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Can I save my Magnolia tree?

emjhardingemjharding Posts: 3
in Problem solving
I have an 8ft 15yr old beautiful Magnolia tree in a border.  This border is infested with ground elder so we are digging it out and laying membrane.
Can I somehow tape the membrane to the trunk to prevent ground elder growing up OR do I have to completely remove the tree.
Many thanks
Emma

Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    No to both, just cut the membrane (cut a cross where the tree trunk is) and fold it back around the trunk. You will probably not be able to supress the ground elder altogether, just pull it out everytime it re-appears around the base of the tree. This should eventually weaken it but you've a fight on your hands. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    You should leave the tree in place. Spray off any ground elder within the tree root area,  with glyphosate, rather than disturb the roots. Then lay your membrane when it's died down, and spray any that pop up through the gap left for the tree trunk. You could wipe it on rather than spray if that helps you avoid getting weed killer on the tree trunk. 
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • emjhardingemjharding Posts: 3
    Thank you so much.  This gives me great hope and definitely wot=rth a shot to save my tree :-) 
  • foxwalesfoxwales Posts: 69
    Don't go spraying glypho in your garden, certainly not anywhere near a cherished tree.  Membrane is not going to kill off the ryzoms which is how this stuff survives and spreads.  You either need to be persistent and keep pulling it up, exhausting the Ryzom energy stores over time or take everything out of the bed, pot them and treat the bed with strong weed killer like glypho.  Don't use it anywhere near plants you want to keep.  If you do strip the bed and pot your plants, make sure you strip all soil from the roots so you don't take any Ryzom into the pots, use new soil.
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    We have successfully cleared ground elder from a bed with existing shrubs and trees which were too large to move. We don’t use any chemicals in our garden.

    We dug over the whole bed and removed all the root we could find. Around the shrubs and trees, we dug as much as we could around and under their larger roots (near the surface) with a small trowel and fork. We then left the bed clear for about 4 weeks and waited for any missed elder to regrow. A small amount did and we repeated the process.

    Since then I just keep an eye on a few “danger spots” specifically around one shrub where it was difficult to get all the elder out. We had a few shoots appear the next season but nothing so far this year. We didn’t use membrane so if ou are, then you just need to keep an eye on the area around the Magnolia and pull off any elder shoots as they appear. If you keep doing this then any remaining roots will eventually be starved.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
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