Cedar trees....toxic?

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moxies_garden Batesburg, SC(Zone 8a) Apr 04, 2014

Hello all!

Okay, I have a question. I have one acre, with 7 cedar trees along the front. By the road. It seems like nothing grows well up there. Or, I plant it and then it dies. We have one spot, a burn circle.....that is growing strawberries really good!! The year before that, it grew marigolds like crazy. I am wondering, and have been reading here and there, that cedar oils ...i.e. cedar trees are toxic to other plants. I know black walnut is toxic to plants if they are planted underneath them.
I am thinking I may need to burn off a good portion of the areas by the front.....after we cut down the cedar trees.

So....what are your thoughts on cedar toxins?

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Apr 04, 2014

Nope, cedars are not toxic - what you are seeing is that the trees are good at competing for and capturing the available water and nutrient supplies, and shading the ground too.

Perhaps worth adding that cedar oil is toxic to some fungi and wood-boring insects, which makes it resistant to decay. The same oil is harmless to humans though (and smells delightful!).

Resin

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Apr 04, 2014

The cedars referred to are probably Juniperus virginiana - which is really a Juniper - which are well known in eastern North America to colonize disturbed sites as a pioneer plant. This is especially true on poor infertile dry soils - where other things don't grow well or die. Junipers generate growth, shed old needles that then decompose, provide habitat/forage for birds and small mammals, which then deposit seeds and other detritus that gradually create better growing conditions for other successional species.

So observations of this behavior doesn't imply that the Junipers are doing anything bad to other plants. It just means that the other plants would not grow well there whether the Junipers were there or not.

SO: cutting down the Junipers might be the worst thing to do first. Invest a pittance in a decent soil test to determine your existing conditions, and then decide whether you want to make a big investment in site improvements, or whether you can be satisfied with the Junipers doing what they do best - which is make a lot from little.

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moxies_garden Batesburg, SC(Zone 8a) Apr 05, 2014

Thank you for your responses! They haven't been cut down yet, and I really don't want to. I was just trying to get information to see if that is what is going on.
I can see how the shade and the trees themselves can be influencing what I have planted under them so far.

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