are different ways to quickly and effectively get rid of lilac growth, each gardener can choose the most convenient.
Why does the lilac grow shoots?
Growth is easier to deal with, knowing why it appeared. Lilac abundantly releases new shoots when exposed to adverse factors.
Unsuccessful place to plant a bush
Lilac actively shoots if the place of growth for her is uncomfortable, threatening with diseases. So the plant tries to save itself if the mother plant dies.
Insufficient deepening of the root system
In a shrub that is not deep enough when planting, the surface roots suffer from a lack of moisture in the upper soil layer, they begin to actively release shoots. The solution to the problem is deepening the roots. You just need to add soil to the area around the plant.
Different types of shrub damage
A small injury to the trunk is enough for the bush to actively shoot. When the bark and wood are damaged, the circulation of nutrients in the tissues is disturbed. The root system, trying to save the aerial part, starts the process of plant rejuvenation by releasing numerous shoots.
What harm can it do?
Uncontrollably growing lilac is capable of capturing the entire area in a few years. Lateral roots produce several offspring each year, which may appear at a distance of several tens of centimeters from the trunk.
A 50-year-old bush covers an area larger than 10 m in diameter.
Gradually, the shoots begin to give offspring, and the territory of capture expands even more. It is impossible to use the occupied land either for beds or for garden plantings.
How to get rid of lilac growth on the site?
Some gardeners strive to completely remove the lilac in their area, others want to leave a beautifully flowering bush, they are not satisfied only with the shoots. There are many ways to clean the site: they use chemicals and folk remedies, they are removed manually.
Using chemistry
To quickly get rid of lilac offspring, strong herbicides are used. Suitable Tornado, Roundup. However, with a strong overgrowth, standard spraying with these chemicals is useless.
To get rid of thickets for sure, processing at the beginning of the growing season is carried out according to a special scheme:
- The shoots are not sprayed, but coated with a brush so that the active substance penetrates the plant tissues faster and in greater concentration.
- If the mother bush is large, and its growth is abundant, then it will be necessary to process the shoots 2-3 times.
- When the growth of young plants stops, it is advisable to cover the area around the bush with dark material, leave until the next season.
If you want to get rid of thickets faster, you can use arboricides - chemicals that act on tree and shrub vegetation.
Arboricides are potent substances. It is necessary to strictly observe the dosages, use chemical protection.
Manual deletion
Many gardeners use a simple and old way to eliminate overgrowth - uproot a bush. Usually this method is used if chemical etching is undesirable.
Algorithm of actions:
- Saw off the trunks of the mother plant.
- Each offspring is cut at the root.
- Remove topsoil to expose roots.
- Shovel uproot large sections of the root system.
- They are taken as lateral root cuttings, pulling them out of the ground every one.
Folk remedies and recipes
If you do not want to mess with a shovel, you can use effective folk remedies:
- Fill the overgrown area with s alt (1 kg per 1 m22). Pour in boiling water. Close with roofing felt or other dark material. Leave for a year or two.
- Cover the ground in the area with fresh manure. The procedure is carried out at the end of the growing season, the soil surface is covered with dark material for a year. Due to the saturation of the soil with organic matter, the plant will go into active growth instead of preparing for winter dormancy. The offspring will lose a lot of strength and die.
- Sodium nitrate works similarly. It is also applied in high concentrations to the soil at the end of the growing season.
Complex of preventive measures
Experienced gardeners share tips on how to avoid overgrowth of lilacs on the site:
- Preparing the landing hole, determine the diameter and depth, taking into account the installed enclosing screen.
- The shoots that appear are cut off, leaving no hemp.
- To weaken the offspring and make their subsequent removal easier, the ground around the plant is covered with a thick layer of sawdust or other mulch.
- Faded lilac clusters are cut off until they have produced seeds.
Are there varieties of lilacs that do not give shoots?
The vast majority of lilac varieties give shoots. But there are varieties that cannot grow:
- Dream;
- Belicent;
- Hungarian;
- Hiawatha;
- Moscow beauty;
- Columbus
Variety Monge gives little growth. But with proper planting technology and proper care, overgrowth is excluded.
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