Lombardy Poplars

Becky P
by Becky P
This is a "warning" post. I had planted a row of these about 4 years ago, with the intention of blocking out the neighbor behind us. Our 6 foot privacy fence, on a slope, was only about 5 feet in reality. True to their information, they do grow extremely fast and provide excellent privacy. Within 3 years they were about 15 feet tall.
Unfortunately, we spent last summer trying to exterminate them. The roots are VERY invasive. I found a root up against our above ground pool, and my pool means much more to me than privacy. I didn't need roots poking up through the vinyl liner.
The way we got rid of them was to cut them down, and then spend the entire summer applying TORDON stump killer to the shoots. There were shoots everywhere, even 15 feet up into the yard, in every direction. The drought we had last year was a blessing in disguise for us, because it helped in preventing more roots, since they like water. Tordon works fantastically in immediately killing the shoot.
So, if you like these and want to plant, I would suggest you do it out on the back 40 where it won't bother anything.
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  • Una Ann Seckler Una Ann Seckler on Mar 30, 2016
    I don't think they will make good firewood either. Ours had just reached about 8 feet tall and were doing very well when the neighbor whose propane tank we wanted to break sprayed all the roots and shoots with concentrated round up and killed the entire hedgerow dead. They died in just a single fall and winter. We just got around to cutting them down this spring and the wood is very dry and light inside. It is a beautiful color really a pale, pale whitish blond, but crumbles like birch bark in papery bits. But the roots do spread fast and go everywhere. That's why he was able to kill them so fast. I am replacing them with pyracanthas (aka firethorn) so that if anyone touches them they will regret it. I also cut down all the dead trees and blackberry brush in the woods behind us and piled that up into a three foot high super thorny brush pile around our border. I think that will give my new hedges something to climb as they establish and grow and also a buffer between the new plants and that darn cancer spray.
  • Christine Christine on May 18, 2016
    I planted these trees 15 years ago & wish I didn't. The roots have produced new trees that have broken through my blacktop & destroyed my driveway, the original trees are over 100 feet from the off shoots because each offshoot produced it's own root system. Please be careful when planting these, they will destroy your property.
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