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I have an oak tree at the bottom of my garden and it has produced small trees due to fallen acorns in the grass.

I need to remove them. How do I do that?

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  • oak seedlings? Try dealing with a silver maple... ugh
    – Evil Elf
    Jul 8, 2014 at 12:26
  • Silver maples do not like Brush B Gone (2,4-D) at all. Jul 5, 2020 at 16:01

4 Answers 4

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Depends how big they are - if the ground is damp and they're no taller than, say, 6-10 inches, you should be able to pull them up. If the ground isn't damp, make sure it is when you attempt this. If they've been there longer (since last year or more) then you need to dig them out and repair the grass afterwards.

If they've been there much longer and are now saplings with thickish trunks, chop them down to the ground and apply stumpkiller.

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  • +1. Trees are wonderful weeds. Get them early, or resign yourself to fighting with them.
    – keshlam
    Jul 2, 2014 at 2:09
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I used to suffer from this when the squirrels buried acorns in my lawn. I found that just mowing them down regularly (with routine lawn maintenance) kept them from becoming established.

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  • +1. For lawn under an oak tree, this is definitely the way to go. No tree seedling will live long under healthy lawn conditions.
    – J. Musser
    Jul 8, 2014 at 22:09
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If they are very small (under 3 inches) then just hoe them. If they are a little larger you can pull them up.

Otherwise a glyphosate based weed killer can work well, if there are other plant close buy you wish to keep, then use a Gel, otherwise a spray works out cheaper.

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  • It's best to pull after a heavy rain, or much watering. You get a lot more of the tap root that way. Jul 5, 2020 at 15:58
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As Oaks soon develop a long tap root, moving them needs to be done quickly or otherwise becomes a futile tiresome digging process.

Whilst I am all for encouraging more tree planting; trying to transplant saplings that have been in-situ for a few years is not really viable.

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