Gardening and Horticulture - How to kill a crab apple tree

I have a 20 yr old crab able tree in the back yard that has a small section that appears dead. My wife (a.k.a the boss), won't let me remove the tree unless it's all dead. I hate this ugly tree and the crab apple mess it leaves. How can I finish the job and kill the tree without leaving any trail of evidence behind.

you could girdle the trunk[cut the bark off to the cambium layer].
tell the boss that some animal ate on it!

You could chop it down and tell her you always wanted to be like George Washington.

Funny.

I was wondering if there is any liquid I can pour at the base of the tree and soak into th roots for a slow kill.

copper sulfate will do the trick, it is used to keep small ponds cleen.

Copper sulfate may well kill anything else that takes it up into the system.

Sometimes it is easier to ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission.


Do you take care of the yard or does she?

well put. but with my wife it would be beg for forgiveness.

My neighbor and I killed one of his trees by drilling several holes in the trunk, near the root ball, and injecting stump killer into the holes with a baster. We filled the holes with mud to cover up the evidence.

It took about 2-3 months for it to dry up but it worked really well.
The tree was planted by the previous owner who lives next door and was very fond of the tree. The tree was oversized for where it was planted but we did not want our other neighbor to be upset. Apparently, he planted in memory of his dog that past. Neither of us had the heart to just chop it down while it was still alive. Come to think of it, killing the thing before chopping it down was pretty heartless too but at least our neighbor doesn't know. :rolleyes:

HTH.

I do now...
LOL

Apparantly if you knock copper nails into the trunk that'll do the job :rolleyes: