Use a mattock and chop them out just below ground level.
Repeat until they give up.

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Or, use the "Tongs of Death" to spread plain generic glyphosate on just the hackberry foliage.
http://www.sixthcreek.com/uploads/File/Tongs%20of%20death%20fact%20sheet.pdf

The "glove of death" also works, if you have a source of really GOOD lab gloves.
http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening/2010/06/glove_of_death.html

How about a flame thrower?...just kidding. Hackberries and china berries are the bane of my garden. Needle-nose pliers work great to pull up young hackberries. You can really grip them tight enough to get that tap root out of the ground.

If they are too deeptly rooted to pull out, it's easiest to do after a rain (and yes, pliers would be a big help) I cut the stem and put just one drop of weed killer directly on the cut. This kills them and I don't think there's enough weed killer released into the soil to hurt a grown tree, or much of anything else.

I WISH they were small enough for pliers! They are about 6 feet tall and as much as 2 inches around. I had asked this question of some organic farmer a long time ago and don't recall all of what he told me, but I do seem to recall something about cutting them down as close to the ground as possible and then I think he said to drill the stump and smother it in gardening molasses or some such thing to rot the wood. Does that ring any bells for anyone? I wish I'd had the forethought to take notes. I remember thinking it sounded pretty labor intensive.

This post was edited by mrs.wiggley on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 6:21

Howard Garrett use to have a molasses trick for hackberries, I don't recall it but I bet a google of killing a hackberry organically will find it

I try to stay pretty much organic, but unfortunately there are a couple of garden chores that I can't handle without resorting to chemicals. Killing young hackberry trees is one of those chores. Getting rid of Burbuda grass in flower beds with Grass-B-Gone is the other.

I planted antique roses all along my mother's back fence. They are beautiful and they are huge! The birds come along, sit on the fence and plant hackberry seeds. Some times the hackberry trees have developed a 2 in. trunk before they are seen looming above the 6 to 10 ft. tall roses. I reach in there with loppers, cut the trunks and drip broad leaf weed killer, which I've transferred into a 'fake butter' spray bottle (the yellow one which I've marked up real good so nobody ever tries to use it for their toast) on the raw cut. It kills the hackberry tree and has never hurt the roses.

Sometimes 20% horticultural vinegar is recommended for killing plants. Maybe that would work, but I've never tried it. 20% acid is very caustic to bare skin so great care is needed when using it.

Sorry there is no easy way to get the job done. Maybe you could hire someone to dig them out and then keep the area mowed to control the sprouts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google search on killing hackberry trees organically

This post was edited by roselee on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 8:12

Ragna, sometimes you have to do that
If you are careful like you are and I am, just the painted plant dies

Here is a link that might be useful: Mr Smarty Plants

Mrs.Wiggley, before I got my hands on a commercial poison, I used Round Up on the hackberries that got too large to pull out. I'd cut the tree off, then put round-up on a cotton ball, lay it on the top of the stump, put a piece of plastic wrap around it to keep it from drying out, then rubber band it to hold it onto the stump. Killed 'em dead! And nothing around it was harmed.

I've used Patti's trick for trumpet vine, it works.

I have no secrets, I am constantly pulling them from the beds, we have several large ones that line the property. They are everywhere!!!
Tally Ho!

It's elm trees for me. They are sprouting in all my flower beds and I can't figure out where they are coming from. The nearest one seems to be an acre or so away. I'll try the cotton trick. Right now I've got a 5 gal bucket with the bottom cut out. I put it over the tree or trees and spray the heck out of them with Roundup. The bucket keeps the poison off everything else. But sometimes the bucket is too big to isolate a single elm seedling.