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

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by TiredOfyycCold

LBTRS - we have a Brazillian Pepper tree in our yard that was planted when the house was built in 1998.

We love it, but it does drop leaves... lots of leaves. It doesn't appear to ever go dormant and lose all of it's leaves, just a constant throughout the year so it always looks lovely and green. The leaves are really easy to rake up on the grass and to pick up off gravel with the blower on vacuum mode - so it doesn't bother us at all.... our neighbour, who removed ALL of his landscaping and has only rock in his backyard, hates it. LOL

Thanks, good to know as we've not seen that yet. Maybe when it gets a bit older and is not trying to establish itself.

[wit-nit]

Considering a Brazillian Pepper tree read this first.
Brazilian pepper-tree | Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
Cal-IPC: Invasive Plants of California's Wildland
Drops 1000's of small seed berries every season.
Same situations apply in AZ.

[ironmanmom]

I have read all the negative comments here about the Sissoo tree and while they worry me a bit because I have three of these beautiful trees in my yard, I am not overly concerned. I planted a 24" box in my front yard and within a year another 15 gallon tree about 20 feet away. True to rumor, they shot up very quickly with the 15 gallon catching up to the size of the box tree in no time. They have been in my yard for 7 or 8 years now. While they have large roots, that is true of most big trees. I grew up in New England where entire sidewalks get lifted from established trees. I had to cut down a 40' eucalyptus in my backyard because it was so brittle limbs would fall off in 20 foot sections during storms and I was worried that one day the whole tree would come down on the house. That tree's roots lifted a concrete wall about 10 feet from the trunk. I have seen none of the shoots people have mentioned from the sissoo, nor do I find the tree to be particularly messy. I am hoping that there are circumstances under which these trees do well and are not as invasive as people mention. Mine are all planted in grassy areas and have all been deep watered with a hose a couple times a week. Too late now to change my mind I guess since the two in the front yard are 30' tall already, at least until I see signs of a problem.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by ironmanmom

I have read all the negative comments here about the Sissoo tree and while they worry me a bit because I have three of these beautiful trees in my yard, I am not overly concerned. I planted a 24" box in my front yard and within a year another 15 gallon tree about 20 feet away. True to rumor, they shot up very quickly with the 15 gallon catching up to the size of the box tree in no time. They have been in my yard for 7 or 8 years now. While they have large roots, that is true of most big trees. I grew up in New England where entire sidewalks get lifted from established trees. I had to cut down a 40' eucalyptus in my backyard because it was so brittle limbs would fall off in 20 foot sections during storms and I was worried that one day the whole tree would come down on the house. That tree's roots lifted a concrete wall about 10 feet from the trunk. I have seen none of the shoots people have mentioned from the sissoo, nor do I find the tree to be particularly messy. I am hoping that there are circumstances under which these trees do well and are not as invasive as people mention. Mine are all planted in grassy areas and have all been deep watered with a hose a couple times a week. Too late now to change my mind I guess since the two in the front yard are 30' tall already, at least until I see signs of a problem.

I have watched mine all summer after this post and have not seen a single shoot coming up in my lawn. The sissoo is adjacent to a paver patio and none of the pavers are lifted or anything. I also have been paying attention to where sissoos are planted around the city and notice many, many of them are in medians, next to sidewalks, curbs etc. Some of them are much bigger than mine and you don't see any problems with the concrete areas. By the way, mine grew like a weed this summer - not so much in height, but in canopy. It is giving me dense shade on my patio. Hopefully, it won't lose too many leaves in the winter as is shield from the low angle sun. Anyway, I am still bullish on sissoos as it is the fastest growing, most green, and best shading, cold and heat tolerant tree I have ever had in AZ. I does get BIG though.

[LBTRS]

Mine wasn't very cold tolerant this year. It nearly all died and turned an ugly brown. I was hopeful that it killed the whole tree so I could just remove it but no such luck, it came back and is bigger than ever.

I had an arborist come over and evaluate my situation and he said they have more problems with Sisso's than they do with anything else in the valley. He said it is an invasive species in the valley and they would never put one in even if a customer demanded it. He actually told me he could not kill the roots and I would continue to fight them unless I dug them up one by one or hired someone else (he wasn't willing to do it). He stated that I'll continue to fight it for a long time to come and he actually didn't want my business and basically said I wouldn't be happy with the results no matter what he did. He said it's going to be a battle to leave it or remove it.

He said they are hired by cities to deal with sissos the cities had planted and it is a constant battle and the customers are never happy because they can't stop them to their satisfaction.

[Voebe]

WHAT?!?! You're killing me!!!

After a neighbor killed off a tree in my backyard, I researched for ages trying to find a tree that would meet with my specifications: small, actually green, real leaves, no flowers, no mess, not requiring much care or frequent watering. The only tree that came close to fitting the bill was the sissoo. The only thing that kept me from latching on to it was that at full growth it would have been too big, interfering with the electric lines in back.

I'm amazed at what you're saying about the mess, because everything I'd read said it was very un-messy.

[LBTRS]

Do a search, lots of horror stories out there with this tree. I'm not so much concerned with the "mess" of the tree as commonly discussed, just the saplings coming from the root system and how far and how big the roots have traveled away from the tree. I have sissoo roots 40 feet from the trunk of the tree (at the surface of the ground) and the tree is only 5 years old. I guess I'm complaining about the invasiveness of the tree vice the "mess".

As far as mess, I would not say it is a clean tree. I have leaves falling off it all year long and it gets thousands of seed pods on it. I find the seeds all over my yard but can't say I deal with the pods as I don't really know where they go. I would not say this is a clean tree but it's far from the messiest.

[MalteseJane]

Originally Posted by TiredOfyycCold

LBTRS - we have a Brazillian Pepper tree in our yard that was planted when the house was built in 1998.

We love it, but it does drop leaves... lots of leaves. It doesn't appear to ever go dormant and lose all of it's leaves, just a constant throughout the year so it always looks lovely and green. The leaves are really easy to rake up on the grass and to pick up off gravel with the blower on vacuum mode - so it doesn't bother us at all.... our neighbour, who removed ALL of his landscaping and has only rock in his backyard, hates it. LOL

We have a Brazilian Pepper and I found out that it drops leaves when it does not get enough water.

[deansabo]

The neighbors behind our house had three sissos that grew rather large and left a mess in their pool and ours, then cut them down a year ago... the roots came under and through drainage holes in the block wall and our yard and my wife's raised vegetable garden against that back wall is inundated with seedlings sprouting up. We can't stop irrigating either. Can I poison the main roots that came through?

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by deansabo

The neighbors behind our house had three sissos that grew rather large and left a mess in their pool and ours, then cut them down a year ago... the roots came under and through drainage holes in the block wall and our yard and my wife's raised vegetable garden against that back wall is inundated with seedlings sprouting up. We can't stop irrigating either. Can I poison the main roots that came through?

The Arborist that came to evaluate my problem wasn't interested in removing mine as he said I would not be happy afterwards due to the roots that would keep growing and sprouts coming up. I asked him about poisoning the roots and he said they have not had luck stopping the roots and didn't like to take on these jobs because the customer is never happy afterwards. He said the Sissoo is an invasive species in the valley and should be banned because customers have so many problems with them.

Good luck and please let me know if you find out any way to solve this.