How to Kill a Damas Tree

Question

I live in Dubai. There is a tree called Damas, which we where advised to remove from our garden. The roots are spreading very wide, up to 6-7 meters, in the surface of the garden, absorbing all the water of the soil. We already have cut the trees, the trunks and the roots, which are not less than limbs of the tree and are very hard to remove.

I read the in your site about drilling and using salt, herbicide or nitrogen. My question is, does killing the tree make removing of the roots and trunk easier? I want to plant new trees instead. What if I just leave the trunks in places that we don’t want to grow something.
How close to a dead trunk I can plant a new tree? Does that salt or the herbicide harm the trees and plants that we plant in the garden later, and for how long? And, what if we do not remove the roots?
Do they get to be a part of the soil after we killed the tree or do we have to remove them all and replace the soil?

Answer 1

Unless the Dumas tree is prone to root suckers, you might not need to have the root system removed. The roots left in the ground will eventually decay. If you injected salt or herbicide into the tree itself, neither product should affecct the soil or other plants already in the ground. Depending on the herbicide, the interval between application and replanting will vary. You could plant as close to the old tree as you choose, but digging through the root system would be difficult unless using an auger of some sort.

Answer 2

Here in the USA we have a product called Roundup. If you cut the tree off close to the ground and paint full strength Roundup on the top of the stump that is left, they typically will not come back. I have done this with other types of trees here and follow up the original painting of the stump a day later with another application. This stops that tree and any suckers from coming back.