How to Kill a Plum Tree

Many natural factors lead to a tree's demise, regardless of species. Drought, disease, insect infestation, infertile soil or brutally cold winter all stress or weaken a tree, potentially leading the plant to die. Killing a plum tree is relatively straightforward if the protective bark and cambium layers are damaged. Inhospitable environmental conditions can further ensure no roots survive and sprout suckering shoots. Herbicides may be used in conjunction.

Hatchet
Hand pruners
Herbicide containing glyphosate

Instructions

- 1
  Chop off a ring around the base of the plum tree's trunk with a hatchet. Some people call this process girdling. Choose a location on the trunk that is uniformly smooth, easily accessible and as low as possible. Chip a furrow 1/2 to 1 inch deep and at least 3 inches wide in a band all around the tree trunk. This band looks like a beaver-gnawed belt around the trunk, removes the bark, destroys the cambium layer and exposes the vascular tissues to dry out.
- 2
  Stop caring for the plum tree. Do not irrigate or fertilize the soil within 10 feet of the tree, as it may delay the demise of the tree. Infertile and dry soil conditions hasten the drying out of the tree via the girdled trunk.
- 3
  Prune away any suckering sprouts that grow from the base of the plum tree, below the furrow band. As long as the tree has green leaves, it can photosynthesize and produce food to nourish the roots. When the tree is damaged, an emergency survival mechanism occurs, causing the roots to sprout any growth in an attempt to create a new trunk. Slowly the roots will starve and die if no leaves directly arise from them.

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