Hack and Squirt Chemicals?

[Cap'n]

I tried this after reading where you had done this before but I had poor results with hickory. Very hard to drill and then couldn't get the tree to die. Ended up having to completely girdle and it has still taken months to kill some of them.

I cut down and applied Tordon RTU to the stumps of several 2-3 " hickory that were shading out my blackberry patches and most have come back. One of the things I hate about Tordon and Triclopyr is the surrounding vegetation picks it up too easy. I even layed a towel around the stumps to make sure none got on the soil. I think non target plants that have roots touching the roots of the target plant somehow pick it up. I'm using Gly from now on . If your using a 50/50 mix of water and gly add some adjuvant. it will make the water wetter and easier to translocate through the plant. I do think fall before dormancy is probably the best time anyway.

 

[THE LLC]

LLC, when you use this method are you drilling one hole or several?

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Depends on tree size. If it's more than 8" dbh I usually do three. After that I do just whatever number feels good.

 

[THE LLC]

I tried this after reading where you had done this before but I had poor results with hickory. Very hard to drill and then couldn't get the tree to die. Ended up having to completely girdle and it has still taken months to kill some of them.

Not sure I've tried it on hickories (I like for them to produce nuts for my fox squirrels) but I'll find a small one this weekend and see what happens. I have killed birch, pine, red maple, elm, sweetgum (tons of them), red oak, post oak, and privet. I have, however, quit fighting privet after we found out what good honey it makes.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Not sure I've tried it on hickories (I like for them to produce nuts for my fox squirrels) but I'll find a small one this weekend and see what happens. I have killed birch, pine, red maple, elm, sweetgum (tons of them), red oak, post oak, and privet. I have, however, quit fighting privet after we found out what good honey it makes.

What's your thoughts on drilling vs chopping into the bark with a hatchet and spraying into the cut? I'd think hacking would be faster, but have never tried either? I'm planning on doing an area with mostly maples.

 

[THE LLC]

I tried it, but it wasn't nearly as effective when using glyphosate. I've seen Grant Woods use that process with a different, more expensive chemical. Not sure what it was.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I tried it, but it wasn't nearly as effective when using glyphosate. I've seen Grant Woods use that process with a different, more expensive chemical. Not sure what it was.

That was probably Triclopyr.

 

[H20fwler]

I use Crossbow. I don't cut it as much as label says, I use about 8-10 ounces per gallon and it is straight death to trees.

 

[Charlieyca]

Back early June I tried hack and squirt for the first time on a couple hundred sweet gums. Squirt bottle with straight gly with a splash or water just to thin it down for the squirt bottle. Took an axe and machete. Tried both but the axe worked better overall. Machete would cut all the way thru saplings and didnt want to cut bigger trees.
1 hack for every 2" of diameter estimate.
Finally cooled off enough to get up to the farm and check out my work last week. Looks like it worked pretty good. Only a few larger trees survived.

Hard to tell with the backlighting, but all the leaves were brown and dead. Some of the larger trees died part way up, but still had some green leaves and some new growth put on.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Back early June I tried hack and squirt for the first time on a couple hundred sweet gums. Squirt bottle with straight gly with a splash or water just to thin it down for the squirt bottle. Took an axe and machete. Tried both but the axe worked better overall. Machete would cut all the way thru saplings and didnt want to cut bigger trees.
1 hack for every 2" of diameter estimate.
Finally cooled off enough to get up to the farm and check out my work last week. Looks like it worked pretty good. Only a few larger trees survived.

Hard to tell with the backlighting, but all the leaves were brown and dead. Some of the larger trees died part way up, but still had some green leaves and some new growth put on.

Let us know how this works out in the spring, what your success rate is.

 

[Charlieyca]

Let us know how this works out in the spring, what your success rate is.

Under 6" diameter close to 99% success. Over that the larger the tree the less effective. I even had some larger trees hacked 5 and 6 times, that only partially died. Mostly over 10" DBH trees were the ones surviving. I would guess 60 to 70% dead on those largest trees.

 

[Charlieyca]

Can not attest to other species, but for sweet gums it has killed them dead. They root sprout really bad here in NC and hack and squirt eliminates that.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Can not attest to other species, but for sweet gums it has killed them dead. They root sprout really bad here in NC and hack and squirt eliminates that.

I've never done this but I was wondering if taking a chainsaw to scour the tree into solid wood, on a downward angle about halfway around the tree, and then squirting the chemical in the cut might be faster and more effective on bigger trees than chopping and hacking.

 

[Charlieyca]

I think it may get too deep into the heartwood. You really want to keep it in the louter layer just under the bark so the vascular tissue (xylem and phloem) carry the gly to leaves and roots. Chainsaw might be hard to control the depth.

 

[Charlieyca]

Cambium layer is what you want to get, very thin layer of "live tissue"

 

[OkieKubota]

I've never done this but I was wondering if taking a chainsaw to scour the tree into solid wood, on a downward angle about halfway around the tree, and then squirting the chemical in the cut might be faster and more effective on bigger trees than chopping and hacking.

I have done what you have said and the chainsaw is definitely the most effective way. I girdle and squirt when doing this method...

 

[E_308]

I have done what you have said and the chainsaw is definitely the most effective way. I girdle and squirt when doing this method...

Agree. I have killed 12" honey locust with hack (with a chainsaw) and squirt with tordon or 50% gly. You don't need to cut very deep.

 

[Charlieyca]

As long as you make a shallow cut, like you were girdling the tree, a saw would be fine. Where I was hack and squirting at, speed and number of trees i could kill quickly was of the essence. Lots of smaller trees and a saw would have slowed me down. On large, mature trees, it probably is much more efficient both time and success rate.

 

[Mark1427]

I used an axe and spray bottle of gly on large trees. Bigger than 5 gallon bucket big. With at least 7- 10 cuts. Had terrible die off.
I will try the drill method here in the next few weeks.

 

[Charlieyca]

LEt me know if the drill method works better on large trees, I have lots of sweetgums to test if it is more efficient

 

[JFK52]

I clear cut 5 acres of black locust. Every stump was sprayed on the outer cambium layer immediately after being cut with Tordon. It worked great for me. This last summer I found a small grove of black locust. I was able to get some "milestone" from a friend and sprayed them all topically. It wiped out the entire grove with no spill over affects.