Plum tree suckers!

[Notverylikely]

We have a fan-trained Victoria plum tree against a brick wall (tarmaced footpath the other side). It produces loads of delicious plums but also loads of awful suckers. The tree is at the back of a border and suckers keep coming up in the border and even the lawn, up to 3 or 4 metres away from the trunk.

I've read that just cutting them off encourages more to grow, and that certainly seems true! I’ve already that the correct way to deal with them is to dig down for each one until I find the root it comes from and cut/tear it off there. But there are about 30 of them and I couldn’t do it without ruining the planting of the whole border (even if I felt up to it, which I don’t).

If I spray each sucker with strong weed killer, would that help? Or would it just promote other suckers to grow? Or would it kill the tree? Any advice please?

I had this with a beautiful damson, the suckers were relentless, travelled far and wide and started taking over my neighbour's garden/lawn as well as my own.

I went on holiday for a few weeks one year and came back to the bloody things everywhere! I got rid of the tree I am sorry to say (inc grinding out the stump), and doing that + another 2 summers of digging the suckers out finally put an end to it.

Using weed killer is a bad idea if you are eating the plums, and I am not convinced it will be effective anyway. I found digging out was the only way but it seemed as soon as I did so, more appeared elsewhere, so it was a losing battle.

Would not plant another!

Oh dear! Thanks for your answer. ☹️

Weedkiller would kill your tree! Tearing the suckers from the roots is the best solution.

@Notverylikely There was a bit towards the end of Beechgrove last night about this very thing. 26 minutes in or thereabouts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002yqzc/beechgrove-garden-2026-episode-15

Thanks!

I just chop mine. They do pop up a surprisingly long way from my tree. I just cut them to the ground when I see them.

Also- Don’t use weed killer ! It will kill your tree, and damage the ecosystem in your garden. Also toxic for people.

I curse the bastards who planted a damson tree in my garden on an almost daily basis for this reason. Those shitty little suckers are bloody everywhere. They drive me nuts.