There are almost never seedlings growing from acorns. If there were, you would be able to pull them up easily. What you see are sprouts from the roots of the existing tree; therefore, you do not want to spray a herbicide on them in an attempt to eliminate the sprouts for you will hurt the “mother” tree along with the sprouts.
Only a small percentage of oaks send up suckers from the roots. It is a genetic trait, like freckles, except I like freckles. But like freckles and sunshine, some trees have the ability to sucker, but do not unless stimulated to do so. Oaks having a slight tendency to sprout suckers will often do so when roots hit a barrier, such as trees confined to a parking lot planter, or between a sidewalk and driveway. Also, when roots are disturbed and damaged by rototilling, they are more likely to sprout suckers. But some trees never will make suckers. When choosing an oak in a garden center, if there are sprouts coming up at the inside edges of the container, I would avoid that tree.
You may choose to mow them along with the grass, if grass still exists. Or if the grass has thinned too much, you might plant Asiatic Jasmine groundcover, and use hedge trimmers to trim the jasmine and oak sprouts to a uniform height. You can cover the area of sprouts with a heavy gauge woven geotextile, and then either mulch or spread large gravel or decomposed granite over the top of the geotextile. My favorite solution, when appropriate, is to cover the ground with geotextile and then build a wood deck.
Or if you prefer a thick green lawn, you may remove the oak tree, and all of the tree roots with a backhoe. If you just cut down the tree, grind down the stump and all the large roots you can see, there will still be thousands of oak sprouts emerging from the remaining roots in your new lawn or bed area for a few years afterwards. The area will need to be continually sprayed with an herbicide.
James 
Olalla Garza says
So we have lots of sucker roots springing up. We just tilled the ground, hoping to remove many of the sucke roots. What else can I do to make sure they don’t come up again. My front yard is not very large.
James Gill says
You can cover your rootzone with a heavy gauge geotextile.
Todd Spevak says
Hi, Does watering and fertilizing the lawn reduce or exacerbate live oak sucker shoots? The lawn is zoi zois grass and has a sprinkler system in central Texas. Removing the two old trees is not an option.
Is it better to dig up and remove the shoots in the fall and winter when the trees generally hibernate?
Does trimming tree branches stimulate suckered shoots?
Adrian
James Gill says
I am not aware of any suckering response to watering and fertilizing. I could theorize that lack of watering may stress and therefore initiate suckering. I don’t think moderate trimming would stimulate suckering, but severe suckering might. The only factors I have personally observed, some trees will never sucker, and some will without any observable cause, and some are in between, thus indicating a variable genetic factor. I commonly see live oaks sucker when the roots are mechanically disturbed, or when they encounter a root zone restriction. such as a driveway edge or especially a curb. I have not yet observed any difference in response to what time of year you trim the sprouts, but in a lawn it would be every time you mow.
Andrews Aleesha says
One of the most frequent questions we get is How can I control all of the small oak sprouts that are coming up under my live oak tree? This can be a very frustrating situation for those who are attempting to make flower beds, plant ground cover or other ornamental plants, or just trying to enjoy their lawn by frolicking barefooted through the grass.
Nina says
I removed the oak tree and do have a lot of sprouts… I will be spraying them with chemicals and planning to use heavy gauge, may be even two layers. Will the sprouts die underneath it? Or they will just won’t come out but still will be alive there? I would think they need sun and water to stay alive….Thank you!
James Gill says
A product containing triclopyr is appropriate to kill sprouts unless there are other trees or shrubs in the same area. A heavy gauge geotextile even single layer is adequate to smother additional sprouts, but be sure you have adequate overlap between widths, and use a wide roll (12′).
Karen Miller says
We have a cabin in Utah. Elevation is About 64 hundred ft.. We have grumble oak. Because of the drought, oak sprouts are totally out of control.
We have tried Sucker punch in a very small ,but are afraid of killing our trees. What are your thoughts?
James says
My experience is only with southern live oak. I’ve never tried sucker punch or other hormonal chemicals but I doubt their effectiveness until I see at least anecdotal evidence otherwise. The only solution I know of is to cover it with a heavy gauge of Geo textile
Joanne Arnish says
I’ve been pulling up acorn seedlings in a pachysandra bed for years. I see from your writers that some of the ones I can’t pull up are suckers, so I cut them off at the dirt, however I think they resprout the following year. Is there any chemical that could be used on the seedlings that will NOT kill the pachysandra?
Barbjvan says
We have artificial turf and some sprouts are coming through. I am more concerned about mounding underneath the grass which may be where some are trying to come through. Our turf has been there for 8 years. As far as Sucker punch, it doesn’t even put a dent on them and very thick/goopy and very expensive for the amount of sprouts that we have. Our front yard as Asian Jasmine (well established) and it seems to keep down the suckers. Right now the other area we are weed wacking and putting a fence around it (to keep dogs off spikes) until we come up with another solution. We have been here 30 years. This has happened after a big (5 year) drought season. And once you start pulling them up, more will come up from the break areas.
James says
Thanks for sharing your experience. Yours is the first time I’ve heard back from someone trying the Sucker Punch. I had my doubts as to whether it would work, but couldn’t say without someone reporting about it so thanks again.
Ann says
You are absolutely wrong about seedlings growing from acorns. I have about a million in my yard and flower beds. I know the difference between a sucker and a seedling.
When I need advice I won’t be asking you.
robin bass says
dang girl. wrong side of the bed eh?
SO the bulk of us actually have legit suckers which was his point .
. Acorns can be blown /raked up, easily pull up if you just maintain correctly.
In comparison, suckers are impossible to deal with as you can read .
Be a blessing.
James Gill says
Thanks Robin, that was my feeling, but I didn’t say. Now that I’m an old man, I may be more likely to reply in kind.
Inge Creech says
I cut all the suckers as deep as I could, then used the plastic bags from hardwood mulch making sure they overlapped. Then I covered the plastic with a thick layer of mulch. This actually works pretty good. Only have an occasional sucker poking up.
Kim says
We live in the Florida Suncoast area (Tampa Bay area, gulf coast). We had a live oak that needed to be removed due to disease. It was cut and the stump ground down, but not completely because of a nearby huge rock. Now (within two weeks since it was cut), the entire lawn is full of suckers, and the grass is not growing well. We had suckers before, but not nearly what is there now. It’s taking over the lawn. The other comments discuss options without harming the tree, but the tree is gone. What can we do to eliminate them and re-grow the grass since the tree is already gone?
james s gill says
If no other trees or shrubs have roots in that area, you could use triclopyr on the suckers. Follow label directions.