I have 2 Russian Olive trees, in the far back corner of 1 1/2 acre lot. My neighbor in that corner say they are killing their cedar trees, having replanted 6 times. Is this possible? I have no idea, but the rest of their cedars seem to be OK Can anyone advise on this opinion? Thank you Terence
Sounds like they are trying to make a hedge with them, but can't get the part under where your trees hang over onto their side to establish. Failing using different cultural methods to give the new trees an edge, the two options are cutting off the parts of your trees that reach over or not putting the hedge in the part where your trees are.
REPLY TO REPLY on Russian Olive question I don't believe they are overhanging their cedar hedge. Will double check tomorrow, but is strange out of about 75- 100 ft of hedge, these 6-8 trees are the only ones dying, the rest are tall and healthy. Not lack of sun as area is sunny most of the day, but would the roots kill the cedars? Or is it possible trees give off some type of emission either underground or above that would do this. My two trees are about 12 yrs old , their hedge about 8 appproximately, but the other cedars are about 8 ft tall Thanks
Yes! I believe they could be affecting the growth of any tree on the other side of the fence. I recently was able to "steal" a Russian Olive tree from a friend's backyard. Roots from the 12' Russian Olive next door were coming into my friend's yard, so we cleaned out all of the suckers out of the corner. Roots from the R. Olive were literally wrapped around my friend's tree and were choking it out. There was a web of roots covering a 5-6' square area coming from under the fence. It was incredible! And very difficult to get rid of. Once we took that system of roots out and all of the suckers out, her tree has started to recover. I hope this helps.
I saw a reference on another forum today that seemed to imply that olive trees have a particularly large root system.
