Hack and squirt options

weekender21

weekender21

Well-Known Member
I've been thinking about making time for some hack and squirt around some of my food plots. I've cut quite a few trees but would like to try this method as well. What are my herbicide options? I've heard of guys using gly, tordon, and 24D. What are the pro's and cons of each?
 
I use 20% solution of gly, cost effective and effective, doesn't generally translocate or kill other trees through underground root contact.

G
 
I’m not doing hack any more. Drop trees which help control water percolation/filtration and eventual new plant growth and stumps sprouting high value feed. More results for the money.


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dogghr said:
I’m not doing hack any more. Drop trees which help control water percolation/filtration and eventual new plant growth and stumps sprouting high value feed. More results for the money.


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Click to expand...

Flush cut is my typical procedure of choice. In certain cases I want to reduce woody regeneration in favor of forbes, that’s where I want to try hack and squirt.


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weekender - I've completed the circle of laying them on the ground, hinge cutting, and now hack n squirt. I'm pretty much done hinge cutting, I still lay a few over, but when it comes to sweet gums, it's hack n squirt. I just don't want those suckers (no pun intended), suckering from the stump n roots and being 12 ft tall again in 2 to 3 years.
 
Hack and squirt is literally pennies per tree. IMO, felling is slower, more effort, much much more dangerous, and comes at the cost of fuel, oil, saw, etc.

Now many of my future victims are hornbeam, and I’m dubious as to whether they’ll be too hard to hack well.
 
Killing invasives is often not a one size fits all. This past spring and early summer I was fulfilling a contract I have with NRCS to kill invasive species on 50 acres of my woods. The main species to be killed per contract were tree of heaven, striped maple, MFR, barberry, hayscented fern, and Japanese Stiltgrass. Since there were several different types and they were somewhat separated by area I did 3 separate herbicide mixes and applications. On the biggest trees I did a basal bark spray with 2/3 diesel fuel and 1/3 Triclopyr starting at ground level to 1 foot high with 2 gallon pump sprayer. On the woody bushy type stuff like barberry and MFR I just sprayed the entire plant, leaves and all with a mix of 10 oz triclopyr, 10 oz glyphosate, and 10 oz of 2,4-D in a 2 gallon pump sprayer. To save money on the larger fern and stiltgrass patches I sprayed only 12 oz glyphosate with 2 gallons of water out of a Stihl mist blower. My kill rates with these amounts was almost 100% and the NRCS approved payment with no re-spraying requirements.
 
Turkish said:
Hack and squirt is literally pennies per tree. IMO, felling is slower, more effort, much much more dangerous, and comes at the cost of fuel, oil, saw, etc.

Now many of my future victims are hornbeam, and I’m dubious as to whether they’ll be too hard to hack well.
Click to expand...

I’d be interested in how hack and squirt works with hornbeam. I have the same reservations on it due to how hard it is. I’ve got a lot that need to go and planning on attempting it on some in the coming months.


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144 said:
I’d be interested in how hack and squirt works with hornbeam. I have the same reservations on it due to how hard it is. I’ve got a lot that need to go and planning on attempting it on some in the coming months.


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Click to expand...
We have so few Hornbeam trees that I never tried hack and squirt on any, I just cut them off and let them lay. You could cut them off altogether and treat just the stump with herbicide. That would be certain death. If doing hack and squirt I'd mix the herbicide stronger, that way you will get some basal bark treatment effect as well.
 
Spent 2 hrs this past Saturday doing hack n squirt in one of my hardwood draws to release my better oaks. I used straight gly in a 1 gal hand sprayer. This is the 1st year I've done hack n squirt. Really looking forward to see how effective it is as the year progresses. Some of the trees were pretty large. I hacked around the entire tree and sprayed a good dose of gly. On smaller trees, 3 hacks and a squirt.

BTW...really like this 1/2 gal hand sprayer I picked up at Tractor Supply. Brass nozzle and easy to use.
hack n squirt.jpg
 
Triple C said:
Spent 2 hrs this past Saturday doing hack n squirt in one of my hardwood draws to release my better oaks. I used straight gly in a 1 gal hand sprayer. This is the 1st year I've done hack n squirt. Really looking forward to see how effective it is as the year progresses. Some of the trees were pretty large. I hacked around the entire tree and sprayed a good dose of gly. On smaller trees, 3 hacks and a squirt.

BTW...really like this 1/2 gal hand sprayer I picked up at Tractor Supply. Brass nozzle and easy to use.
View attachment 18386
Click to expand...
Your setup looks just like mine (sprayer and all) except for the hatchet. I use either a chainsaw or machete to get through the bark.

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I’ve done quite a bit of hacking and squirting on 2 sweetgums in my yard — they seem unfazed. Probably eight licks with 50:50 gly: water in each.
 
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