Sweet Gum: The Beautiful Yet Controversial Tree
Update: 2025-11-06
Description
Lou Meyer from Davey's Mid-Atlantic region talks all about the sweet gum tree, including its biology, unique features and pros and cons.
In this episode we cover:
- Sweet gum's spiky seeds (1:35 )
- Why are they called "sweet gum?" (4:12 )
- How large do they get? (6:00 )
- Sweet gums aren't planted much (7:03 )
- What to do about your sweet gum's surface roots (9:07 )
- Where do they grow? (10:52 )
- Are the black gum and sweet gum related? (11:39 )
- Sweet gum identifying features (12:42 )
- Crafts with sweet gum seeds (14:54 )
- Fruit regulators (16:00 )
- Do sweet gums belong in the forest? (18:15 )
To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.
To learn more about tree species, read Davey's Tree Identification blogs, such as Tree Identification: Do I Have a Sweetgum Tree and more.
Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company
Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com.
Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
Comments
In Channel
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States00:00
00:00
1.0x
