Staghorn Sumac

[reynoldston]

I have a nice patch of Staghorn Sumac at my home which just seems to grow wild. I was thinking that I wanted to start a patch of it at my camp. What would be the best way to do this. Plant some of the small plants or some of the seed pods ? It grows and spreads fast and was hoping it would be easy to start a new patch. The birds love it and the colors are a nice red in the fall season. I don't understand it but for some reason Sumac has a bad name and I think it is because of the poison sumac which is completely different then Staghorn.

 

[Lawnboy18]

It is a very invasive tree. Where I live that's how it is seen.
Just take a rhizome and stick it in the soil.
Reason why they are not liked is because people have a hard time getting rid of them.

 

[reynoldston]

It is a very invasive tree. Where I live that's how it is seen.
Just take a rhizome and stick it in the soil.
Reason why they are not liked is because people have a hard time getting rid of them.

Yes it dose seem to grow and spreads fast. But it seems to stay in its own corner of the woods. I really can't see a reason why anybody would want to get rid of it but then I am a bird lover and it makes for good food and shelter for birds. This is the reason I want to get a good size patch of Sumac growing at my camp. I had to look up the word rhizome. That was one of the ways I was thinking to start them with, small young plants with a root system started. The only thing is wouldn't you need plants of both sexes to get a good patch going and I don't know how to tell the different in the young plants. This was the reason I was thinking of planting the seed pods. By the way my camp is close to the Canadian border so the birds can bring some of the seeds up in you part of the world so you can enjoy a nice Sumac patch also.

 

[reynoldston]

Now I was thinking about a invasive tree. The tree that seems to be taking over in my woods is the black walnut tree. They are a slower growing tree and seem to draw a lot of tree rats ( squirrels). I did have a lot of ash trees but they are starting to die off and the black walnut trees are taking over. I guess nature takes care of itself.

 

[RhettWS]

Sumacs are nice looking in the fall. Fairly common on cut overs where they can get some light down here in the south. Yes I think most folks think of the poisonous vine so they don't want to get near it.

I have a couple of comments about the ash and the black walnut for you to consider. The ash might be suffering from the emerald ash borer. Bad little bugger that thankfully has not been spotted yet in Louisiana. Alternatively, the black walnut puts out a toxin of sorts that inhibits some other plants from growing around it. I doubt the toxin would have much effect on the large trees but I suspect it would inhibit new ash from getting started. Lastly, if you have horses, try to keep them away from the black walnuts. The walnuts also have a toxin that in known to induce laminitis.

Your sumacs should transplant easily. Good luck. ....... Rhett

 

[reynoldston]

What ever animals are in my woods nature put there, no horses. In my younger years I would keep my woods trimmed out by cutting out the dead wood and larger trees for fire wood, but old age took that away from me.

 

[Lawnboy18]

Maybe something is restricting them to grow all over the place. They can be very invasive around here. If your seeds fly to my place, I might have to wip out the brushcutter

You could simply take some rhizomes and plant them and not worry about the sexe. If you do want the flowers (which I think you do), you are going to need both sexe so that they can polinate and attract all the birds you want. I am really not sure about the sexe differentiation tho. I say try a few rhizomes here and there in your bush and plant them all together.