Saturday, August 7, 2010

My $0.89 Obliterate the Oak Tree Experiment

As I mentioned in my last article, we have this oak tree growing up through our peach tree. I read online that if you put copper nails into it, it will kill the roots. I don't know how or why that's supposed to work, but I decided to give it a swing. We went down to the hardware store, and after looking around for a while, we finally came up with these copper tacks for 89 cents:
Copper Nails

Here's the lovely oak tree we're trying to be rid of:
Oak Tree

You can tell that it was dark when I trimmed it last time. I left a lot of stuff alive. I started pressing the nails into each branch after I trimmed off the stuff I left:
Copper Nail in Oak Branch

Most went right in without problems. Others I had to use a hammer to get them to go in clear:
Copper Nails in Oak Branches

This is what the tips of each branch looked like:
Copper Nail in Oak Branch

Pretty classy, if you ask me. :) I like copper. The largest ones got two:
Two Copper Nails in Oak Branch

I just kept adding...
Copper Nails in Oak Branches

...until they all got one:
Copper Nails in Oak Branches

Good thing I had some company during this monotonous task:
Ants
Ants
I also got to brush a little red spider off my face when I was done. I tried to take his picture, but he ran off too fast. :( Better luck next time. :)

5 comments:

  1. That sounds very interesting. Did it say how long it would take for them to die out?

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  2. It didn't, but I'll keep you posted on what happens. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We used galvanized nails to kill some russian olive trees. It might work for oak trees, too. :)

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  4. No, they did not. :) Good thing it was only an $0.89 experiment!

    ReplyDelete

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