Do not use Roundup. Just keep on pruning them back as deep as possible.

Dannie

You're not going to win this battle. While sold as individual plants, in nature,these things form thickets.

FWIW, you CAN somewhat tip things in your favor by cutting the suckers in mid-growing season. Woody plants have a somewhat lesser ability to resprout at that point in the year, but they'll come roaring back next spring.

+oM

They sure have come roaring back. I am seriously thinking of planting a different type of tree in its spot. The tree is planted in a 12 foot deep flower bed and having hundreds of suckers to deal with is just ridiculous. Bullthistle, what will happen if I use round-up? By the way, I am not one to go wild with chemicals. I have too many pets to even think about poisoning the environment.

You asked: "what will happen if I use round-up? "

Roundup kills plants by moving into the roots.

So, when you spray/paint the sucker growth, the active ingredient moves into the tree's roots.

Also, please note, there is a difference between that which is toxic, and that which is poisonsous. Roundup and its' generic equivalents should be considered very mildly toxic to mammals. It is hard to even get an adverse reaction in lab tests. If a product is poisonous, it is deadly upon contact.

Getting rid of the prunus seems like probably the best bet here. I once planted two Canada red cherries. Had I known then what I know now, regarding the profuse root suckering, I'd not have done so. Of course now, aside from this suckering, they're two real nice little trees.

+oM

Ironically, I have the opposite challenge: a semi-desperate quest to propagate an heroic purple plum before it is completely dead. No luck, so far, in germinating pits or in rooting cuttings.

The fruit comprises the prettiest and tastiest plums I've experienced in half a century; foliage is lovely, and the tree plows on through the searing, arid climate. Borers love it to death, too, though, and I gather that fruit trees can be rather short-lived, anyway.

Maybe the edge-of-the-desert conditions in north Texas suppress "suckers" here: I've never seen a single one in a decade-and-a-half or so.

swellcat... you question has absolutely nothing to do with the post you put it in...

do a new post int he fruit forum.. and ask for the names of people who graft fruit trees...

it might cost you a bit... but it is simply done..

i used to have a link for such.. but it must have been on the old computer ... you send them cuttings.. they graft and return them

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link