Question
Hi Jim,

I live in Houston, TX. I have a Live Oak in my yard. A few years ago I threw about 4 total inches of top soil and mulch around its base. Then I planted some ornamental bushes and flowers and surrounded the each with monkey grass.

Over the years, the tree has sprouted (for lack of a better word) runners from the roots. They look like miniature trees trying to come up out of the ground. I suppose this is a result of placing good soil on top, watering, fertilizing the area, yet not deep root feeding and watering.

My question is: These runners are getting more and more dense that they are starting to choke out the monkey grass. At this point, what can I do to stop the process of their infiltration?

Thanks in advance,
Jim Melgar

Answer
Hi Jim Melhar,

Regarding Oak runners:

The 'runners' or sapling-shoots, are coming from surface roots the tree has sent-out in response to being covered in soil, and also probably because the area has been getting a little more water than it would otherwise with the plant's location at the base of the trunk.

There are chemicals that can be purchased at the garden center which target 'woody weeds, vines and brambles'.  There are also similar products made by Monsanto in the 'ROUND-UP' series for these types of weedy problems.  They are usually used for poison ivy.  These chemicals will kill the shoots that start from the trees roots.  However, using this type of easy method may also cause some damage to the tree or even kill it, especially if the tree is young or stressed out for any reason.

It can be a major chore, but one good 'safe-and-sure' remedy for root sapling invasion is to simply follow the tap-root back to near the trunk of the tree and chop it off.  The tree should be able to do OK with just a few surface roots cut away. This is only a temporary fix and may have to be repeated every so many years. With 'Monkey grass' in the area, this remedy may not be all so practical since it requires digging up the root and following it some distance through whatever is growing above it.

Otherwise there is not much else you can do except snip the saplings back as they appear or try to light-starve them to death by putting a coffee  can or similar over them when they are small.

Zilching small saplings to the nub with a painter's heat-gun may be easier than chopping them out if there are not too many to deal with.

Keeping them cut to the ground and/or leafless will eventually kill them.

Do away with the Liriope ('Monkey-grass') and Re-do the entire area with a 'raised garden' flower bed type construction which uses a 'WEED-BARRIER' type-lining over the top-soil base, and the shoots should no longer be a major problem.  They will try to grow, but will be obstructed and light-starved by the weed-barrier fabric.

About WEED-BARRIER and similar products sold in many stores:
http://www.growers-supply-co.com/dewitt.htm


There are no guarantees for these remedies, and you will have to try various things to see what works best for your particular situation.  Oak trees which do not have any soil covering their base areas usually are generally good at not making the sapling runners.

Every so often there can be a bumper crop of acorns from seed-producing Oaks, so there will be the other kind of saplings everywhere sprouting from these seeds.  Some of your saplings may be these types versus the 'clones' that arise directly from the roots. Eradication of both clonal and non-clonal tree saplings is the same and acorn saplings are easy to pull-up by hand if you do this before they get too rooty.
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I Hope this has answered your question(s)!
Have a fantastic Summer!

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