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Fig Tree Jungle Hell


Yzzy

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Hiya, not sure if anyone on here has any experience or advice but....

 

back in 2003 Mother announced "I got fig trees to grow from stones! I'm going to plant them along the back of the garden"

 

I went nuts and begged her not to, explained how big they grow, how their roots shoot off and sprout new trees everywhere etc etc.

 

Anyway, fell on deaf ears and now I own the house and OH MY GOODNESS!!! Six or could be seven HUGE twisting fig trees now tower over the garden, they've grown through the brick built summer house and ruined it, they've shot up through the lawn... It's a nightmare!

 

Now I am thinking get someone in with a chainsaw and get them down to stumps but will this work? Is the garden doomed? I spent a couple of hours outside last week snipping and sawing off as much as I could reach but the tops of the trees are above roof height! I dread to think how far the roots have spread.

 

This 'problem' is the one thing that could have me hanging up my gloves and saying bye bye to the house. The trunks of these trees are a twisted around each other leaving some about 4 foot wide!

 

 

220104.jpg

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I adopted one my brother wanted rid of. Carefully dug it up and replanted in what must be the ideal spot in our garden. Between the shed and oil tank and backed by a conifer hedge. It loves it and we get tennis ball sized figs if I wrap them early enough to keep the wasps off.

 

Wish I'd known about it rooting though! I thought it was the plum tree shoots coming up next to the oil tank! :ph34r:

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That lot is a lot to deal with but I don’t see it being the reason to abandon the project, 

it will take two things to put it right

time and money

are you planning on living here or are you having a tidy up to sell it on. 

If the house is in poor repair as you said it was, then that row of trees could be only a small percentage on your overall budget. 

As regards the cost it will be based a lot on access, can the tree blokes get a truck near to the trees so it is easy to remove the rubbish, can you get an excavator near them to grub out the stumps ?

cutting them down is fairly easy it’s what you do to get it all clear and back to a reasonable finish that takes the time. 

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3 hours ago, Vision Of Heaven said:

Hiya, not sure if anyone on here has any experience or advice but....

[...]

This 'problem' is the one thing that could have me hanging up my gloves and saying bye bye to the house. The trunks of these trees are a twisted around each other leaving some about 4 foot wide!

 

Persistence.

No matter how you feel, no matter what's going on around you.

 

Just Bloody Do It.  JBDI

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2 hours ago, Onoff said:

I adopted one my brother wanted rid of. Carefully dug it up and replanted in what must be the ideal spot in our garden. Between the shed and oil tank and backed by a conifer hedge. It loves it and we get tennis ball sized figs if I wrap them early enough to keep the wasps off.

 

Wish I'd known about it rooting though! I thought it was the plum tree shoots coming up next to the oil tank! :ph34r:

 

Oh dear!

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30 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

 

 

are you planning on living here or are you having a tidy up to sell it on. 

Live in it hopefully.

As regards the cost it will be based a lot on access, can the tree blokes get a truck near to the trees so it is easy to remove the rubbish,

Yes

 

30 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

can you get an excavator near them to grub out the stumps ?

Yes

cutting them down is fairly easy it’s what you do to get it all clear and back to a reasonable finish that takes the time. 

Ok thank you, that give me hope. Someone mentioned Glyphostae or something but I am wanting to keep Bees, Hens and grow fruit trees in that area so am loath to put anything nasty down. Someone else mentioned common table salt, apparently adding loads of that around the roots will kill the trees? 

 

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1 minute ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

That doesn't mean do it all yourself.... :D

 

I don't mean to... I'm one of these people that rather than sit and explain for 2 hours what I want done I'm already pulling on gloves and half way through it before anyone has asked if I need help. 

The trees though..... they can be done by someone else... I am scared of chainsaws

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Get some tree stump killer, same as above, drill holes into it, and keep putting it in, eventually it will get the idea and die, but don't expect overnight results.

 

Also if you can peel a bit of the bark away and get some down there too, that will likely speed things up a little.

 

Dig a trench all the way around the tree(s) (if you can, not sure it one side is neighbours), and sever an roots you find, should also give you an idea of where the offshoots may pop up. Then it'll just be a case of digging up the smaller ones as and when they pop up. A digger is likely to be your friend for the trench, there will be a hell of a lot of roots from that set!

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I'd have thought the neighbour will shit a brick when they know what's growing so say nowt. Just ask permission to 'prune' the 'bushes' ;)

Probably one down from Japanese Knotweed and also a mortgage killer if anyone looks at buying yours or next door. 

Kill this quickly and quietly. ?

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Just had a look online for you, apparently Ficus are particularly sensitive to the herbicide triclopyr, which is available in several products in the UK.

 

Also any wood boring you do to inject this stuff, make sure it goes in instantly, as ficus heal rapidly, and wear gloves! Its highly irritant latex which comes out in the white sap.

Edited by MikeGrahamT21
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The neighbours directly behind us should either know by now as the leaves are pretty unmistakable, not to mention the fruit..... and if they haven't guessed then they are dim t be honest!

 

They don't have a garden, they have a yard full of various 'project' cars that never seem to move and they walk about in string vests and trousers that seem to be always teasing onlookers with white hairy buttocks!! :ph34r:

 

Thanks for all the tips... I will try what I can and kill the beasts, will take some better photos and keep a prognosis report going... lol !!!

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4 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

Just had a look online for you, apparently Ficus are particularly sensitive to the herbicide triclopyr, which is available in several products in the UK.

 

Also any wood boring you do to inject this stuff, make sure it goes in instantly, as ficus heal rapidly, and wear gloves! Its highly irritant latex which comes out in the white sap.

 

 

Oohhhh excellent! Cheers.

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I’m not sure why all the comments on killing these figs. 

You want to remove them, not leave them there but dead 

 

get them cut down and get the stumps either ground out, or grubbed out with an excavator, then you can treat any new growth that may come back with a herbicide. 

 

What is is the point of having a dead tree stood up in the air. 

And as for drilling holes and filling with diesel, that’s not exactly the most environmentally sound idea, ??

 

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17 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

I’m not sure why all the comments on killing these figs. 

You want to remove them, not leave them there but dead 

 

get them cut down and get the stumps either ground out, or grubbed out with an excavator, then you can treat any new growth that may come back with a herbicide. 

 

What is is the point of having a dead tree stood up in the air. 

And as for drilling holes and filling with diesel, that’s not exactly the most environmentally sound idea, ??

 

If you don't kill the entire root network by letting the plant transport the poison throughout you'll spend forever chasing new growth. 

You don't leave a dead tree behind, it gets removed when the job is done ☠️?

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