Sycamore seedlings!

I thought last year was bad for the number of sycamore seedlings but this year the numbers are just ridiculous. It's not such a problem in places like the vegetable bed where I can hoe them but amongst perennials and shrubs they're a nightmare. Even my containers are full of them. We’re about to go away for a month, leaving the house to our insurance company's builders. By the time we come back the garden will be a sycamore forest!

Anyone else have this problem and any tips on how to deal with them?

 

We’ve had similar problems with ash seedlings in the past. A quick going over the surface and top inch of soil with a Dutch hoe will really help knock back any that have germinated /are germinating. A few days of dry weather after that would even better.

 

I only get a couple of hundred a year. I pick an area about a yard long and pull 'em out. No point trying to do it all in one go so I do a few a day(weather permitting)

 

Actually I've seen much less this year than I usually do. The same for Ash.
I hope they don't get too much for you ...

 

I had a problem with sycamore seedlings every year - until this year. We've moved.
I used to spend hours walking back and forth, picking up the unwanted seeds by hand. That's fine on the lawn, but amongst shrubs and perennials, the only way to clear the seedlings, was to gently tease them out, one by one.
Every year I would "waste" so much time on removing the seedlings. My neighbours considered me a little crazy, but it was MY garden, and I wanted it sycamore tree free!! The offending trees bordered a school playing field, and I asked the school several times to reduce the height of the trees. They complied, but they always grew back - or new ones appeared.
I found that the only environmentally friendly solution (the trees attracted birds), was hard graft.
But it was worth it.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I do hoe all the bare areas but it's the ones that sneak in amidst the plants that present problems as I don't spot them until they've grown big. Any idea at what stage they get strong enough to grow back from the stump when they're cut?

 

I have a semi mature sycamore in our woodland, that sneaked up when I had my back turned. I must take the camera out in the garden and get some pictures of some other suspects, so I can get a positive ID. They are quite small at the moment. We could do without any more trees! We have at least a dozen beech trees, and the lawn is covered in beech mast. Not a problem there, as they get mowed down, but I can’t really see the ones on the steep bank until autumn, when their leaves give them away.

 

I have lots of both ash and sycamore seedlings every year and remove as I find them in the various cultivated bits. As for the lawn any that struggle to grow the 3" long grass and the underlying moss get taken out with the mower or strimmer.

At a guess about a year old then they really need to be dug out if you cannot pull them out.

 

There are two huge sycamores at the end of my garden . One is mine and one belongs to next door. Hundreds of seeds get dropped every year but very few of them grow past the early seedling stage. If they do, they get pulled out or mowed.

 

I had three Sycamores in my garden and had two felled for different reasons. The one I still have is about 50ft high and has conjoined trunks so double the seeds. The seedlings aren't a problem on the lawns as they can be mowed off but they sprout on my gravel drive, so I pull them by hand.

 

I don't even have a sycamore tree in my garden any more but my neighbour and the farmer across the road have several.