Miller, James H.; Manning, Steven T.; Enloe, Stephen F. 2010. A management guide for invasive plants in southern forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–131. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 120 p.
Chinaberrytree (Melia azedarach L.) is a traditional widely escaped ornamental that is deciduous, growing to about 50 feet (15 m) tall. It has lacy, many divided leaves that are dark green, turning yellow in fall. Showy panicles of tiny blue flowers in spring yield abundant round yellow pulpy fruit that persist during winter. Stump sprouts, root sprouts, and seedlings will eventually emerge after main stems are killed. Viable seed can be produced by 4- and 5-year-old plants. Species spreads by abundant bird-dispersed seeds.
Management strategies
- Remove old ornamental plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of fruit in a dumpster or burn.
- Treat the abundant seedlings after parent tree is killed.
- Rapid growth requires foliar sprays in the first year.
- Cut and bulldoze when fruit are not present.
- Manually pull new seedlings and tree wrench saplings when soil is moist, ensuring removal of all roots.
- Burning treatments are suspected of having minimal topkill effect due to scant litter.
Recommended control procedures
Trees. Using dilutions and cut-spacings specified on the herbicide label (anytime except March and April) make stem injections using Arsenal AC* or Pathway*, or when safety to surrounding vegetation is desired, Garlon 3A. For felled trees, apply these herbicides to stump tops immediately after cutting. Also, ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective undiluted for treating cut-stumps and available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants).
Saplings. Apply a basal spray of Garlon 4 as a 10- to 20-percent solution (2 to 5 pints per 3-gallon mix) or Stalker* as a 3-percent solution (12 ounces per 3-gallon mix) plus Garlon 4 as a 15-percent solution (3.5 pints per 3-gallon mix) mixed in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil or mineral oil with a penetrant, or fuel oil or diesel fuel (where permitted).
Sprouts and seedlings. Thoroughly wet all leaves with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant (July to October): Garlon 3A or Garlon 4 as a 2-percent solution (8 ounces per 3-gallon mix) when safety to surrounding plants is desired; or Arsenal AC* as a 1-percent solution (4 ounces per 3-gallon mix), or Arsenal PowerLine* as a 0.5-percent solution (2 ounces per 3-gallon mix).
* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.
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