Controlling Sucker Tree Sprouts
Wild West District Blog
By Ron Honig
July 9, 2025
Controlling Sucker Tree Sprouts
One of the frustrating occurrences of owning trees in a landscape is fighting suckers popping up in the lawn or growing from the base of a landscape tree and creating an unkept appearance.
Pruning the sucker sprouts back remedies the problems for a few weeks until new growth shoots up new suckers. Herbicides should never be used to treat sucker sprouts growing from roots as they will injure the tree. It is important to know if a tree sprout is a volunteer coming from a seed or a sucker growing off of a buried root from a desirable tree before using herbicides.
If you have several sucker trees coming up in a lawn, it is most likely from tree seed that has blown into the area. Digging down under one or more volunteer trees will quickly tell you if it is growing from an existing tree root or if it has sprouted from seed.
There are a couple growth-regulator products available to stop or greatly reduce the regrowth of those sucker trees growing up from buried roots. These products are not herbicides, but rather contain the active ingredient Ethyl 1-Naphthaleneacetate in a 1.15 percent concentration and are sold under the trade names Sucker-Stopper RTU by Monterey and Sucker Punch marketed by Bonide.
These two products are essentially the same chemical and are intended to be applied to either the fresh cut made when the sucker branch is pruned from the tree or to the foliage of a young sucker tree sprout. Simply apply a small amount on the cut surface each time an unwanted sucker tree is pruned. Follow label instructions for exact details.
Just like the fresh cut you make on a live Christmas tree so it will absorb water, these growth regulators must be applied to a fresh cut in order to be absorbed and be effective.
If applying to the foliage of a young tree sprout, it is best to treat the sucker before it is over 10 inches in height according to label recommendations.
Again, these products may not be 100 percent effective in reducing regrowth of tree suckers but they can definitely help.