Killing of sweet gum

[Rickey]

How are you all killing off sweet gum? I have cleared some trees but as you know they start growing back. Will a heavy dose of gly work at the time of cutting on the fresh cut? I am ate up with sweet gum and need to thin it out for other more desireables. The only thing I have found sweet gum is good for is feeding my goats. They love it.

 

[Gator]

I've had outstanding results treating the fresh cut stump with Tordon RTU but heavy gly will also work just not as good but much cheaper.

 

[rustybucket]

I use a spray bottle with about 50/50 gly/water in it. As soon as I cut the tree I spray the stump. I've also girdled some trees and sprayed them with the same. Results are pretty good with probably 80-90% mortality. I usually do my cutting in the fall, not sure if that matters or not.

 

[Jack Terpack]

I use a combination of Tordon RTU and glyphosate. I am convinced, however, that nothing short of a nuclear holocaust will kill sweetgum efficiently. I have been battling them on my 25 acres for almost 30 years. I think I have more now than when I started.

I am convinced that mixing glyphosate with kerosene and treating a girdled tree is a the most effective treatment that I have found. The kerosene seems to keep the herbicide in better contact, longer. It may take several years for it to have a good effect on larger trees though.

 

[Neahawg]

I mix crossbow and glyphosate and seems to do a pretty good job. Trouble is there are so many seeds in the soil they sprout new ones like Daisies

 

[Rickey]

Yeah they keep popping up everywhere including in my fields which I bush hog but still irritating. Sweet gum and hickory are my thorn right now. I don't want to take them all out at once in the woods but would like to drop a few here and there and spray. Some of these are huge with a lot of age. It's a shame to kill old trees like that and they will not be the first I take out but they need to go to make room for chestnuts and oaks. The other issue I have is sparkle berry. It is going to go eventually also if I have my say.

 

[Fish]

Some areas have a market for sweetgum if they are large enough. Pulpwood.

 

[Rickey]

I would love to sell them if I could but most are not huge though a couple are. I only have prob 5 acres they are on bad. The rest of my 22 is either open or has pine, blackjack oak, and a few other species. I am planting trees I want. I just know these need to go.

 

[Tenured Student]

A man after my own heart. I hack n squirt with a 20% solution of imazapyr 80% water.


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