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trumpet vine sprouts #877176

Asked July 14, 2024, 4:05 PM EDT

We, and the bees, love the beautiful trumpet vine that covers an arbor across the hot, sunny front of our garage. There is a vine on both sides of the front of the garage. The problem, of course, is there are sprouts popping up all over the front of the landscape which is perennials in a bed of mulch. Is there a way to kill or retard the sprouts without hurting or killing the mother vine? I've searched online but I didn't find an answer to that specific question. I saw a YouTube video about killing a vine by cutting it off near the ground and then painting the stump with brush killer. Could this technique be used on sprouts 5 to 15 feet away from the mother? Would Roundup work as well? Thank you

Arapahoe County Colorado

Expert Response

Hi Denzil,

Thanks for reaching out to Ask extension with your questions about Trumpet Vine.

Trumpet Vine, Campsis radicans can be a very aggressive plant that can quickly spread where ever it is planted. It spreads vegetatively by it roots, but also easily reseeds itself too, so make sure to remove those seed pods when they are still green. It will be very important to not let it go to seed. 

For the sprouts, you will want to figure out if they are a sprout from a seed (pulled easily when small and has its own roots) or if it is a sucker coming off the parent plant root. If it is a sucker, then any chemical treatment which is systemic will also affect the parent plant.  Round Up contains glyphosate which is a systemic herbicide, and the chemical will travel through the sucker down into the root of the parent plant, and could injure or kill your vine. Some stump and brush killers are systemic too, although some products are only contact herbicides, meaning they only kill the parts of a plant that it touches. 

You will want to use contact herbicides for these sprouts. Contact herbicides are sometimes called burn down herbicides, and they can knock back your suckers, but not affect the parent plant. The downside is that while a contact herbicide might kill your sprout, a new one is likely to grow back right after. 

I wish I had a better answer to your problem, but it will likely need to become a normal yard maintenance task of either spraying or clipping/removing to keep the suckers/sprouts from your Trumpet Vine in check. 

Here is more information about this vine:

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/campsis-radicans/

I hope this helps,

 Dawn   

Dawn Fradkin Replied July 17, 2024, 2:50 PM EDT
Thanks, Dawn…younger people may be willing to deal with the outgrowth of 2 well-nourished, several-year-old vines, but since we’re having to pay our gardeners, we’ve decided that this fall we’re going to remove the vines.  The sprouts are getting worse by the year. And the growth across the arbor has to be regularly trimmed away from the garage to keep the tendrils from removing the paint.

Regards

Denzil

On Jul 17, 2024, at 12:50 PM, Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:

The Question Asker Replied July 17, 2024, 5:20 PM EDT

I understand completely as I've battled them myself in the past.

While these are wonderful plants that the birds and pollinators love, they do require a lot of elbow grease to maintain and keep contained...

Goodluck!

Dawn

Dawn Fradkin Replied July 18, 2024, 12:55 PM EDT

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