Sucker Growth

The most exquisite feature of a home’s landscaping is frequently its trees. They are visually appealing and offer useful shade and seclusion. However, occasionally, events may occur that compromise the trees’ general aesthetic appeal and vitality. Tree sucker growth, which develops on main branches or close to the base of the tree, are among the most prevalent diseases that affect trees.

Suckers are difficult to manage and more so to completely eradicate. However, controlling or avoiding them is crucial to the long-term health and growth patterns of your tree. Keep sucker growth from overwhelming your tree.

Why do suckers  grow on most trees ? Like all living things, trees have an innate need to survive. They have a number of systems in place to keep procreating. Some trees naturally develop suckers as their primary means of propagating more fruit-bearing plants. This is especially true of fruit trees like cherry trees. The majority of trees create suckers as a result of stress on other tree components. A tree that experiences stress from drought, infestation, and open wounds in its bark will generate suckers as a means of survival in the event that the remainder of the tree begins to wither from disease or damage.

Why are suckers so awful if the tree is putting forth so much effort to complete its life cycle? Because they divert energy from more vital parts of your tree, such fruit-bearing branches or leaves, suckers are bad for your tree.

Due to their rapid growth, suckers demand more nutrients than, more mature branches.  Too many suckers can take nutrients away from the rest of the tree, and those branches may start to suffer. Once more firmly established, suckers can also give the tree an unruly, overgrown appearance that is more challenging to trim.

How Can You Stop the Growth of Suckers?

Your objective should be prevention when it comes to sucker growth. Suckers can be removed once they emerge, but the tree is more likely to generate more . To stop suckers from showing up, lower your stress level by:

• Use a professional tree care company like Johnson Ops Tree Care to prune and trim your trees. Overpruning a tree or giving it wounds from improper pruning is one of the simplest ways to put it under stress.
• Provide necessary tree watering. Lack of water causes trees to generate suckers as a last resort, which accelerates their rate of demise.
• Keep animals and insects away from trees.  Bark damage can stress a tree. Cover your trees with tree protectors to prevent deer and rabbits away from the bark.

If suckers appear, trim them off as soon as you see them with a pair of sharp tree shears. To aid in the healing of the incision on the tree and stop the sucker from coming back, leave the collar of the sucker—the little protrusion where the sucker meets the mother branch.

For more information or if you would like an evaluation of your trees, contact  Johnson Ops Tree Care at 608 526-6297