- 1). Wear protective gloves and knee pads. Pick the gumball and cup it in your hands.
- 2). Place the gumballs inside a trash bag in order to dispose of them more easily after collecting each and every one. Throw the plastic bag into your trash bin.
- 3). Touch the male flowers in spring to test whether or not they are dry. You will be able to distinguish the male flowers from the female ones as the male flowers are found at the end of your tree's branches. If pollen readily falls out, they are dry and ready to pollinate the green female flowers, producing that season's gumballs.
- 4). Spray the sweetgum tree with a fruit inhibitor, like Florel Fruit Eliminator, to keep gumballs from developing. Larger trees that are more difficult to completely spray can be treated with a fruit inhibitor that is injected into the tree's trunk by a professional arborist.
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