I just discovered that I have what appears to be a Laurel Fig Ficus in my yard just on the edge of a large Florida Cedar. I pulled up about 25 babies - mostly in my neighbor's yard on the other side of a chain link fence. We are going to take out hte tree, but I wanted some advice. It's not a huge tree - maybe 12 to 14 feet tall. It has about four or five trunks to it so far.
1) Do I need to hire a tree service to remove it, or should I, given that this is an invasive plant?
2) Is there anything I can do to treat the area of the yard where the babies showed up? Or does it require pulling them out? This is our second home so we are not here all the time.
3) Poisoning hte stump - removing it. Also, I have received conflicing advice on a couple of points. My mother says that it's not necessary to grind the stumps, but to poison it. She says that grinding those stumps will kill the Cedar. But my sister says that I have to remove the stumps or the tree will just grow back. She actually suggested trying to dig or cut up some of the roots -- which are likely monstorous, given the roots that were on a one-foot tall baby!
Has anyone had experience with these trees? They are listed as invase in Florida, and given the way it's grown in my yard in just a few months, I can see why!
