Wisteria......shoots at the base......ARGH!
- Thread starter pinkchick
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Greensage45
Deeply Rooted
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It is because the Wisteria is a vine plant. It is only through pruning and training that you can create what they call a 'tree' form.
You would think that you could exhaust the plant from doing that over time, but yours must have a good 'eye' formation and it wants to generate more and more vine to support the root system.
I really wish I had an answer. It seems that even a weed barrier would just hamper the new shoots for just a bit until they find themselves outside of the barrier area.
You could possibly dig down a bit into the soil and find the location of the 'eye' or node that is producing all these suckers. Then carefully take a paring knife and do a little surgery. Use alcohol to clean the knife before and after each cut so that you do not transfer bacterium. It would be wise to close the area with something like tar. The tar, although toxic, wouldn't be enough to kill the plant but would certainly close off the wound from getting any bacteria or critters. Dare you risk that? I guess it depends on how old this plant is, and how much remaining trunk and root do not require cutting on. I wouldn't do this to a young tree. But an older bark covered trunk I would.
Sorry, I still think this one is a seasonal chore. Like my Virginia Creeper, although it is invasive and a strong grower, I still love it and take the time to prune it several times through the seasons to keep it under control and to keep its shape.
Goodluck,
Ron
You would think that you could exhaust the plant from doing that over time, but yours must have a good 'eye' formation and it wants to generate more and more vine to support the root system.
I really wish I had an answer. It seems that even a weed barrier would just hamper the new shoots for just a bit until they find themselves outside of the barrier area.
You could possibly dig down a bit into the soil and find the location of the 'eye' or node that is producing all these suckers. Then carefully take a paring knife and do a little surgery. Use alcohol to clean the knife before and after each cut so that you do not transfer bacterium. It would be wise to close the area with something like tar. The tar, although toxic, wouldn't be enough to kill the plant but would certainly close off the wound from getting any bacteria or critters. Dare you risk that? I guess it depends on how old this plant is, and how much remaining trunk and root do not require cutting on. I wouldn't do this to a young tree. But an older bark covered trunk I would.
Sorry, I still think this one is a seasonal chore. Like my Virginia Creeper, although it is invasive and a strong grower, I still love it and take the time to prune it several times through the seasons to keep it under control and to keep its shape.
Goodluck,
Ron
patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
The only effective thing I know of is to dig up the plant, rootball and all, haul it away to a burn pit, and spend a couple years ripping out surviving suckers and seedlings 
It's wisteria, it just DOES that.
In general though, suckers will stay 'gone' a bit more effectively if you RIP them out, by hand, trying to pull them up from as far down in the soil and as far back towards the parent plant as you possibly can. Cutting them just makes 'em put up a bunch more shoots at the cut site, kind of like lopping off Hydra's heads or like the brooms in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" animated thing.
Good luck, wisteria is not a low maintenance plant although I sure wish it were hardy enough to grow up here b/c I just love it,
Pat
It's wisteria, it just DOES that.In general though, suckers will stay 'gone' a bit more effectively if you RIP them out, by hand, trying to pull them up from as far down in the soil and as far back towards the parent plant as you possibly can. Cutting them just makes 'em put up a bunch more shoots at the cut site, kind of like lopping off Hydra's heads or like the brooms in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" animated thing.
Good luck, wisteria is not a low maintenance plant although I sure wish it were hardy enough to grow up here b/c I just love it,
Pat
Catalina
Garden Ornament
Have you tried the Blue Moon wisteria? I bought one at the end of the season last year, when it was really cheap. I didn't think it would survive the winter, but it did! -30 F for 2 straight months.patandchickens said:
It's HUGE now and really healthy.
patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
Oh really? Hm. I've seen it in catalogs but I am a chronic disbeliever of what horticultural blurb writers sayCatalina said:
Hm. You're mean. Now I am going to be spending all winter trying desperately to figure out somewhere I could possibly grow it, not easy on account of the few decently-drained out-of-the-wind positions being already occupied by, or slated for, more useful plants. But gee, if I *could* grow wisteria...Maybe I will wait another coupla years and see if yours blooms
Thanks,
Pat
lesa
Garden Master
I will be wondering that as well...I do have a huge wisteria here in zone 4. It bloomed this year for the first time, in 20+ years!!! I still love the plant because it covers a huge arbor for me- but 20 years seemed a long time to wait!! I envy the southerners who consider it invasive!
patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
Even in more southern climes wisteria does that sometimes -- it is kind of like peppers or tomatoes (only worse) in that if you let it get too vegetatively happy it sometimes decides that reproduction isn't important. Don't fertilize it, and conventional wisdom is that it helps to grow it with confined roots or to root-prune it every other year (stabbing a shovel down in a circle all the way around it, a ways out).lesa said:
Man, I may have to seriously think about where I could put a wisteria... argh
Pat, who grew up with a huge wisteria and got in trouble NUMEROUS times for whacking her sister with the long fuzzy seedpods
