As arborists discussing tree care with our clients, one of the most common complaints we hear is about the litter dropped by trees. Often, people are resigned to the fact that they will be raking up leaves, but what irritates them the most are the nuts/fruit produced by their trees!
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| Cottonwood Fluff |
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| Acorns |
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| Gingko |
Many trees have noxious offspring:
Cottonwood fluff, acorns, ginkgo fruit, sycamore balls, and of course, the often-resented sweetgum.
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| Sweetgum Balls |
In our mission to maintain a balance between human quality of life and the lift of the Urban Forest, Tree Wizard has started offering a deflowering agent called "Snipper" to prevent many of the fruit/nuts from being produced.
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| Sycamore Balls |
From Sherrill.com:
Many homeowners are frustrated every year by their trees dropping nuts or fruit on the lawns...Most people have no idea that products even exist that can solve this problem.
The product is called Snipper, and will drastically reduce the number of acorns, gumballs, or other fruits falling from your trees.
Snipper is applied using a microinjection capsule, which are sold in boxes of 25. To apply you simply drill a hole into the base of the tree, and push the capsule in. Capsules are placed one every four inches around the circumference of the tree. The chemicals will be injected directly into the xylem of the tree, allowing them to be taken up into all of the trees tissues. If done at the right time, this will kill emerging flowers, preventing them from being pollinated and creating fruit. This action has no negative effect on foliage or overall tree health.
An application of Snipper in early spring when flowers are budding can drastically reduce acorns, gumballs, nuts and fruit. This can be applied to: Ash, Black Locust, Black Walnut, Cherry, Cottonwood, Crabapple, Gingko, Hackberry, Hickory, Honey Locust, Maple, Oak, Olive, Persimmon, Plum, Tree of Heaven, Sweet Gum, and Sycamore trees.
It is critically important to time this treatment properly: too late or too soon and it will fail. It must be applied AFTER the flowers have budded but BEFORE they are pollinated!
Also please make note:
Snipper has been observed to be between 75-95% effective preventing acorns, nuts and other fruits except for gumballs. Due to the nature of Sweetgum Tree reproduction, which is multiple waves of flowers, with very little uniformity, Snipper needs to be applied multiple times per tree, and even then the effectiveness is much lower than in other trees.
Tree Wizard is committed to arboricultural excellence and is excited to bring this treatment to the Central Oklahoma community. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consult with an ISA Certified Arborist, please contact us here: https://treewizard.com/contact-us
