Honeysuckle

M

MK111

Member
Honeysuckle is a plague from hell. Here is SW Ohio it is so thick you can't walk through it. It grows on every square foot of my farm that isn't in cattle pasture.
Today I trimmed the honeysuckle back from 400 ft of my high tension electric fence on my cattle summer pasture. It was a solid wall against the fence from new spring growth. Took a chainsaw and cut it about 12" high and will go back and spray brush killer on the new sprouts.
The cattle love it so I throw it into the pasture and later clean the bare limbs up.
If it touches the electric fence it shorts it out.
Got another 400 ft to do next week when I rotate the cattle to the other side of the pasture. That way the cattle can clean up the fresh cut honeysuckle.
 
I fight it on my place as well. Once it gets a foot hold and some sunlight.....it very difficult to control. I hunt it virtually year round with a set of loopers and tordon.
 
For what it's worth, when I was young we would tether goats to an area we wanted cleaned up and move them every day. They ate everything and loved honey suckle the best. Looked like it had been mowed.
 
I know it's been discussed before, but here in the south we wouldn't have deer to speak of if not for japanese honeysuckle.
 
It's not an issue with me because:
  • It can't grow deep in the woods due to lack of sunlight.
  • It won't survive where you are mowing, because it can take mowing.
  • It is a great deer food - especially in the winter. Going from memory here, but I think 18% protein. And, it stays green all winter in this area.
So, where can it survive? Around here that would be:
  • fence rows
  • Sunny places too rough to mow (like ditches, etc.).
  • Edges of woods
That has never been a problem for me. If I completely quit mowing a spot, I will have far worse problem plants than JHS.

The value as a good winter deer food that requires no work outweighs any issue I have ever had with it. Plus, the dang stuff is so abundant around here you could never get rid of it, even if you wanted to.
 
Last edited:
Are we talking about.....

Honey suckle.....like the vine type stuff????
honeysuckle.jpg
Or Jap Bush Honeysuckle.....the bush/shrub crap!
jap bush honeysuckle.jpg

Guess I sort of revealed my opinion of one vs the other! The vine stuff I like, but it needs to be controlled as it will take over and here it is nearly an evergreen as well and the deer do browse it. The bush type stuff I have....that stuff is worthless other than the fact that it greens up early and holds leaves late....I have never seen deer eat it and it will choke out nearly everything else to the point that you often have bare dirt under it. The bush stuff I kill every chance I get!
 
Never hear of it being called Jap Bush Honeysuckle before but that's what it is here. It grows in deep woods here with no problems. It seems after couple hard frost all the leaves drop and only bear limbs. Up until the leaves dropping the deer browse on it rather heavy. Some of the older bushes are 6-8" thick and 30' high.
The Honey Suckle vine on the fence showed up here 2-3 years ago. I discovered it on my electric fence and it was a solid wall for 50-75 ft. It was tough to get it cut off to make the fence work again. Checked the fence this week and it's mainly off the fence but is further away.
 
Yes, the bush (Japanese Bush Honeysuckle) will grow in deep woods and take over the forest. It can thrive with very little sunlight. My post was about the vine type, which folks around here refer to as just "Japanese Honeysuckle."
 
Jap bush honeysuckle is one of the most vile, worthless, invasive, disgusting things I've ever seen. Deer don't eat it, they don't rub it, it really doesn't make great cover and it creates a worthless monoculture devoid of nutrition and life. I'm pretty sure it causes cancer and it collectively voted for Hillary Clinton.


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I know I will never get rid of it completely, but I do what I can to kill it and keep it in check. I have cut some that had stumps as thick as your wrist before. And then you find out you cut that one and 1,000 show up in the newly available sunlight!:mad:
 
Bush honey is the devil. Here around St Louis it has taken over the understory of every patch of land. In the next 50 years we will have forest of honey suck with dead oak, ash, hickory, elm etc just standing like skeletons above it. Nothing can out compete it. I’ve now even seen seen it take over the understory of a mature cedar stand!
 
Heart shot said:
Bush honey is the devil. Here around St Louis it has taken over the understory of every patch of land. In the next 50 years we will have forest of honey suck with dead oak, ash, hickory, elm etc just standing like skeletons above it. Nothing can out compete it. I’ve now even seen seen it take over the understory of a mature cedar stand!
Click to expand...

That's what it looks like around Lexington KY as well. Just amazing how it has taken everything....
 
Neither of the honey's are very invasive around here but I do try to keep them in check. Have never noticed much deer browsing on them so they serve no real purpose in my plans. But man, did they smell sweet riding the motorcycle down the road yesterday. Guess like a lot of things thats a trick for them just like the mythology Sirens.
 
SO ...I have always heard that if you are cutting stem/trunk/tree type woody stuff that the application of herbicide needs to happen ASAP ...that waiting for the next day for example allows the plant to "seal" the injury thereby allowing little or no chemical to enter the kill zone of the plant ??? So what is fact or fiction?

Bear
 
g squared 23 said:
Jap bush honeysuckle is one of the most vile, worthless, invasive, disgusting things I've ever seen. Deer don't eat it, they don't rub it, it really doesn't make great cover and it creates a worthless monoculture devoid of nutrition and life. I'm pretty sure it causes cancer and it collectively voted for Hillary Clinton.


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Click to expand...

Haha this just made my day. Seriously though my region is infested with it. I truly believe that one day my part of the Midwest will be nothing but bush honeysuckle. I would trade it for any other invasive. I could cut it until I'm blue in the face on my family's farm and it still wouldn't make a difference since we are surrounded by square miles of it. It is blooming right now and I get pissed off just driving around seeing that crap everywhere.


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