A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Shrubs and Trees bloodgood japanese maple (please help)

I have this tree (or what was a tree) in front of my family room window. It is located inside my "decorative landscape" against my house.

I am thinking the previous owner screwed up when they purchased it because it grows to be 20' by 20'. this is planted MAYBE 2'- 3' feet from my house.

what peaked my attention is that he cut it off at the base, leaving the stump. It had grown back around the stump and I didnt realize this until I went to trim it today. At first I was going to try and figure out how to reshape it but ther is NO WAY I can contain a 20' tree infront of my house.

no I know it has been there longer than 5 years as that is how long we have lived here. would it be possible to dig it up and replant it elsewear or any ideas as to how to control the way it looks at least?

there is no way i can think of they would have to grind the stump out only god knows where those roots go get a nice new tree u n ur family can watch grow

maples will grow back from the roots repeatedly. your best bet is to dig up what you can, if you want to, plant some else where, and then keep the one in front of your house cut down to the ground. all the time. totally deprive it of green.

you can also paint on some type of weedkiller (my mind is not giving me the name right now) that will slow the growth to give you time to get it all out of there.

It would actually be possible to train it to one central leader, you'd have to repeatedly cut away unwanted growth. You could dig out the stump fairly easily if it's less than, say, 4 inches across...jiffy is correct that persistantly cutting off foliage will eventually kill the stump, but if you want a chemical solution to your problem, Ortho and many other companies sell Brush and weed Killer, Stump Killer, etc. Don't waste your time with the "stump rot" or "stump remover" products that require drilling holes, if you read the directions thouroughly, you'll notice that the ultimate goal is to make the wood rot enough that it will burn...not a good idea that close to the house!