Help - Thousands of Maple Seedlings!!!?

Question

We have lived on this property for 17 years and have NEVER had the thousands of maple tree seedlings from helicopters that we have this year. We could just pull them out one at a time, as we have been as we walk by, but there are literally thousands of them. Is there an easier way to get rid of them en masse?

The ones that are mixed in with the grass, will simply cutting them short with the grass eliminate them, or will they continue to grow?

Any help is appreciated! thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Welcome to the maple farm.  It was an extremely good year for helicopters.  Keep mowing--the maples will disappear.

I plan on raking up all the seedlings when the flowers die back in the fall.  

In the mean time, I pull as many as I can.  

If I had a buck for every maple seedling in my yard, I could retire.

Answer 2

I had maple trees that would drop the seeds.  I couldn't stand it.  I used a blower and then bagged them up and threw them away.  The lawnmower will chop the ones up in the grass but watch for the strong willed ones because their roots may have taken root below the surface.  Yank them out, if possible. Check Lowe's or Home Depot to see if they have something.  I don't know if you are near a Sutherland's but they seemed to always be a lot more helpful.  Good Luck!

Answer 3

The amount of seeds produced by the trees is depending on how good or bad the seasons are so it probably won't be as bad next year.

The plants in the lawn will get sick of being  mowed over and will die.  The ones in the garden will not all grow to maturity - survival of the fittest.  if you have the patience let them keep going and when you seem to just have the survivers left, spray with Roundup if in a clear area or paint with roundup in mixed planting areas on the leaves.  This will kill them.  

They will only grow in areas where bare soil is available to grow in so once you have eradicated them, plant ground covers under the trees.  This will not completely stop them but will knock the numbers down considerably.

Answer 4

Don't worry,It is not a problem if you keep mowing the lawn We had the same thing happen in our yard.

The reason you have never had this happen before is because of the wet spring and summer. All that extra rain made everything lush. This yard has been in the family for 45 years and its the first time I have ever seen this many seedlings. All that rain made our lawn look like a golf course.

Our trees seedlings are already gone. I can't even tell they were there. And every thing else is back to normal now with the heat.

Oh, we had oak's too, hundreds of saplings.

Got six full size maples, three half grown,, and one huge granddad oak.

Answer 5

cutting the ones on the lawn will do it.

what i do when i encounter a mulch bed that has them is pull them, just spend and hour or so (that's all it should take)  to pull them up in handfulls.  there is such a thing as a weed rake, it looks vaguely like a hoe but it's edge is more flat to it can rough up the surface of the soil to upset the weeds but i find that unless i'm going to follow the weed rake with an actual rake to pick up all the seedlings, then add new mulch it's not worth it.