Hi, new member here.
One of our backyard mistakes was planting a curly willow in a corner of the yard. We've cut it back a few times, but my bride's ready to make it gone.
Willow is apparently not a durable (in the weather/soil) wood when dead, and we can be patient (the tree's not in a highly visible location/a stump will not be a Yard Fashion Faux Pas), so I'm looking at cutting it down to a stump (trunk is about a foot across) and killing it with epsom salts, which seems to be the least environmentally damaging method that doesn't involve digging up that entire section of the yard to remove roots. The preferred technique seems to be drilling holes in the top of the stump around the perimeter, filling the holes with Epsom salts, moistening the salts, and covering the stump with a tarp, then leaving it alone.
First question: does anyone have experience with this method, and does it work as well as the interweb says it does?
Second question: there's a pluot six feet away from the willow that we want to keep. The interweb says that the magnesium sulfate of Epsom salts is a good soil amendment and won't harm adjacent plants. Again, does anyone have experience with a situation like this who can confirm that it's safe for an adjacent tree?
One of our backyard mistakes was planting a curly willow in a corner of the yard. We've cut it back a few times, but my bride's ready to make it gone.
Willow is apparently not a durable (in the weather/soil) wood when dead, and we can be patient (the tree's not in a highly visible location/a stump will not be a Yard Fashion Faux Pas), so I'm looking at cutting it down to a stump (trunk is about a foot across) and killing it with epsom salts, which seems to be the least environmentally damaging method that doesn't involve digging up that entire section of the yard to remove roots. The preferred technique seems to be drilling holes in the top of the stump around the perimeter, filling the holes with Epsom salts, moistening the salts, and covering the stump with a tarp, then leaving it alone.
First question: does anyone have experience with this method, and does it work as well as the interweb says it does?
Second question: there's a pluot six feet away from the willow that we want to keep. The interweb says that the magnesium sulfate of Epsom salts is a good soil amendment and won't harm adjacent plants. Again, does anyone have experience with a situation like this who can confirm that it's safe for an adjacent tree?