Sweet Gum

[AndyMan]

While on my trip I have discovered a most horrible tree: the Sweet Gum. I'm told that it gives wonderful shade in the summer, but right now there are sticky, spiky, hard, evil gum balls everywhere - yards, driveways, roads, gutters, sidewalks. After seeing these I will never ever have this tree on my property.

Anyone have one of these trees and know of any way to dispose of these horrible little awful blobs of evilness? Or know of a worse tree?

 

[Hershey]

I don't believe I've come in contact with that tree. We've never had a nuisance tree in that sense. Our worst tree was a tall oak that wanted to get into the sewer lines and pool. That was painful.

 

[ILawnMan]

Ahh yes, we had a Sweet Gum at our last house. It grew so slowly, and the spiky balls were an awful eyesore :frown:. I have no idea how to get rid of them - we moved away from ours :biggrin:.

 

[RobertBrown]

Considered by foresters to be a "trash tree", sweet gum are very hardy in this part of the country. The seed pods or balls as you refer to them biodegrade quickly in wet weather. Thes round balls can be a problem on inclines ar they are perfectly sphereical and will have you slipping. Similar to the sweet gum, the Black gum has some comercial uses , such as veneer. You know the wood/wire boxes you sometimes see grapes shipped in? Well that thin wood is shaved from a black gum, probably here in Florida.
A sweet gum can make a good ornamental as they are very hardy and almost will not die. If you cut one down you'll just get 3 more shoots where that one was. They can live in just about any kind of soil. Most trees are going to drop something, the good thing about sweet gum is the balls are really easy to collect with the right size rake, more so than acorns or sycamore leaves.