It's snowing Elm seeds - help!

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Zarebeth Circle Pines, MN(Zone 4b) May 22, 2005

Don't get me wrong, I love elm trees. My neighbor has a dozen very old ones on our property line and they are beautiful. But right now it is "snowing" elm seeds, and it seems like every one of them germinate! Does anyone have any advice on the best way to clean them up? I get a small forest every year in all my gardens, and even my lawn, and we spend the rest of the year pulling them up - only to find dozens more next spring. And they are very deep rooted and hard to pull!

The cottonwoods are next - and other story! Anyway, how do the rest of you clean them out of your gardens? Anyone found a fast, easy method to get most of them before they sprout?

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StarhillForest Illinois, IL(Zone 5b) May 22, 2005

. . . and maples, and willows, and sycamores, and ash, and on and on. You just put up with it because you like the trees. I think the cottonwoods are best because at least they do look like snow falling.

Timely use of leaf blowers helps, as does mulching your planting beds to make them less friendly to tiny seeds like elm and sycamore. Prompt use of herbicides like Round-Up (in small and dilute applications, when the seedlings are still small) helps too, as does judicious use of premerges in flower beds.

But there's only so much you can do. At least they aren't malodorous, poisonous, or thorny!

Guy S.

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Zarebeth Circle Pines, MN(Zone 4b) May 22, 2005

Thanks!

I do love the trees, and we do have some of those other ones, but it seems as though my neighbors trees are particularly fertile.

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treelover3 Minneapolis, MN(Zone 5a) May 22, 2005

I am going to try using my shop-vac this year to pick up the excess seeds. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but I have got to try something. But before I do that, I need to get a few REALLY long extension cords...

I'm not putting up with elm seeds right now, for me, it's the silver maple trees in the area that are causing the seed problems. It's like a fall day when you walk outside - crunch, crunch, crunch...and every one of those seeds will germinate and become a little tree.
Mike

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Zarebeth Circle Pines, MN(Zone 4b) May 23, 2005

It's funny - when we plant seeds we get decent germination rates, but never do we get the 100% that the weeds and trees seem to manage! :-)

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marclay markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a) May 23, 2005

Would you have elm and cottonwood seeds for trade?? Shirley

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Zarebeth Circle Pines, MN(Zone 4b) May 23, 2005

Thousands and thousands! How many do you want? I could ship you a BIG box full :O

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