The Best Way To Cut Down A HUGE Elm Tree

The Best Way To Cut Down A HUGE Elm Tree
Looking for how to kill an elm tree? I own a rental property that has 5 Chinese Elm trees that needed to go. They were destroying my fences and outgrowing my Rose of Sharon. I have tested several ways of killing them but only was successful. Here’s what worked for me.
The best way I found to kill an elm tree is to cut it down and immediately poison the stump with Tordon. I tried killing them with salt, roundup, the hack and squirt method, and girdling. None of which worked. On small elm trees under 4 feet, I successfully killed them by just spraying the leaves with Fertilome Brush and Stump Killer. Here are complete instructions on how I successfully killed all my unwanted elm trees. Its kind of funny but I posted a video on KZbin on the 5 Best Ways To Kill A Trees and each method I described in the video didn’t work. A couple months later I was surprised to see the trees I killed in the video were still alive and well.
At the time of writing this, the video has over 55K views. Sorry people who watched my video.
Since then I have done a lot of research and found what ACTUALLY kills elm trees. I will tell you right now its not salt, roundup, copper nails, or all the other crazy ideas you will read about online.
After surveying a bunch of arborists (people who kill trees for a living) I found that the most common product they used to kill resilient trees like elms is called Tordon.
Full article: backyardables....
Here are the steps to successfully kill large elm trees so they will never come back.
1. Cut the elm tree down to a stump.
If your elm tree is under 15 feet tall then go ahead and just whack it down. For larger elm trees you can start by cutting the lowest branches working your way up the tree and then work your way down cutting the trunk in manageable pieces until you are left with a stump.
If you plan on pulling the stump out with a vehicle then leave the stump longer so you can wrap a rope or chain around it. If you plan on grinding it or really removing the stump in any other way then cut it as close to the ground as you can.
2. Treat the Stump with Tordon.
The key here is to be ready to immediately treat the stump as soon as you cut it down. Even waiting 30 minutes can decrease any tree killers' effectiveness.
Make sure you are wearing protective clothing like a long sleeve shirt and pants. Be sure to use chemical resistant gloves because you don’t want to get Tordon on your skill. It will turn you into an Umpa Lumpa…or a smurf…just kidding.
I read Tordon’s Toxicity Rating and it said it was “of moderate toxicity to the eyes and only mildly toxic on the skin.” I don’t want you or I to be the 10-year human test study. What?! Mercury is bad for humans? Just be safe.
You don’t need to treat the whole stump just the outer ring, just inside the bark. Pop the top and treat the tree.
Let it sit for 3 to 5 days just to be sure it is completely dead before removing the stump.
There are a few other ways you can treat an elm tree that will completely kill it. Tordon is just the easiest and fastest that I have found.
#HowToKillATree #ElmTree