Advice needed on camphor laurel

[simopimo]

We had a Camphor Laurel cut down from our backyard in May 2004. It was a pain of a tree. You see, in Australia, they are considered a noxious weed. Even now, when attempting to do backyard maintenance/planting trees/paving, we still hit the roots.

The darned thing has roots more than 40cm (>1 foot) in diameter across our backyard. We were lucky that it didn't dig up the house.

Yesterday I hit roots around 1 foot in diameter and they are only 5cm from the soil's surface. I was planning to plant other trees in its place but I'm concerned about those roots... should I poison them off or will they be OK left as is? It's back breaking work and machinery can't get access to the site so it's all by hand (and back!)... any advice?

 

[Ekka]

Yep, those camphor's are awful, the Americans don't mind them though!

I suggest you decide where you want to place the new plants then get some-one with a "pencil sharpener" stump grinder to grind out large holes for the new plants .... mulch the garden and forget about the rest of the roots as they're dead.

The small grinder can be carried thru almost anywhere ... you'll have to ring around and ask tree guys. I have enclosed a pic for you so you know what I'm on about.

 

[JeffE]

Yep, those camphor's are awful, the Americans don't mind them though!

I noticed that the arbos here didn't mind them, but they are considered a problematic invader in Florida. Category 1 on the FLEPPC List. They're at the point where they're recognized by scientists as invasive, but unfortunately the public at large won't consider them a problem until they're well-established and causing much more damage (Melaleuca and Chinese tallow were once just somewhat aggressive landscape plants here, too).

http://www.fleppc.org/list/list05web.pdf Look under "<i>Cinnamomum</i>"

 

[Ekka]

Nice JeffE

I spotted quite a few Aussie invaders.

 

[simopimo]

Thanks for the response there Ekka. I gave up hacking away at it today. Basically, we hit some roots 3 feet wide, 5cm from the surface. It was a huge camphor laurel both above AND below ground.

I was able to cut a few of the smaller roots with a hand saw and plant a few small trees in between the cut roots... hopefully they won't come back (it was poisoned a year ago when it was cut down, so here's hoping).

I think I might take your advice there Ekka, and get an arborist in at some stage to grind away the rest of it. My blisters have blisters!

Why anyone would plant these darned things I do not know. The guys who cut it down estimated that it was about 80-90 years old... it was TOUGH.