Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Baby willows, ugh!

I have recently discovered that 3-4 year old willows have far larger root systems than the limbs above! My poor back! Little 6" twigs, 4' of roots. Hundreds of them.

Perfect time to pull right now, as we have had a LOT of rain, everything is soft and saturated. I can barely get them pulled even so, but a heck of a lot more success than I had when the soil was dry. Last fall I was simply stripping off bark.

The think is I would like to leave a few pussy-willows on the uphill bank, but I cannot tell the difference between them and black willow so they all must go. A few wild "corkscrew" willows are showing up, and I am letting them live as they are far enough away from the pond to not be a nuisance.

I noticed they are everywhere around my pond. This is the second year of the pond and I don't know how I have so many. Going to start spraying this afternoon.

In my opinion the only good thing about Willows is to look at them. How far away from your pond/dam is far enough? Ask DD about the length of Willow roots. Kill em all asap.

Roundup will kill them if they are small and far enough from your pond to spray

The problem with spraying is it opens up a bare area where more willow seeds can germinate and kind of looks crappy. Pulling the sprouts and letting the existing vegetation crowd out future seedlings will be more effective long-term. Mowing isn't an option, all that does is create massive little stumps you cannot get a grip on to pull them.

Right now our ground is pretty saturated so pulling these is an option. If things were dry, there would be no way in hell to get them up. Even so, I still pulled my "displeasure with remote actions" finger out of joint and still feeling the love.

A while ago I saw a long-lever tool for pulling brush. It would grip/clamp on the base of a tree as you pulled on the lever, and then it would fulcrum the little bugger out of the ground. I need to get one for the popular trees that send a root to New Zealand. In fact a heard a Kiwi accent once echo up one of the holes these left behind.

Saw these in my Northern Tool catalog. I've never tried one of these but they get good reviews. If they work, sure should save some back aches!

I bought roundup custom and just got my surfactant in the mail. I will be spraying this afternoon. I think every piece that was cut using the mower last year must have sprigged itself somewhere else. I don't have any grown willows anywhere.

I may start trying to plant them, then they are all sure to die.

The tool I was thinking of is this:

http://www.pullerbear.com/

A manual tool so I can get between stuff I want to keep. The one on Amazon is pure crap.

I have little "switches" of willows around my ponds also. Right now they are about the size of a soda straw and I need to do something about them before they get bigger.

Yeah me too. I can't do anything until the water drops this summer cause there in about 18" or so of water. Plus I've got about a dozen that are 30 + feet tall. I don't know what I'm going to do with those either. My pond has trees everywhere you look. All sides completely covered from waters edge way out passed the dam. I had my brother remove a bunch of them on the dam earlier this year before I read on here that's not good to do. Didn't have a lot of choices though if we wanted to access the pond. Time will tell.

The switches are a good time to get rid of them. A good handle, manageable roots.

I have two shores that have a lot of small willows and they keep my grandson busy when I need him to do busy work. I will never get rid of all of them.