Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Cottonwood root sprouts

Hope this is the best place for this question, since it does involve renovation a pond.

I am cutting down 15 or so cottonwoods up to 24" diameter. Some are on the face of the dam and others are all at the same elevation around the edges of the pond. If the pond ever gets full and holds water (I will need to use SoilFloc - there is also an entry on that thread) the stumps will be in about 4' of water. Total surface area will be about 1/10 acre. My idea is to have an excavator dig out the stumps and use dirt from the bottom/sides of the pond to fill in the holes before treating with SoilFloc.

I am using Tordon RTU on each waist high stump as soon as it is cut. However, I know that cottonwoods are prone to resprout. A nearby golf course dug a trench next to a green, cutting through roots from a cottonwood, and for the next several years they had LOTS of cottonwood sprouts trying to come up in the green.

I'm wondering if I'll need to wait through an entire growing season or 2 to try to kill out as many of the root sprouts as I can, before using SoilFloc to seal the filled in stump holes and the bottom of the pond.

Thoughts or comments?

We have the same problem with Chinese Tallow but if you keep mowing the sprouts they finally give up

Pull cottonwood/willow saplings, wrap around hand and you can get the tap root. If it won't budge a little glyphosate knocks them out. I walk my ponds 3-4x annually and pull any Willow or Cottonwood I find and use herbicide as a last resort. The trees will only take root on bare soil, so getting grass established quickly is key for management.

Tordon is very effective when applied according to label directions.

I wouldn't expect many sprouts, and if you do get some just snip them and hit them with the Tordon.

I'm hoping that the Tordon will take care of both the stump AND all of the roots. I know that it works best in the Fall when the tree is pulling its resources down into the roots. However we had temps in the 50s for several days in November and December when I was cutting down trees and more than once there would be sap running out of the cut, and the buds were swelling and almost ready to leaf out.

I agree that regular mowing helps control both tree root sprouts and new seedlings in a lawn. I'm a little concerned about mowing on the face of the dam because of the steepness. Will try it with a Ford 8N & 6' bush hog.

Also will be doing some spot spraying with 2,4-D. Poison ivy in places too.