CountryByNet.com Forums :: Thinning woodland

I only cut stumps at the 12-18 inch height if they are small enough to run over (push down) with the tractor or truck tires with no tire damage. This is usually less then 3 inches or so in diameter. As there are numerically many fewer "large" individual trunks to be cut, I can take the time to cut them close to the ground. In special cases I would even dig around them a bit to get good access.

Cocktail? Varies! I'm sure it must matter what species you are attacking but a mix of Grazon P+D, Remedy, SurfKing (surfactant), and a good spray marking dye (Just bought a bottle of GREEN but would like a nice dayglow orange or hot pink) works OK. If I had time to run comparison tests, I'd be trying some of the "brush killers" full strength with some surfactant and dye with maybe some Remedy for good measure. I don't go too crazy with the surfactant as it is only a wetting agent and has no "KILLING" properties of its own although it helps ensure more of the active ingredients get to the cambium and don't just bead up and or run off.

These ag chemicals aren't cheap but are effective, especially at higher concentrations and you don't use or waste much with a good squeeze bottle with a small applicator tip. Grazon P + D is a restricted ag chemical and requires an applicators permit to be able to purchase it. 2-4-D and glyphosphate (generic roundup) are pretty effective too and are of course over the counter. I'm not sure how well glyphosphate works applied to a cut stump. I use it as a foilage spray and infrequently as a basal spray. Haven't tried it in the cocktail.

For particularly stuborn species (I don't know their names but some are survivors) you can cut a groove around the trunk. Angle the cut to try to make a little toroidal basin and fil it with your cocktail. This gives a much larger dose than a topical application to the cut end. Oh by the way... don't waste your time and materials "painting" the entire cut end of the larger stumps. Juat squeeze out a good dose where the outer bark meets the next layer (cambium.) The cambium is the actual target of your application.

If I didn't mention it strongly enough...You do need a strong dye in your cacktail so you can keep track of which cut ends are treated and which aren't. NOt that my short tem memory is all that bad but you get distracted, do other things, then return to the stumps, maybe the next day, and hmmm which ones did I treat??? Use dye.

MUNCYBOB: If you girdle woody plants they sometimes die and sometimes just send up other shoots. If you girdle a small tree or brush and use the angle-reservoir cut method described above and fill the reservoir with herbicides suitable for basal spray application you are very likely to get a good kill. This will effectively thin your wooded area and not require a chain saw. In time the dead trees/brush will rot at ground level and can be easily removed if you don't want to leave them behind to decompose and return their nutrients to the soil. If aesthetics prohibit the above then consider a chipper on the tops.

I recently (a week ago) had help putting up about a thousand feet of 5 wire 4 point barbed wire fence. The help violated the 12-18 inch rule and I ran a stob through the side wall of a quite nice tire. OH, that stob! That is one you cut with the brush hog... Yeah? That's funny... The brush hog never left a pile of sawdust before!

It isn't hard to get good help these days it is essentially impossible.

Pat

"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

Edited by Pat (05/19/05 08:46 PM)

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