# What trees does everyone consider to be junk trees??



## gene_stl

So as one has more and more houses one learns things that one didn't know before , about every aspect of it. 
One of these aspects are trees to keep, cherish , or have removed immediately. I will start this thread with the ones I have learned about, to wit:

*Sweet Gums * _Liquidambar styrax_ This is the first and champeen tree to get rid of in our part of the world.
They drop those spikey fruit balls. My old place had six of them. Even though I traded in a 3.5hp shredder vac for a 5 hp that the salesman promised me would suck up and grind (it did grind them sucking up , meh!) the fruity balls , when my next door neighbor had about three of them removed I put on my strong opinion hat and said "you never cut down mature hardwood trees!" But actually if I knew then what I know now I would have had them all removed. When I moved to my new place I had one 100 feet tall removed. They felled it intact. The trunk was perfect. I asked the crew chief who told me he has a saw mill whether he was going to take the trunk home. He told me Sweet Gum wood has so much resin that it is worse than a a green pine tree. You could see that was true. I still hated to remove that tree and my wife had to say"what're you an idiot?" I was considering mercy because it was out of the way. And it hadn't fruited until right before the tree service came too. In their defense they are beautiful especially in the fall. In addition to the fruit balls they also make storms of pollen.

*Silver Maple*_Acer saccharinum_ This is a tree that is native to the USA and used to be very popular. It grows too fast and splits and drops branches as well as invading sidewalks and dropping helicopter seeds (which I loved as a kid) I had two at my old place which did drop branches. One ginormous one dropped a branch onto my power line and yanked an insulator out of the house corner and dropped the line onto the ground. It did not short nor interrupt and about a week later my son came home one day and said "Dad did you know your power line is down" I did not. I later put it back up myself without turning the power off. We removed one silver maple at our current digs that was utterly hollow. About five inches thick going around the periphery. It was still alive but I looked at having it pruned and could not imagine how it would ever be attractive so I told them take it out. When they felled the trunk we discovered it was hollow. I never would have guessed that a maple species was a junk tree until a tree guy told me at my old place.

*Black Walnut* _Juglans *****_ Everybody loves oiled walnut furniture right? And what could be wrong with a walnut tree having walnuts? Well plenty unless you are raising them for lumber or fruit. The trees drop a compound called juglone which inhibits other things from growing. The Walnut fruit if it klonks you on the head is going to leave a mark. You didn't like twisting your ankle on Sweet Gum fruits. You are going to LOVE walnuts which are larger and quite solid. Lots of volunteers grow. (We had LOTS of volunteers here and had them removed too along with the thickets they anchored. Another tree that is not really compatible with regular suburban residency in spite of beautiful wood. I think the crew chief did keep my Walnut trees' trunk. I didn't get anything for it. Let him make his nickel on it. I told him I wanted a piece big enough to make a coffee table and he laughed. Black walnut being undesirable was a surprise to me.

*Bradford Pears*_Pyrus calleryana_ Wow! There was what I began to call , a copse of six Bradford pears on our corner. Shortly after we moved in one of them snapped and blocked the street corner. The city came in and cut it back to the property line and cut and chipped what was in the street and right of way. Then i cut up some more up to their size limits and they collected and chipped it. The rest was part of my big quote from the tree service and they trimmed them too. The weather has been kind of weird here in St. Louis this last year or two. So the one that broke snapped again. During that may june hot spell. It was a big branch. I didn't want to get a nastygram from the city so I went out there in the heat and cut it up and stacked it and they took it away. The same morning that I had my tree service back to cut down the remaining third of that particular tree. Now there were five. Then another one snapped and blocked the street. This time I caught the city crew in the act. They had just finished cutting and removing everything up to the trunk without being asked. I went out and thanked the crew chief. I decided to have the rest of them taken out. But about two days later another one snapped , not blocking the street. That's four major snaps since Dec of 2016. Too many. Another thing is two days after they finished my major job my tree service posted a link to an article "Don't plant Bradford Pears" They are considered invasive and hybridize with local pears to no good. They ARE beautiful when they aren't snapping. Get rid of them. You will have to anyway when they snap. Having the six removed and stumpground was an additional $2600 plus I practically killed my old self in that heat cutting up one of the snaps.

Fruit Trees generally. At both my old places there were fruit trees planted which I think people may have thought they could harvest. I had a neighbor at the old place who planted several. But if you are not willing to do almost full time maintenance spraying trimming fertilizing (and netting them to save the fruit) they probably aren't worth having. They should be considered gardening not landscaping. I will leave this for others to comment on. At my places I cut them down myself though here at the current place I did pay $100 to have one of them stump ground. It was almost but not quite completely dead. Where I grew up there were a couple of apple trees and pear trees that were older and my mom would make pies and preserves from the fruit. These were big full sized trees not orchard small trees or grafts. I used to like to climb trees and eat mulberries too but haven't seen on of those in a long time. There used to be one I would climb at the St. Louis zoo. There were only ducks on the trees side of the fence. No crodocodiles. Mulberries do make a mess on the ground. They are delicious. The taste of youth. :

Invasive Honeysuckle. It's not a tree but should be attacked with a chainsaw and then a 50:50 mix of RoundUp and triple threat + triclopyr should be applied to the stumps. Show no mercy. Make sure it isn't native honeysuckle which is OK. Here in St. Louis it's all invasive.

Anyone have species to add.


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## Stellar P

Horse Apple Tree _Maclura pomifera_ 
Although we did enjoy using the fruits for many things in middle school recess.

Tallow Tree_Triadica sebifera_
Invasive and damn ugly.


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## Alan

Pine. They're only good for producing lumber.


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## 440mag

Wild cherry

And, oh yeah, while we're at it, Tulip Poplar.

THE ABSOLUTE OPPOSITE OF "junk?"

The Linden Tree, ties with the majestic Hemlock ... :thumbup:


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## Delmarva Keith

Having had Bradford Pears and Sweet Gum trees, I agree 100% thay they must go. Never had the misfortune of having the others but makes sense.


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## wardconnor

Aspen are junk
Popular are junk 
Cottonwood are junk

And.... Don't you dare say... "the cotton less cottonwoods are good, they are cottonless.." no they are junk.


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## gene_stl

Come to think of it at my old place there was a Wild Cherry in the yard and it had two trunks and one snapped in a storm.
And there was another in a thicket behind the fence and that was junk too. It was probably a volunteer from the one inside the fence.

Yes, adding wonderful trees would be good in this thread. :thumbup:


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## Rackhouse Mayor

Pine
 Popcorn
 Water Oak

I have all three, and I'm looking to cut them down.


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## Guest

Bradford pears. The devils tree..


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## g-man

I hate Bradford pears too. They drop leaves in the winter which forces me to mow on Christmas day. I have one that the HOA planted. I might inject it to say it died. I don't know what to replace it with. Maybe a dwarf magnolia.


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## pennstater2005

Alan said:


> Pine. They're only good for producing lumber.


Agreed. I had 5 on the property. 3 are gone. 1 is mostly dead but standing and close to power lines. Waiting to see if the power company will take it down for free. The other I can hardly see so it doesn't bother me.

I don't know much about Bradford pears. I have 3 Cleveland pears that we planted 6 years ago. I like them.....so far. I got them because I remembered reading about Bradford pears not being winter hardy and snapping and cracking all the time.


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## Colonel K0rn

I've heard that Bradford Pears have a life expectancy of 15-20 years. After that, they start splitting at the top, and look ugly. They can go, along with long-needle pine trees.

I really love crepe myrtles, and yes, they can grow large enough to cast some serious shade.

I'm on the fence about sycamore trees. My grandparents had 3 huge ones at their place that cast shade all over the lot, but let enough light through for the St. Aug to grow. But the leaves they drop are pretty prolific. Pecan trees have limb problems when they get really large, and wind can snap the branches pretty easily. Cedar trees are a :thumbup: too


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## Greendoc

Any tree is a trash tree if there are too many per 1000 sq ft. However, Palm trees are only nice if someone else is paying to pick up after them. Humongous fronds and gigantic seed heads.


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## TigerinFL

Greendoc said:


> Any tree is a trash tree if there are too many per 1000 sq ft. However, Palm trees are only nice if someone else is paying to pick up after them. Humongous fronds and gigantic seed heads.


Dang palm trees can cut you like a knife if you aren't careful.

and someone forgot to mention Elm Trees and the hated Sweet Gum Tree. they are the devil!


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## TulsaFan

TigerinFL said:


> Greendoc said:
> 
> 
> 
> Any tree is a trash tree if there are too many per 1000 sq ft. However, Palm trees are only nice if someone else is paying to pick up after them. Humongous fronds and gigantic seed heads.
> 
> 
> 
> Dang palm trees can cut you like a knife if you aren't careful.
> 
> and someone forgot to mention Elm Trees and the hated Sweet Gum Tree. they are the devil!
Click to expand...

+1 for Elm Trees!!! Ugly and going to get a disease soon anyway.

Unless you are wlling to keep them groomed, Pin Oaks are a PITA with all the low limbs when mowing.


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## Killbuzz

I have three hackberries in my back yard. I hate them with all my heart but my wife likes the shade...Their leaves are just nasty and stick to clothes.


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## OnyxsLawn

Black Locust. Dirty all year long and grows like a weed, looks like a weed too. Sends up suckers anytime a root is nicked. My neighbors have one that drops limbs leaves and the stupid white flower pedals all over the place. I'd love to drop it.


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## zeus201

wardconnor said:


> Aspen are junk
> Popular are junk
> Cottonwood are junk
> 
> And.... Don't you dare say... "the cotton less cottonwoods are good, they are cottonless.." no they are junk.


Man...we like our Quaking Aspens in the backyard right now as they are only several years old. But, Ill probably hate them once their stupid suckeres start popping up trying to create new trees. Hopefully we will move before then and new homeowners will have to deal with it.

But yes, cottonwood trees serve zero purpose other clogging the crap out of our RTU coils. Bradford pears, black walnuts, black and honey locust, and weeping willows all go into junk category.


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## iowa jim

zeus: Why would you say that weeping willows are a junk tree? Just because they are dirty, brittle, high maintenance and get a lot of diseases. Im on my 2nd willow and cannot help myself, i love them. You have me weeping. ha ha.


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## HomerGuy

pennstater2005 said:


> Alan said:
> 
> 
> 
> Pine. They're only good for producing lumber.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know much about Bradford pears. I have 3 Cleveland pears that we planted 6 years ago. I like them.....so far. I got them because I remembered reading about Bradford pears not being winter hardy and snapping and cracking all the time.
Click to expand...

We had several Cleveland Select pears at our last house, and we liked them too. They were about 25 feet from the house, so the upright shape helped them to fit in nicely. They were a little stinky when they flowered in the spring though. And they held the leaves long into the fall.


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## DR_GREENTHUMB

wisteria, not sure if it's a tree exactly but my neighbor behind my house has one and it's trying to get into my yard. It will get in between my fence panels wrecking my fence. Grows quicker than a weed.


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## Stellar P

DR_GREENTHUMB said:


> wisteria, not sure if it's a tree exactly but my neighbor behind my house has one and it's trying to get into my yard. It will get in between my fence panels wrecking my fence. Grows quicker than a weed.


The [email protected] D4#m Devil !!! 
I killed one about 10 years ago with years of constant abuse and beating the hell out of it. I finally ended the battle with a nice late fall beat-down and it died off in the winter. When it bloomed, it was beautiful, but it tore my fence up and had to be trimmed every 2 weeks or it took over everything.


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## Jconnelly6b

Surprised not to see crab apple on the list.

We had one growing up and it was always dropping crumbly sticks and small branches, and apples into the yard to rot and draw flies and deer. My Dad cut it down to put in a shed and it was long awaited.

I had one in my backyard for the first 2 years until I cut it down last summer. Same sticks falling all the time, but this one attracted deer like something awful. I didn't have to worry about them rotting because my backyard turned into the regional deer motel they spent all night back there lounging, eating, and shitting.


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## Bermuda_Newbie

I'm going to add Chinese tallow tree to this list. It drops sticks and stupid berries all the time. On top of that, it has these weird "blossoms" during spring that are long and fall on the ground. What's wrong with blossoms you ask? They turn hard and prickly and are everywhere. The pollen is so bad from these things there's just a yellow layer over the dirt. The roots are a mess and keep trying to grow new trees (along with the berries dropped last year). Good shade though and it goes grow large quickly. I'm ready for ours to come out. The one thing I will miss about it is the delicious smell. It has a honey smell for about 3+ months each year.


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## Shindoman

I had a huge Birch tree in my yard that would lose something 4 times a year. Hated that tree but we couldn't cut it down because of a tree covenant on our property from many years ago. I was so happy 
when it developed a disease and down it came.


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## jayhawk

Funny thread!

Chinese elm! Cheap, fast growers so of course big builders put them in along cheap Bermuda......guess what happens ?

Plus they curate seedlings in rates comparable to a POA Anna outbreak. Currently, shedding bark all over the yard.

Do like my teddy bear magnolia though


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