Weeping Cherry Suckers

Question

We planted our weeping cherry about 12 yrs ago, don’t know the age of the tree at the time, but it is quite large now and we have kept up with pruning. It seems to be sending out quite a root system close to the ground surface and we have noticed many one stalked “sprouts” and some have branched out. These stalks are starting to leaf out but the tree itself is flowering only right now. Do these trees send up shoots? We just noticed how many there were and wondered how we missed them but we have many perennials planted around the tree, none of which have large roots like this. Some of the shoots are coming out of some good sized roots at ground level. Will it hurt the tree if we chop out part of this root system? If we just cut off the suckers, I’m sure it will keep sending up more. Thanks for any advice you may have.

Answer 1

Trees normally start sending up more suckers when they are under more stress than usual. You can cut the suckers off, but I would not cut the roots out, as this will cause the tree more stress and possibly kill it. The best way to reduce the suckers is to figure out what is causing stress to the tree and reduce this stress. It will put out fewer suckers.