Best time to treat buckthorn is now
Wisconsin
Best time is now because you can find it easy. BT foliage is still deep green while just about everything else is yellow or no leafs at all. Plus you can still do foliar treatment but not for much longer. The link is to the spring treating thread from last year, lots of how to stuff in there.
I used up 3 gallons of the water mix and one gallon of the diesel fuel mix today plus another gallon of diesel mix yesterday. Still have lots more to do on my land and on others land where I do some of my hunting. I did under one of my bow stands today, didn't want to do that until I was done hunting it for the year. It was solid green BT that was 1-3 feet tall, after killing the huge BT that was there the area just exploded from all the BT seed that was in the ground.
Great day for BT treatment. Went thru a gallon of foliar spray near one of my stands close to my house.
Also sprayed over 3 gallons of diesel mix on a property I have permission to hunt about 3 miles away. Rain was forecast so I switched to an area where using diesel mix was appropriate. I started with a cattle lane that I drive thru to get to the woods and did about 30+ on the sides of it, they were mostly females and in the 1-2 inch size. Near one of my stands I did at least 40 that were the 2-5 inch trunks plus many smaller ones. Then headed to another stand of mine I did close to 40 more females that were 3-8 inches in diameter most with multiple trunks. I was doing males too but it became obvious I would run out of daylite and chemical before getting near my other stand so I made the females priority. Ran out of chemical just after what would have been quitting time, got to the truck and it started to rain. I could easily use up another 20 gallons of diesel mix in that woods, it is a sad situation. Ground is also covered with small stuff, I guess cattle do not care to eat it.
It is a different buckthorn over there than I have by my house. The bark is more of a redish brown there and the percentage of females is way more.
I might have disturbed a bow hunter. I was doing big BT near one of my stands and he started to rattle ahead of me. I thought only one other person had permission in that woods and this was not him because he drove past me on his way in. I thought he was part of the gang that was picking corn along the cattle lane and goes up close to the other areas I was treating .
No rain forecast Sunday so hopefully I can finish up the foliar spraying I need to do on my land.
When I did yesterdays foliar spraying in the morning I first called Treefarm to find out how long foliar spray needed to be on the buckthorn before it rained as rain was forecast in the afternoon. He said lots of factors in play but generally maybe 4 hours would be ok. Also suggested adding some MSO, Methylated Seed Oil. After asking what the heck that was I decided to use some Dawn dish soap which I frequently used when spraying broadleaf herbicide on my lawn to reduce surface tension. MSO does that and more, going to the local elevator today to see if they have some of that. One brand I looked at online sounded like it should be used at a rate of about a 1% of the solution.
Crop oil and ammonium sulfate both increase the effectiveness of any herbicide.
Elevator was only open for receiving crops today so I didn't get any MSO yet, continued to use some dawn soap. I used up almost 2 gallons of the foliar mix. One area that I did the diesel mix treatment on this summer took me forever, there was a lot of small stuff (12 inches and less) to spray and hard crap to get through, like raspberry vine and fallen trees. Had to quit early for the Packer game, grrrr. Should have kept treating. Still have at least a half day left to finish my place. So far I only encountered one female with berries on my land and I cut it off and trimmed all the branches with berries into the trash can.
Landowner where I shot my buck and I went thru about 5 gallons of oil mix on buckthorn at his place yesterday and only scratched the surface of his 40 acre infestation. I will probably be back there tomorrow.
Today I went through 3 gallons of oil mix on another property that I hunt. Again just scratched the surface of his infestation. I have never seen such a high ratio of female BT as there is on his place, probably 70%. He has about 200 acres of woods, all of it infested to varying degrees. Plus fence lines around crop and pastures that are infested. Ran out of off road diesel and had to siphen on road diesel out of my truck to avoid a trip into town.
Tomorrow will be my last day of doing this for a while. Probably headed to Two Rivers WI on Friday to visit family and friends, and get out of MN as their gun season starts.
Jeff's right about the buckthorn (BT). You can REALLY see the stuff and to miss out on this opportunity wouldn't be a good thing. I cut all of the big stuff in an area that I'd overlooked for a while. Between the dead elms, BT, honeysuckle, gooseberry, wild plum and prickly ash I built four really large brush piles. My wife and I burn the piles during the winter and enjoy the hot dogs and marshmallows. As near as I can estimate we have almost 50 brush piles to burn this winter. Next year I plan on doing a foliar spray in this area. I did spray four nuisance areas earlier. Don't miss out on this chance to remove any honeysuckle that you find. This is a problem in this area as well as other stuff. It is hard to believe that you can still purchase BT from landscaping supply companies. Still fighting the fight-LC
As a follow-up to the previous-One of the ways this stuff spreads is crows. They eat the berries and get diarrhea . They poop out the seeds and that is why you'll often see infestations along edges where the crows sit in trees. I think maybe declaring war on crows may be in order. It saddens me to drive around the Hudson area this time of year-they've lost the battle! If the job of removing the stuff seems too overwhelming, start by removing the trees that bear the berries. Right now the berries seem to hang onto the limbs pretty well and you can get them to the brush piles and also get most of the top in the middle of the pile for proper burning. A mouse can eat an elephant-one bite at a time!
Not just crows, I think most birds do the same thing or digest the berry and poop out the seeds. I see concentrations of young growth under many kinds of trees, mostly spruce and cedar trees. Seem to be in groups of 3-4 new sprouts when you see them under a tree.
I did a gallon and a half of base treatment and a gallon of foliar spray at the neighbors today. Covered maybe one acre of thick crap. I have done north of his house before but he supposedly did south of his house. Ya right, that is where I treated today and found 4 females, one 30 feet high and ground covered with new growth. One area about the size of a good size house I had to crawl or fight may way through BT and dead trees to treat it. My arms are all scratched up from prickly ash and sticks.
Hope this link works. It seems to be a pretty good paper on the whole Buckthorn issue. Some guys would like an "Instant Trespass" law passed that automatically allows guys to trespass while looking for an animal. How about an issue that mandates having an active invasives plan for land. Land ownership has responsibilities as well as things that are fun.
Good article, I swear we have at least 3 strains of BT around Rochester MN.
I drove across all of Wisconsin today, I90 to Tomah then 21, 41, 10 across over to Two Rivers. All except the dry sandy area mid state are just filled with BT that you can see and tell while driving at highway speed. Wow, it is bad.
Between yesterday and this morning I treated about 3 acres of the land I own in Manitowoc county. Used 2 gallons of the diesel fuel mix, a lot for just 3 acres. Plus a lot was thick stuff and WET. I may have found the 'mother tree' of all this. A clump that I could barely get my arms around at ground level that had one trunk like 7" in diameter and another about 10" in diameter with 3 other 2-3 inch trunks. They were on the neighbors property and it is dead now. I ran out of Triclophyr or I could have gone through another gallon on the part of that neighboring property that is near mine.
There is also a new invasive on the property, I think it is called Autumn Orange or something like that. The back side of the leaf has an orange tint to the 'spine' that goes up the center of the leaf. I treated the bigger ones of that I found but wanted to save what chemical I had for the buckthorn so I skipped a lot of it for next time.
Cool thing is I stopped to see a neighbor when I got there, while there he got a call that a friend had shot an 8 pointer and tracked it to my land using a tracking dog. Incredible that I was there to say he could go on my land for it. He came in from my side without the dog, walked over to where he gave up the track, found it laying right in the walking trail on my land and finished it off. You can see buckthorn over and to the right of my shoulder in the picture.
Are you just sprayimg straight diesel or is it being used as a carrier for somekind of herbicide?
The diesel is just to carry the active ingredient through the bark. The active ingredient is Triclopyr. Same as Garlon 4. The link is where I buy it. No license needed to buy it or apply it and it can be shipped right to your house. Because the case it is packed in when manufactured is the shipping box this company requires the purchase of a whole case which is 4 gallons, or quarts and I think that case is 6 quarts.
Above I mentioned another invasive and called it Autumn Orange which is incorrect. The real name is Autumn Olive. First I heard of it was this weekend but I guess it is nasty stuff and plentiful in Manitowoc county and there is a fair amount that appeared on my Manitowoc county property over the last 3 years. I treated the bigger stuff using the base treatment method and left the smaller stuff to save time and chemical for now. I will hit the rest next summer with foliar treatment.
I guess Russian Olive is now considered a bad invasive, The soil conservation department in my county in Minnesota included it in wildlife habitat packages that they sold to be planted years ago. Luckily mine never did thrive and I will be killing what is left soon.
Thanks for all the info Jeff.
Well, two days ago I did another neighbors place using the foliar mix, hopefully not too late in the season. I had done basil treatment in that 3 acres before and obviously missed some big females that were hidden in huge junipers. It was shocking, green explosions under the places that there were females. I used 4 gallons of foliar mix to hopefully kill most of it. I know I missed a lot that will need to be redone next year. My goal was to kill the bulk of it so it will make the next treatment easier. Sad part is it might have been too late in the season and I wasted 4 hours. Some was starting to yellow and tops were dropping leafs. The ground level stuff was greener, I suspect the junipers were holding some heat in down low.
Yesterday I went back and did basil treatment on the bigger stuff. It is so thick in there I had to mark each and every juniper with toilet paper to keep track of where I had been. Breaking branches and crawling into them in most places. I used 1.5 gallons and still have a third of the 3 acres left to do.
Can you add a dye to your spray, so you can see what you have sprayed? For the trees the size of your finger, I cut with chain saw and apply chemical to stump, with this dabber I bought (cheap). Saves a lot on chemical. 1 /4 of a cup treats 30 -40 trees.
I can easily do 20 small stems on a quarter of a cup with my ultra low volume sprayer, Those trunks that are 3" in diameter or more gobble up solution. The dye in off road diesel helps to see it, makes the wet part of the trunk look a little wetter, enough to see up close but not from a distance. White dye would be much better. I ran out of off road diesel last week and instead of going to town I siphoned some from my truck, way harder to see without the dye. The infection around here is so bad I don't waste any time cutting stuff down. Just spray and go. Just putting the toilet paper up slowed me way down until the landowner finally came out with me and did the TP part. Too many tools to fiddle with and setting things down to take time cutting. I probably missed a few by not cutting but I need to cover every area every year anyway to keep up with all the seed production around here. The whole county is really really bad, especially our township.
Jeff is right-This is hard work but very satisfying. I enjoy hearing the crackle of buckthorn and honeysuckle (as well as gooseberry, wild plum and prickly ash) as they burn. We are up over 50 big piles to burn this winter-looking forward to it.
What's the name of your sprayer. I just have a cheap plastic Hudson sprayer, uses a lot of chemical and only last for 2 years.
I got the spray wand from the company in the link, after getting there click on ultra low volume wand, 24". Get your wallet out, $180 but worth it. Advantages of this wand besides the ultra low volume are: Long wand so you can reach and get the tip very close to where you want the spray, Valve is at the tip of the wand not at the handle so instant on and no drips so it stops as fast as it starts, screen to catch crap where the hose attaches to the wand. It is amazing how much crap gets into the pump and pushed out right into the tank and eventually out the hose to plug your tip. With the filter never had a plugged tip, just a plugged filter.
For the tank I use a Gilmor 1 gallon tank. I like it because the top screws on like a bottle cap and has a small hole where the plunger rod goes through it. Not the funnel like top that is a magnet for crap getting into the tank. Cut the wand off whatever tank you have and put this spray wand on it. For me the gallon size tank is plenty I worked on buckthorn for 9 hours today and only used 2 gallons across 190 acres of woods.
Just ordered 5 gallons of Garlon 4. Got it from Alligare and they'll ship to my house. There will be a LOT of dead buckthorn, prickly ash, gooseberry, wild plum and honeysuckle. Sure do crackle a lot when we're burning the stuff.
LC, good for you and glad you used my source. Just curious what it came out to per gallon including shipping fees. I had not ordered for over a year and will need to get more before spring. I might just order before the end of year because I sold some oak logs this year and this would be one more deduction against that income.
About 300 bucks for a 2x2.5 gallon case. Been using Alligare for a LOOONG time. Nice service.
What's the latest date you can treat BT?
Bowmania
You can do the trunk treatment year round. Just harder to locate and identify them when the leaves are gone.
If going foliar application, the leafs have to be rich green and supple. This year was awesome for doing that because of the great weather we had in early November.
So best times are spring when BT is leafed out but before other stuff is, or fall when other stuff has lost leaves but BT is still green.
