02-25-2010, 03:34 PM
To what degree, if any, does the herbicide taken up by the tree, whether sprayed on the leaves or put on the cut stump, get into the soil (through the target plant's roots) and affect nearby plants? This would be the cost of doing business with herbicide, so it would be wise to use as little as possible of course. I have heard a lot of arguments against using herbicide but the issue that rings true to me is that it is very easy to overdo the application or get impatient. You wind up using more than you need to, sometimes several times more, due to sloppy or lazy application. If done right you will often be crawling around on your hands and knees and, well, working hard, to make sure that only the target plant gets poisoned. Since the point of painting a fresh cut stump is that the poison gets sucked into the tree and gets throughout the tree's system, including the roots, there is bound to be some effect on nearby plants if the roots are left in place.