Hack and Squirt Roundup

[Charlieyca]

Was to hot to be carrying the saw around so I sharpened the ax and machete, grabbed a squirt bottle and started looking for sweetgums and red maples. After pine trees, those 2 make up the majority of my canopy trees. However, the more I walk around the more oak regeneration I notice. Oaks are mostly water oaks with a few white oaks mixed in.

I mixed my gly with water 2:1, just enough water to help it squirt easier. I found gly 35$ for 2.5 gallons, so I wasnt going to worry too much about using a little extra gly. I tried both the axe and machete, but found the axe was harder to hit the trees surrounded by brush(all my trees are surrounded by thick brush). Everything caught the handle and made it harder to get good contact. The machete blade cut through the brush and still made good contact through the trees to reach the cambium layer.

Each tree received 1 hack for inch thickness of the tree. I used the machete to leverage open the cut, squirt the gly and then release the cut to hold the gly into the wound. I focused on a half acre block that was missed by the loggers and about 2 acres along a creek bottom.

Dont know how long it will take to see the effects, but will come back and update when I do.

 

[OkieKubota]

I did a bunch of that about a month ago on hickory and thought I was killing a bunch of big hickory but I guess the sap pushed the full strength Gly out and somehow bridged the gap on most of it so I only ended up killing 5 out of about 50 trees I was trying to. Will do this again later this summer when sap starts going down a bit.

 

[Charlieyca]

What size trees were you working with? The largest tree I worked was 6 maybe 7in diameter. I wanted to gly them so everyone wouldnt come back as 5 next year.

 

[OkieKubota]

12" - 30"

 

[Charlieyca]

Do you think time of year was the culprit this time? This is my first time trying hack and squirt, since I could not find any tordon at farm supply I went with straight roundup.

 

[Weasel]

Pretty sure everything I've read on hack and squirt recommends late summer application.

 

[Charlieyca]

I knew timing wasnt ideal and thought early spring and late fell were the best times, but I assumed that as long as the tree is green and growing the vascular tissue should take in the gly and spread it around. Would have researched it some more, but at 93 degrees with 85 percent humiditiy and no breeze, I was doing something that is not too strenuous.

 

[Charlieyca]

Pretty sure everything I've read on hack and squirt recommends late summer application.

Weasel, you got me to thinking that if I am going to try Hack and Squirt, I should do some more research so I don't waste my time. I watched a youtube video created by the university of florida on the use of hack and squirt. It was over an hour, but very detailed. The speaker went over the differences in using an ax, hatchet, machete, bush ax, injectors and even drills to make the "hack". He agreed with your memory that late summer is the ideal time and late winter/early spring is the worst. In spring the sap is moving up at the fastest rate and can push the herbicide out of the wound. I Am going back by the farm today to check out the wounds and see if any saps is coming out. He also said that based on industry surveys, Gly is used just as much as picloram and the other 2 I cant remember him mentioning.

 

[THE LLC]

I tell y'all what I do. I get a old ketchup squirt bottle--you know the red ones they have at restaurants--and fill it with straight gly. I get my cordless drill and some extra batteries with a 1/2" drill bit. I pick the trees I want to kill (I've used it on pines, maples, sweetgums, oaks) and drill three holes kinda at a downward angle about 3 inches deep then squirt the straight gly in the holes. It has killed the CRAP out of every tree I've done that too regardless of time of year. Spring takes longer, mid-summer the shortest.

 

[Charlieyca]

I thought about the drill idea. With a 20v impact driver I could drill holes all day on a battery. I like the ketchup bottle idea for getting it into the holes. A squirt bottle may work more efficiently than a spray bottle anyway. do you have any issues with getting the right amount into the hole, or do you just fill it up?

 

[OkieKubota]

I tell y'all what I do. I get a old ketchup squirt bottle--you know the red ones they have at restaurants--and fill it with straight gly. I get my cordless drill and some extra batteries with a 1/2" drill bit. I pick the trees I want to kill (I've used it on pines, maples, sweetgums, oaks) and drill three holes kinda at a downward angle about 3 inches deep then squirt the straight gly in the holes. It has killed the CRAP out of every tree I've done that too regardless of time of year. Spring takes longer, mid-summer the shortest.

Great idea! I am going to try this on these danged hickory trees soon!

 

[THE LLC]

I just fill the hole up. A tree over 12" DBH usually takes three holes. Smaller ones you can get away with two or even one.

 

[Charlieyca]

All my trees are under 12 dbh, I will try still on the next batch I do

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[possum]

I tried my hand at hack n squirt about a month ago.
I experimented with straight gly and a 50/50 water mix. All the trees hit are dead. Actually, in only two weeks the tops of all the maples were black already and leaves were falling.
I hit mostly maples 4"-8" diameter.
Very pleased with results so far as long as they stay dead.
I used a machete as well.
I also cut down a ton of trees over the winter that were sprouting out pretty heavy. I hit all that tree foliage while I was at it and they look pretty dead now too.
I was worried I was doing hack n squirt too early but it appeared to do just fine in central GA in early May.

 

[Charlieyca]

Good to hear, I'm going to try and updated every few weeks yo see if I noticed how quick they lose leaves and how effective it is.

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[buckdeer1]

I didn't figure Ru would work that well.i use 50/50 remedy-diesel mix and basal spray.My forester said you can do this anytime there isn't snow
on the ground

 

[THE LLC]

RU or generic gly will kill the crap out of trees.

 

[buckdeer1]

Have yo u tried on locust

 

[Fish]

Seems like trees treated in late winter take a year or two to die. Squirting trees shortly after green up works great. As does the rest of the summer. Results are seen within a month.

 

[Charlieyca]

3 months later, results are good. 99% of trees under 6in diameter were dead. Approximately 75% of trees larger than that dead. Bigger they got, the more likely they were to survive. Need to increase hacks for bigger trees. This way a tree on the edge of a plot I had planned to cut, but used a test subject that would be easy to Identify walking in to check my work. 1 hack and this tree was toast