Do NOT plant a Sissoo tree whatever you do!!! (popular in Phoenix area) (2013, houses) - Arizona (AZ) - Page 9 - City-Data Forum

Ponderosa · 03-27-2014, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBTRS

How big is yours? Mine is probably 30'+ tall and growing.

Seems your elevation puts you a little behind us down here in the low lands. I went through the leaves a few weeks ago and am now on to the pods and flowers.

It's about 25. The top of it took a beating this winter and lost all the leaves. They are coming back strong though. I do notice flowers dropping this morning. The wind is a good direction though to keep them out of the pool. There was a lot of junk in the pool this morning. No lawn furniture though, that is a summer thang.

kodokan · 03-27-2014, 02:26 PM

I had two taken out of my front yard a couple of months ago. They were big, about 15' or so taller than the one in the pic a few posts back, with much thicker trunks; mine were about the same distance to the house (12-15', perhaps?). The house/ neighborhood is from 2000, so I imagine they were planted then.

I got two arborists out to advise and quote, saying I was unsure whether to keep them and trim them back - because trees are generally lovely - or just take them out. They both categorically said to get them out - they're far too close to the house and both told me tales of the roots cracking the foundations.

They were on the north of the house, so weren't even providing useful shade. So out they went. One guy quoted $750, the other guy was quite a bit higher but agreed to price match; we actually settled on $800 as I had much more confidence in Guy Two and didn't want to rip him off by forcing him to price match someone who was clearly less experienced and newer in the game.

His guys came out a day or two later, took them out, ground out the stumps, painted them with some sort of Agent Orange-a-cide, and within 2 hours it was like I'd never had trees. Well worth getting rid of the hassle of the mess, and the nagging worry. I'll plant a tree or two in the back yard, where they'll shade block, to make it up to the planet.

HX_Guy · 03-27-2014, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

If you do your own pool, I think it bothers you less than if you pay someone and still have to be out there working on it to keep it clean. The ONLY tree that is really pool compatible are the palm trees and if one wants to be free of tree litter in the pool, they should not delude themselves that any other type is not going to lose leaves or whatever in the water.

I know I sound like a broken record but FAN-TEX ASH!

Guess how many leaves I had in the pool/on the ground after all the wind yesterday, and I have two trees in the yard.

The Fan-Tex is clean 50 weeks out of the year...the other two it drops it's leaves in the winter but you know when to expect it and it happens quickly. Plus, no fruit, no blossoms, nothing else messy and I haven't read anything negative about roots or suckers or anything on it.

LBTRS · 04-04-2014, 02:26 PM

Ponderosa,

Your comments about Sissoo trees being all over town and not causing trouble got me curious. I stopped and inspected the sidewalk in my neighborhood that is lined with Sissoos and the sidewalk is ruined and this is a newer neighborhood. Can't imagine what it will be like in several years. Here is the damage being done. Picture is hard to see but it has raised the sidewalk about 1.5 inches and the sidewalk is also raised 15 feet from the tree in the picture.

As the Arborist said, they get hired to take these out by municipalities all over the valley for causing problems. We have a ton of them in my neighborhood so at some point our HOA is going to be on the hook for this damage.

BTW: Landscapers taking out my tree tomorrow and planting the orange tree.

Ponderosa · 04-04-2014, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Ponderosa,

Your comments about Sissoo trees being all over town and not causing trouble got me curious. I stopped and inspected the sidewalk in my neighborhood that is lined with Sissoos and the sidewalk is ruined and this is a newer neighborhood. Can't imagine what it will be like in several years. Here is the damage being done. Picture is hard to see but it has raised the sidewalk about 1.5 inches and the sidewalk is also raised 15 feet from the tree in the picture.

As the Arborist said, they get hired to take these out by municipalities all over the valley for causing problems. We have a ton of them in my neighborhood so at some point our HOA is going to be on the hook for this damage.

BTW: Landscapers taking out my tree tomorrow and planting the orange tree.

Yeah, they are everywhere over there. I hadn't looked closely, just driving by for damage. I am going to keep mine going until winter. I can't bear to cut it down right now and have all the sun back this summer! I trimmed all the roots headed for the pool, so it should be good for summer. After that, though, I guess it is going to have to go before it does serious damage.

What size orange are you getting? I have had terrible luck with oranges here in Estrella. The caliche layer is like iron and everywhere so they just grow a bit and then sort of stop. You have much better soil in your part of town.

Ponderosa · 04-04-2014, 02:42 PM

Looking more closely at the pics you put up you can see problem. They planted the sissoo in a dry spot and there is an irrigated area four feet away with the concrete in the middle. You just know it is going to be sending tons of roots out to the grass area and right under that sidewalk. As they get larger the walkway will lift.

LBTRS · 04-04-2014, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

What size orange are you getting? I have had terrible luck with oranges here in Estrella. The caliche layer is like iron and everywhere so they just grow a bit and then sort of stop. You have much better soil in your part of town.

The largest carried at Whitfill Nursery was a 24" box for an Arizona Sweet. I wanted a 36" box but could only find those at Moon Valley and they were calling a Valencia an Arizona Sweet. I didn't want a Valencia so I went with Whitfill. I have a Meyer Lemon that is doing well so I'm hoping the orange takes off also.

My wife is already complaining about losing the shade but she's not the one out there dealing with the mess two to three times a day.

LBTRS · 04-04-2014, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Looking more closely at the pics you put up you can see problem. They planted the sissoo in a dry spot and there is an irrigated area four feet away with the concrete in the middle. You just know it is going to be sending tons of roots out to the grass area and right under that sidewalk. As they get larger the walkway will lift.

Yeah, that looks like the problem to me as well. The thing that I can't figure out is why my tree put out big roots through my lawn and then kept going past the lawn and headed for my house and pool? Surely it gets plenty of water from my lawn.

Ponderosa · 04-04-2014, 02:53 PM

I noticed that the latest "plant palette" from our HOA now has sissoo as a banned species. When I planted mine they just required that it be 20 feet from any property line. Could be problems are popping up.

LBTRS · 04-05-2014, 11:45 AM

My landscapers are working on removing the Sissoo and they are in way more than they thought they were going to be. The roots are huge and there are a ton of them. I found the root that cracked my block wall up. It is a 10" diameter monster that we followed right under my block wall and into my neighbors yard. He sent his partner to go buy more sawzall blades as he has went through the five he brought with him.

This is a much bigger job then they planned so I'm going to give them some extra cash for such a tough job. They have been going for 3 hours, the tree was down in less than 15 minutes and the rest of the time they have been sawzall'n the roots and they still have a tone of them to cut through. Here is one of the bigger roots he's working on...