T-Rex Suckering

[Nick]

Hi everyone, has anyone ever had a T-Rex put suckers up outside there gardens ?
The reason I ask is on the other side of my fence is the landlords road and parking spaces, I wish to plant a few along my fence to replace some Cordilines that were killed during the winter, now I am worried that like Bamboos hat it might come up on the other side of the fences, or are they not as strong as say bindweed that pushes up through tarmac on pavements around our neck of the woods, I hope this reads and makes sense to everyone who reads this comment ?
Nick

[Dave Brown]

Nick, I split this away from the Help topic as I think it warrants it's own thread.

I don't really know that much about T-Rex suckering as mine has not .... yet...... but they do profusely once they get going. It seems to be set off by severing roots while digging, so if they leave that side alone you will probably be ok. But as I said "I know nussing"

Over to the others now.

[GARYnNAT]

Depends Nick is the answer, I had 2 given to me both from the same source, I kept one and gave the other to Gaz and MarkD, Mine has grown as a single stemmed plant and never suckered while Gaz n Marks is multi stemmed and suckered, i dug mine up and potted it into an old dustbin, there were roots left where i dug it up in the Autumn but as yet there are no sign of suckers in the spot it was or in the pot it is now in despite the main stem starting to grow? hope that helps.... or not

Gary

[Frank]

Does the theory of root disturbance still hold in aiding T-Rex to sucker? I have two in the garden, single stem, no pups but haven't really dug around them much.
Will be interesting to see this year now that they've gained some height to see what happens when I dig under them for some more planting.
Perhaps there's your answer, Gary doesn't fiddle whilst Gaz and Mark can't keep their fingers away

[simon]

I posted on another Trex thread recently that my small one in the front has just put up about 5 pups so far this spring. That is without any root disturance, so although that is true, it is not exclusively necessary. Also some plants seem to pup much more profusely than others. Mine came from Carolpz who used to be on OKOasis and she was always handing out pups so it must be in the genes of the parent.

While I was weeding I dug up a piece of Trex root that had a pup developing on it, 5 feet away from the plant. The plant is only about a foot tall, so I expect a large one could send pups up a fair distance away. I doubt they a strong enough to break through tarmac thought and they are easy to remove if they appear where thay are not wanted.

[MarkD]

Ours T-Rex sends out loads of suckers indeed We harvested alot last year, around 10 and now there's loads popping out again.

Most of the suckers that we didn't dig out remained evergreen all throughout the winter, an indication of how good that clone is

[Nick]

I don't mind suckers coming up in the garden, but I worry about the tarmac outside, where if they do and spray with weed killer it will kill the whole lot, also I don't wont to have to pay for repairs to the road etc, but I do wont to plant these to replace dead Cordilines etc, I am very interested in whats been said already.
Nick

[simon]

Nick you don't need to spray them with weed killer. Just pull them out, I doubt if they will come back up. They may or may not sucker but they are no bind weed.

[Frank]

Nick,
I can't see the T-Rex pushing through tarmac unless there are large visible cracks already And as Mark pointed out you can easily pull them out as they apear, pot them up and sell on e-bay for a fortune

[Dave Brown]

Simon, therre goes another theory then. I got mine from Carolpz on UKO and it hasn't suckered and is now in its third year and 4 feet tall. Seems like genetics are not to blame

[simon]

Hi Dave. Interestingly, I probably got mine about the same time as you but I was at the end of the queue. She had to go back down the garden and hunt for another pup so the one I received was tiny. It had a single leaf the size of a penny. Shortly after that I was given a larger one by Kev Spence which went straight in the ground so I keapt it potted. It was potted up the following year but didn't go in the ground until last year when I did the front garden, hence why it is still so small. It did produce a second stem while still in the pot, so now actually has a double stem both 1 foot tall.

EDIT: Incidentally, the kev Spence one is still a single stem, although when I moved it it did produce a single pup in the old spot.

[Melissa]

It was at least 3 years before our large T Rex put up any suckers. I think it was busy pushing it roots into the other garden, as when the pups did come up they were about 9ft away. Since then they have come up closer to the main plant and mainly where the ground is regularly disturbed.

Another one, a different clone, planted out on the bank, suckers all the time and everywhere and the ground it's disturbed, go figure

Melissa

[Nick]

If it was to put suckers up through the landlords tarmac it would be his staff who would spray it NOT Me,so if the ground is disturbed then it will sucker but if left to it's own devises then it should not sucker, it can sucker as much as it likes within my garden boundaries but if it breaks out then I could have real trouble, like I said I don't fancy paying for the landlords road and tarmac to be repaired, if anyone wants a home for there T-Rex suckers and your going to Akamba I will be happy to give them a home, if if your not going to bring any, that's fine with me, but what I really need is to know weather suckers will push up in tarmac
Nick

[Gaz]

They all seem to sucker eventually. If you plant it against the boundary then without a barrier it will probably break out.

As others have said I doubt it would push through a tarmac road, but if the tarmac is old and cracked it may get through.

Barrier it and keep it contained if you want to gauarantee it doesnt break ut.

[Mick C]

I plan to plant mine with a barrier soon Gaz, but i'd like to cut the width of it down a bit, 700mm takes a lot of burying and T rex isn't bamboo. Do you reckon I would get away with about 400/500mm depth?