Saplings and brush around pond banks. Suggestions?

Hay Dude · May 22, 2021

just for the record, I don’t think anyone here is suggesting spraying the water with roundup. Lol
I think we’re suggesting cutting small trees, like the OP has, and spot swabbing the fresh cuts with herbicides safe for use near water

the old grind · May 22, 2021

I've been maintaining ~1000 ft of shoreline to keep willow, aspen, olive, and honeysuckle at bay. Another 600ft (at peak) or so had been overrun with reed-grass (yeah). Glypho is among the least hazardous herbicides to use near water. When I spray shoreline reeds I do so from the water (14' rowboat, MinKota) with 5 gal or so in a 15gal pull behind sprayer and wand so that over-spray can go upshore vs into the water as much.

I paint ALL cuts with 2-4D and or Glypho. Just took down half a dozen 3"-6" poplars from the island before ice out. There were several stumps I'd cut years ago that had re-sprouted, I cut 'em off again below the sprouts and painted them too. Willow will be the toughest to pull and I recommend grappling or cut and spray. btw, this guy is a pet tool when clearing an area, esp if cutting brush with a lot of small stumps. Works good to wipe on leaves (vs spraying) in tight quarters what isn't easily pulled.

oosik · May 23, 2021

I have a Stihl F350 with handlebars. It's one of Stihl's larger weed whackers. I've got many different "heads" for it. One has three, free swinging nylon blades. I took a brand new nylon blade to the local weld shop. They made me two sets( six blades ) of high carbon steel blades. Set up this way, it quite easily cuts thru my pine trees - up to around 2". Anything bigger, up to 6", I use my chain saw.

That's the easy part. Then - drag all the fallen trees to piles, hook up my Wallenstein, come back and chip all the piles.

I did this every year in the past. Now I do it every other year. This old bod is showing some age.

mikester · May 23, 2021

Hay Dude said:
just for the record, I don’t think anyone here is suggesting spraying the water with roundup. Lol
I think we’re suggesting cutting small trees, like the OP has, and spot swabbing the fresh cuts with herbicides safe for use near water

40 years ago had a neighbor with a country lot to visit on weekends with a nice big pond. He kept it stocked with copper sulphate. Water was beautiful blue green clear right to the bottom, no plants or algae. He bragged the water was so clean he bottled it and took it home to drink. Died of cancer.

40 years later the pond is style crystal clear!

CoyPatton · May 23, 2021

Hay Dude said:
Weed wacker with a saw blade to open them up followed up by a strong dose of Roundup on the stumps.
We are doing remediation of retention/detention basins and working with a local conservancy to remediate phragmites.

Round up works best with the green leafy parts are present to absorb the liquid.
There are chemicals designed for stumps. Look for a label that has stump killer on it.
Realize that regardless of the chemical, if you buy at the box store, it is only about 1/4 or less the strength of the professional grade stuff. Also realize that you do not have to get the certs to purchase.
It will require some work, but cut the stumps well below ground/water level, most plants will not grow without sunlight.

John_Mc · May 23, 2021

CoyPatton said:
Round up works best with the green leafy parts are present to absorb the liquid.
There are chemicals designed for stumps. Look for a label that has stump killer on it.
Realize that regardless of the chemical, if you buy at the box store, it is only about 1/4 or less the strength of the professional grade stuff. Also realize that you do not have to get the certs to purchase.
It will require some work, but cut the stumps well below ground/water level, most plants will not grow without sunlight.

One of the label's approved uses for RoundUp is cut stump applications. You just need a high enough concentration - I typically use 25% or more glyphosate when doing cut stump treatments on Buckthorn on my property with good results.

Around here, the hardware stores "concentrated" RoundUp is only about 18%. We can usually get either 41% or 50% concentration at Home Depot or a farm supply store like Tractor Supply or Agway. (Glyphosate is about the only herbicide a landowner can legally buy and apply here in Vermont without a license.)

the old grind · May 23, 2021

Hay Dude mentioned phragmites a pernicious and tough to kill rhizome. (AKA common reed) When spraying it timing the application is critical. We do so in early fall as the days get shorter. Here that's early to mid September vs any later in the year. Glypho is the go to, and with a surfactant lest droplets bead up and roll off the leaves. It's really the only shoreline infestation I spray vs grapple out to be thorough.

EddieWalker · May 23, 2021

I mow as close as I can to the waters edge with my 6ft rotary cutter and 35hp 4x4 tractor. A couple times a year I will get stuck and have to pull myself out with my backhoe. When I'm smart, I wait until the middle of summer to mow real close to the water, when the ground is hard enough to support me and the water level has dropped a foot or so.

In areas that have gotten away from me, or that I just didn't feel safe mowing sideways to the water, I will back down to the waters edge to cut everything down, then pull forward and then go backwards down to the water again just a little over to the side. This is slow and kind of awkward because of how much I have to twist in my seat to see where the mower is, and then working the clutch to go forward again.

This is very effective and I usually only do it once a year, in a few spots.

homesteader13 · May 23, 2021

I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned the solution that I finally came up with.
After years of clearing with loppers and chainsaws, not only around the pond, but along our drives and private roads, only to have them grow back twice as fas and bushier, I went and got myself a tree puller.
It will grab up to 10 inch diameter, although it may not necessarily uproot a tree of that diameter depending on the root structure. Just finished clearing my pond, one-and-done should not have to touch it for a few more years. And I have it attached to my loader on my tractor not a skid steer and have my backhoe on the back of the tractor as counterbalance. Works AMAZING!