Triclopyr to kill dormant trees

DougG

Member
I want to thin some trees in our woods, particularity beech and soft maple, to open things up for oaks and other better mast tree. Would Triclopyr applied via hack and squirt work good on dormant trees? thinking of doing some of this work tomorrow since the weather will be nice.
 
For most trees yes. I like Tordon RTU. Comes in a squirt bottle at tractor supply. Hickory and others are tough.

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I picked up some triclopyr 3 the amine prep of triclopyr specifically for hack and squirt. If I understand correctly it will have less soil activity than the ester. The ester would be superior for basal bark treatment. I’m new to most of this so I’d defer to someone with more experience if I’m off base.
 
I picked up some triclopyr 3 the amine prep of triclopyr specifically for hack and squirt. If I understand correctly it will have less soil activity than the ester. The ester would be superior for basal bark treatment. I’m new to most of this so I’d defer to someone with more experience if I’m off base.
I've been spraying my yard with amine and esters for a few years now. I dont think ester has much to do with soil activity. It has to be used in cooler temps with a sight breeze or it will volatize and cook whatever vegetation is around it. It works better in cooler weather and things that are harder to kill. It's hard on sprayers.

I would have to read the triclopyr lable for both to see what they say. For most easy to kill trees roundup will work fine, is cheaper, and has zero soil residual.

Tordon has very high soil activity which is why surrounding trees may die. If they arent same species root grafted(oak) then it washed under ground. If you have a monster old growth tree nearby of the same type, I wouldn't poison a smaller one next to it. Same goes for hickory/pecan that share similar roots.

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Lots of different chemicals and methods. I have noticed on some trees, if i dont cut a full ring, only the branches on the cut side will die. Other trees, one drop and the whole tree is dead.

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Triclopyr is one of the best choices for woody species, but also way more expensive than glyphosate. I mix triclopyr and diesel fuel, 2/3 to 1/3 gives you the spot spray strength recommended on the label. Basal bark application (spraying just the lower foot of bark) works on trees smaller than 4", also works better on smooth bark than rough bark trees. Hack and squirt works even better, but it's also a lot more work. Before I'd do hack and squirt I'll just cut the trees off totally with a chainsaw, then spray the stump with triclopyr, I can do this faster than hack and squirt because I'll cut a large are then spray the stumps all at one time. On bigger trees I'd sooner drill a 1" hole on a downward angle and do like Okie, squirt straight glyphosate into the hole, and the tree will die. Last spring I did a 53 acre invasive spraying project with 60 to 70 gallons of spray mixture, including a lot of basal bark spraying, and the results were close to 100% with the above mix.
Amines vs esters: a simple laymans explanation is that an ester version is a more volatile and more potent delivery method of the same active ingredient, and usually costs more. A few important things to remember between the two; the waxy surface of a lot of different foliage leaves are penetrated better by the ester version of the herbicide for better kill rates. If you are tank mixing with another herbicide always use the ester, the amine doesn't mix well. Wind drift is much worse with the ester, especially in hot weather, so when spraying in hot weather use the amine. If spraying basal bark in the winter I'd be ok with either one. Remember, the active ingredient is the same % in the two, it's just in a different formulation.
 
Lots of different chemicals and methods. I have noticed on some trees, if i dont cut a full ring, only the branches on the cut side will die. Other trees, one drop and the whole tree is dead.

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My experience with cutting a ring around a tree is that useless trees like gum die hard, and quality trees like oak and cherry die easy.
 
My experience with cutting a ring around a tree is that useless trees like gum die hard, and quality trees like oak and cherry die easy.
I have a huge population of very large sweetgum. Some are 3 feet in diameter. The only way I can kill them is to cut two rings around the entire tree then spray the lower cut with pure Glyphosate. I keep the cuts about 6 inches apart.
 
I have a huge population of very large sweetgum. Some are 3 feet in diameter. The only way I can kill them is to cut two rings around the entire tree then spray the lower cut with pure Glyphosate. I keep the cuts about 6 inches apart.
Except for that kookaburra song gum is about the most worthless tree there is. Cutting two rings around a 3' gum is also a lot of hard work but there aren't many better options. Hats off to you if you are still doing that at 71 years old!
 
Trust me, I don't always get it all done in one day. If I do it will only be one tree per day. COPD along with 71 years tends to slow everything down except my appetite for doing things.
I'd like to be just like you at 71, still able to cut trees, even if it's just one a day.
 
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