Do NOT plant a Sissoo tree whatever you do!!! (popular in Phoenix area) (Goodyear: inspection, housing)

[Bungle]

That's good to know. Once the rootball is gone from mine I'll be planting fairly close to it.

[lewdog_5]

Originally Posted by Bungle

That's good to know. Once the rootball is gone from mine I'll be planting fairly close to it.

This company doesn't plan to dig up the rootball. Just poison and then stump grind.

Are you doing the rootball yourself?

[AZgarden]

OK, now I am very worried. My neighbor just had his Sosoo cut down at a cost of $650. It was very close to the water pipes, the driveway and the sidewalk and was tangled into all of them and lifting them up.
The driveway was the worst. And the neighbors had roots in their yards also. It was an old tree, put in around 1996 and I have 3 of them and now am worried. One is very close to the house foundation. It's small but could also dig up the water meter nearby. Another is very large in the back and is a messy thing. Leaves all over. And the third might start into the neighbor's pool someday (but I really don't care if it does. The pool is a thorn in my side.)

Shall I kill them all??? Such great shade.....

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by PhxBarb

OK, now I am very worried. My neighbor just had his Sosoo cut down at a cost of $650. It was very close to the water pipes, the driveway and the sidewalk and was tangled into all of them and lifting them up.
The driveway was the worst. And the neighbors had roots in their yards also. It was an old tree, put in around 1996 and I have 3 of them and now am worried. One is very close to the house foundation. It's small but could also dig up the water meter nearby. Another is very large in the back and is a messy thing. Leaves all over. And the third might start into the neighbor's pool someday (but I really don't care if it does. The pool is a thorn in my side.)

Shall I kill them all??? Such great shade.....

Just curious, why would a pool be a thorn in your side? Pools are so common here.

Based on this thread, I'd say remove them all post haste.

[AZgarden]

Because it's the neighbor's pool which buts up against the wall in my yard. Every little thing that flies into her pool makes her scream bloody murder at me. She is not a nice person.

[Bungle]

Remove them all. They're horrible trees. I had mine removed last year and while I miss the shade the roots have stopped destroying things and I didn't have to clean up the mess from it all winter.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by Bungle

Remove them all. They're horrible trees. I had mine removed last year and while I miss the shade the roots have stopped destroying things and I didn't have to clean up the mess from it all winter.

Sissoo is a nice shadetree but I agree, the roots are disastrous.

There are many other kinds of shadetrees that do well here, Acacia, Sycamore, Ash, Mesquite, Ficus, and some in the pine family.

[AZgarden]

I so wish I had known about this before buying these trees at HD or Lowes. Not one sales person alerted me to this concern, which is probably typical for big box stores.

Besides these trees, I have a Desert Museum Acacia in the yard, which also is messy, blows yellow flowers all over and has to be taken down. I will not have any trees (or shade) at all. Sad.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by PhxBarb

I so wish I had known about this before buying these trees at HD or Lowes. Not one sales person alerted me to this concern, which is probably typical for big box stores.

Besides these trees, I have a Desert Museum Acacia in the yard, which also is messy, blows yellow flowers all over and has to be taken down. I will not have any trees (or shade) at all. Sad.

When sissoos were introduced here, no one seemed to know about the problems, even the nurseries that were knowledgeable about most things. We bought ours from the late lamented Baker Nursery. When we discovered what was happening they were real apologetic and were no longer selling them. Even the city of Phoenix planted a bunch of the damn things, you can see them downtown.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

When sissoos were introduced here, no one seemed to know about the problems, even the nurseries that were knowledgeable about most things. We bought ours from the late lamented Baker Nursery. When we discovered what was happening they were real apologetic and were no longer selling them. Even the city of Phoenix planted a bunch of the damn things, you can see them downtown.

There are hundreds of sissos planted along the streets in Goodyear. They went in around the housing boom, I would imagine. Interestingly though, the sidewalks are not buckling and the roots don't seem to be knocking over walls. I think most of the problems with them are when they are put into grass areas. If they just get deep watering around the trunk, they may not be as bad. I tried not watering mine at all for the past year, and it did not die. It also did not grow like a weed though and I saw very few suckers coming up. I may cut it down though, because I think it is a matter of time and it is a very messy tree (they all are except for palms).