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I recently had a home inspection done and one of the things that came out of that was the discovery of a bunch of bushes with roots that growing down into the foundation of my basement.

My instinct is to want to remove the entire thing instead of just cutting it off because I presume the roots will keep growing down and making more cracks in my foundation.

I've dug around the area a bit and tried to pull it out to no avail.

Are there specific tools that I could use to do this?

pingOfDoom
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    If you do not mind ground contamination, use Muriatic acid – asinine Oct 22 '23 at 19:50
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    Will depend on type of plant, but there are quite a few plant killers around, some brought at stores, some made at home. Kill the plant usually kills the roots and keeps them from growing. – crip659 Oct 22 '23 at 19:50
  • We get our water from a well on the property so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to use a weed killer or something similar. Can it leech down that far? – pingOfDoom Oct 22 '23 at 20:12
  • roundup should be your go-to here, super effective on plants it touches and dissipates within 24 hours, – dandavis Oct 22 '23 at 21:10
  • It will depend on the weed killer. Quite a few natural ones, salt kills the ground, vinegar, flame/heat are some of the few. Some chemicals break down fast and are safer, some last and not as safe(need license to have/apply). Flame/heat killers should be the safest for ground/well water. – crip659 Oct 22 '23 at 21:19
  • Another safe natural treatment is darkness; all plants need light, so stop the light and you stop the plant. One neat trick is to cut the plant off at the stem, then put a flower pot over the stump. Any new leaves that emerge won't get any energy and the plant will expire after several months. – dandavis Oct 24 '23 at 04:59

2 Answers2

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You have several alternatives:

  1. Cut the bush. Roots cannot grow without the leaves providing sugars from photosynthesis. But depending on the species, you might have to cut it several times before the plant runs out of stored energy.
  2. Use a herbicide. Some herbicides are highly toxic and most will pollute groundwater. Roundup has to be applied to the leaves, and it will kill the roots. It will not work if applied to the roots directly.
  3. Remove the whole bush, roots and all. This is done with a spade,a gardener's shovel (the one with the pointy end) and a pick axe. The pick axe is a dangerous tool, but in the right hands, it will remove a bush in under a minute.
Cheery
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My significant other uses natural killers.

Vinegar and some hand wash soap (liquid). Soap is to keep the vinegar in place and not to just run off.

asinine
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  • Vinegar doesn't actually _kill_ very many plants, especially weeds. It burns the leaves, and the thing sure looks dead, but the roots survive and come back with new vegetative growth quickly. It's basically the same toxicity as a weed-whacker cutting off the plant at ground-level. In my yard, vinegar is a every 2 week solution, roundup is an every 2 month solution. – dandavis Oct 24 '23 at 04:57