Suckers.
Several of the trees I have planted and some I haven't produce suckers. By and large they are not welcome. The question becomes what to do about them and what would be the effect on the parent tree.
In the rectangular field Wild Cherry and Robinia are potential timber trees that sucker. Robinia is a pariah species with the forestry commission because of its potential invasiveness. At Pit wood I had only found three Robinia suckers. So thought the problem manageable. I have sown some more seed with the intention of planting some more, possibly this winter. One can not be easily sure if a sucker is a sucker or a seedling, without destroying it. The year before last I pulled up a Robinia from close to the holly hedge. There was a tare across the base, so it was a sucker another sucker came up very close. Suckers grow quickly, unbranched and straight I left it thinking it could make a timber tree. This year a sucker was pulled up from the other side of the Holly hedge. 12 meters away from the original parent tree. A spread of over a meter a year and obviously potentially very invasive.
The parent tree is on the left of the photo and the 6 foot sucker on the right, 8 paces away, there is also another sucker coming up near the hedge. A sucker in the grass has been sprayed.
This is a picture of the base of the sucker looking in the opposite direction to the previous photo, so the parent tree is on the right and the parent root is about 1/2" thick. The root leading away from the sucker to the left is 2" thick. There are nodules on the fluffy roots in the hole in front of the parent root. I think the root was forced near the surface by a holly root. Then once the sucker was established any sugars have been transported away from the parent, building the large continuation root.
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| 1 and 2+ year old suckers. |
There is a this year sucker the other side of the holly hedge and the photographed sucker is the nearest Robinia. The size of the root going under the holly hedge makes another sucker the other side quite reasonable. The sucker from the sucker is around 15m from the original tree. The way the root under the sucker is so 2 dimensional makes it very unstable. As suckers tend to be strait and fast growing I had thought to leave some for timber trees.
There is also a sucker about 1 m from the two + year old one this is one year old. This was dug up. The root is much smaller but was again noticeably thicker going away from its parent. The sucker is to the right and the parent sucker attached to the top. The thicker root heading down could be planning other suckers.
