Sweet Gumballs

Jess...... she is talking about the Sweetgum tree..... Liquidamber styracciflua... a very pretty tree, with beautiful autumn foliage.....

Unfortunately, it produces these horrendous seed balls that are rather painful to step on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua

I have no idea if these products would work, and I don't know anything about "Nut Wizard", but this ehow article does mention using growth regulators to at least reduce fruit production.

http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_sweet-tree-stop-prod...

Here's a suggestion.. I don't know how old your kids are, but pay them a penny each to pick them up for you.... another EHow article suggested selling them on EBay as craft supplies!

http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_pick-gum-tree-balls-...

Good luck! My neighbors, growing up, had one of these trees.. and I remember stepping on the seed balls...ouch!

Yes, cut down the tree and it will stop producing the gumballs.

What in the world are you talking about?

I had one of those in my front yard in Georgia and an arborist recommended removing. They grow really tall (the one in my yard was small) and it was too close to my house so now it's gone. My son when we lived in NoVA had a collection of those that he'd pick up from a neighbor's tree.

When we moved into our new house 21 years ago, I looked outside and realized the builders had left a darn sweetgum tree in the yard. It would have been right where our patio is now; way to close to the house. Note I said "would have been." I looked at my husband and said "Cut that thing down." It was the first tree to go, and I love trees and gardening. A sweetgum has no business being in a residential yard. Cut is down and plant something better. Better money spent on cutting it down rather than spraying it with something that doesn't work.