In the spring I have thousands of Cedar elm seedlings come up in the beds where I have dumped the leaves for mulch. I simply rake through them breaking their contact to the ground to keep them from rooting. This is probably analogous to what your husband suggested. I usually have to do this more than once.

I'm amazed how long the roots are from the little Cedar elm seeds. The leaves are left in theses particular beds where there are mostly shrubs.

Thanks for the suggestion but i’m afraid that hundreds have already rooted! I guess i can try to at least cut off the tops that have rooted but OMG so much back breaking work

I love my long handled stirrup hoe for jobs like this.

in my sand.. recently sprouted oaks.. can be pulled out ... even if they have a 6 to 8 inch tap root ... you must not have favorable soil to do such????

if young enough... if you just cut them down.. they usually dont have enough stored energy to rebud and releaf ...

if you dig up a couple.. and show us a pic.. it might help us.. help you ... its hard to understand exactly what size we are talking about ...

ken