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The shoots coming up in the middle of my lawn (see picture) I believe they are from the roots of a cherry tree that is roughly 15 feet away (I could be wrong, there is also a Pear and Maple tree nearby).

Is my only option to keep cutting them at the ground or maybe more effective to chop a wedge out of the root?

I'm general curious about controlling shoots in other areas as well. It seems like there should be a better solution then just clipping them back a few times a year. enter image description here

Anticipation
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2 Answers2

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It'll be the cherry tree causing the problem - these put out a lot of surface roots, from which shoots will grow - often in untended gardens, you might find what appear to be 4 young cherry trees spaced out 30 feet away from an old cherry tree, or within 30 feet of a now dead cherry tree. All these will be formed from the mature, surface roots of the original tree. Unfortunately, its the nature of these trees - there isn't really a good solution other than to plant cherry well away from any lawns, and to keep wrenching off the shoots which appear.

Bamboo
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It's almost certainly from one of the fruit trees. If you really just have to clip them a few times a year, I'd just do it, unless you really don't like the tree for other reasons. This probably isn't the answer you wanted, but there you are!

Ed Staub
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  • Haha, no problem Ed. The Cherry tree seems to be particularly prolific. Could the shoots be stimulated by pruning I did on the tree last fall? Or what is going on that causes trees to want to send up shoots? I knew it was a shot in the dark. I'm a new home owner and always looking for the "right" long term solutions. – Anticipation Aug 11 '12 at 06:31