New Pasture Saplings

[DB1200]

Hello all, Me and my wife bought our place about six years ago. There was about five acres that had been clear cut by the previous owner. He let it grow up and by the time we got it, it had grown up a lot. We hired a forestry mulcher to come in and clean it up. In the process of harrowing it and getting it ready to seed. My question is there are so many maple and gum saplings that just keep on coming back. I brushhog them as low as I can and just keep cutting them but they always come back and then some. What is the best way to take care of them?

 

[jaxs]

2-4-D,2-4-5T,Roundup or other brush killer PROPERLY and Carfully applied.
#1 Most things will be killed,including the neighbors tomatoes if wind blows it over there.
#2 Timing is important for best results. Early growing season when growth is vigorous and there's moisture in the ground and no rain predicted within 24 hours. Do not get overanchous with brush hogging after spraying but if spots of green reappear after a month,brush hog and watch for new leaves. If new leaves appear,let them grow a week or so before retreatment.

3/4/5 and 6 Read the label,ALL THE LABEL before use.

 

[zzvyb6]

I bought a tree puller. Roots and all the rest. Use it to clear the field, then sell it for what you paid, sort of like a Case 580 backhoe that leaks oil, starts hard, and needs tires. Only may need it for a month. Then sell it.

 

[DJ54]

You'll probably laugh, but if it's fenced off, and fence is pretty decent get 3-4 goats. They love to eat on things like that, to include poison ivy, briars, and any broad leaf plants other livestock won't eat. Environmentally friendly, no chemicals, and fertilize you pasture at the same time. Amish do it all the time to clear entire overgrown farms.

I had 4 at one time for the same reason. They cleaned up a good sized patch of poison ivy, multiflora rose, and a lot of broadleaf plants the horses don't eat. Ples ate along underneath the fence making trimming around the fence a lot easier. They eat off new water sprouts as soon as they appear, eventually killing them. Many the first year here, during the summer dry spell. A lone Dog Wood tree was the only unintentional casualty. Apparently, they love the taste of the bark and girthed it, killing it.

 

[Hay Dude]

Good old fashioned hard work. Pull them out. Avoid the chemicals if you can. While you pull out what is there, fertilize the grasses to out-compete what you don’t want.
Poultry litter, composted leaves, etc.
Use money to hire local help to pull them out instead of chemicals. Once you get them cleared, use a no-till drill and rill in some grasses that flourish in your area. Might be endophyte free fescue, reeds canary grass, brome…

Where you live will determine best grass.

 

[lman]

It kind of depends on what you want all 5 acres to look like. If you think that you won't need to mow again if you get rid of the sapling stumps, you're mistaken. If you want it to look like your front yard, you might as well do what Dude said. Other brush and saplings will find a way to start growing if given a chance. I don't know where you're at, but around here, I would mow it about 4 or 5 times in the summer with the bush hog.

 

[DB1200]

Thanks for the help. I think the main problem is that when the where mulched up the stumps where taken down to ground level and wherever there was a stump I get stands of sapling trees. I could try pulling them but would have to pull the stumps which is out of the question. I might try spot treating with some brush killer after I have cut them off and see if that decreases them. I'm just looking to make it usable pasture land. The land for many years will never be good for hay production. Just wanting to use it as another place to put cows to give my other pastures a rest.

 

[Eagle1]

I run Irish Dexters and they are almost as effective on that stuff as goats. Recently my bull has taken a dislike to small cedar saplings and is shredding them every chance he gets, I welcome the help. Almost anything within their reach is eaten, including multiflora rose. The do draw the line on PawPaw and are not at all fond of clover. They are carving more pasture out of thick forest every year.

 

[ovrszd]

2-4-D,2-4-5T,Roundup or other brush killer PROPERLY and Carfully applied.
#1 Most things will be killed,including the neighbors tomatoes if wind blows it over there.
#2 Timing is important for best results. Early growing season when growth is vigorous and there's moisture in the ground and no rain predicted within 24 hours. Do not get overanchous with brush hogging after spraying but if spots of green reappear after a month,brush hog and watch for new leaves. If new leaves appear,let them grow a week or so before retreatment.

3/4/5 and 6 Read the label,ALL THE LABEL before use.

I am also a chemical guy. Fortunately I have a good friend that is in charge of the chemical applications on a 25,000 acre row crop operation. He's my go-to guy.

He recommended "Remedy" to me for brush control. Last year I sprayed 15 acres of CRP that had some problems. It killed the woody plants with no damage to others.

Roundup is primarily a "grass" killer.

2-4-D is primarily a "broad leaf" killer.

Remedy is primarily a "brush" killer.

Combine all three and you leave the ground bare. I use that combination when spraying the influent/effluent ends of road culverts.

 

[ovrszd]

Thanks for the help. I think the main problem is that when the where mulched up the stumps where taken down to ground level and wherever there was a stump I get stands of sapling trees. I could try pulling them but would have to pull the stumps which is out of the question. I might try spot treating with some brush killer after I have cut them off and see if that decreases them. I'm just looking to make it usable pasture land. The land for many years will never be good for hay production. Just wanting to use it as another place to put cows to give my other pastures a rest.

Invasive trees thrive on man's attack. Pulling the tree or mulching the stumps simply aggravate the root system and it flourishes because it no longer has to feed a standing tree. Honey Locust are a good example of this. They go crazy!!!

Treating the stumps after cutting is a solution. For a multitude of small trees scattered over 5 acres will require a LOT of time. And the treatment needs to applied the moment you cut the tree. For small trees, 3-4 inches in diameter, I've drilled a 3/8" hole into the base of the standing trunk and squirt it full of chemical. Let the live tree suck the chemical down into the root system and kill it.

I'm absolutely not a fan of a tree shear. All they do is create a disaster. Especially if clearing 4-8" trees. Cedar stumps will last a decade or more before they finally rot away.

For spraying chemicals on a standing tree, "Remedy" works the best for me. You can gain some effectiveness if you mix in some 2-4-D. And that mixture won't kill your grasses. Some people recommend mixing with Diesel Fuel but that tries to kill everything it contacts. I also discovered from my friend last year that Remedy will kill lespedeza.

For stump treatment I use Tordon RTU. I also have some pelleted Tordon but rarely use it. Excuse my faded Tordon bottle, it rode in the chain box most of last Summer.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thanks for the help. I think the main problem is that when the where mulched up the stumps where taken down to ground level and wherever there was a stump I get stands of sapling trees. I could try pulling them but would have to pull the stumps which is out of the question. I might try spot treating with some brush killer after I have cut them off and see if that decreases them. I'm just looking to make it usable pasture land. The land for many years will never be good for hay production. Just wanting to use it as another place to put cows to give my other pastures a rest.

OK, I thought you were talking a field of baby saplings. You are talking “suckers”.

Grind out the stumps with a stump grinder.

I’m real familiar with controlling Bradford/Callery Pear & Sweet Gum infestations. Here’s 40 acres of it I mowed last fall. Going to mow it again soon as ground freezes.

 

[AlbertC]

Invasive trees thrive on man's attack. Pulling the tree or mulching the stumps simply aggravate the root system and it flourishes because it no longer has to feed a standing tree. Honey Locust are a good example of this. They go crazy!!!

Treating the stumps after cutting is a solution. For a multitude of small trees scattered over 5 acres will require a LOT of time. And the treatment needs to applied the moment you cut the tree. For small trees, 3-4 inches in diameter, I've drilled a 3/8" hole into the base of the standing trunk and squirt it full of chemical. Let the live tree suck the chemical down into the root system and kill it.

I'm absolutely not a fan of a tree shear. All they do is create a disaster. Especially if clearing 4-8" trees. Cedar stumps will last a decade or more before they finally rot away.

For spraying chemicals on a standing tree, "Remedy" works the best for me. You can gain some effectiveness if you mix in some 2-4-D. And that mixture won't kill your grasses. Some people recommend mixing with Diesel Fuel but that tries to kill everything it contacts. I also discovered from my friend last year that Remedy will kill lespedeza.

For stump treatment I use Tordon RTU. I also have some pelleted Tordon but rarely use it. Excuse my faded Tordon bottle, it rode in the chain box most of last Summer.



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I have lespedzamin my centipede grass. Can you tell us how to mix the remedy to get rid of the lespedza. Do you know if it will Hurt the centipede?

thanks

 

[ovrszd]

OK, I thought you were talking a field of baby saplings. You are talking “suckers”.

Grind out the stumps with a stump grinder.

With Honey Locust, the "suckers" will come from roots 20 feet from where the root ball was.

 

[ovrszd]

I have lespedzamin my centipede grass. Can you tell us how to mix the remedy to get rid of the lespedza. Do you know if it will Hurt the centipede?

thanks

I cannot answer the question regarding centipede. I am not familiar with that plant. Next time I see my friend I'll ask him.

I use 4 oz p/gallon mix rate when using a hand sprayer for intermittent brush. I used a boom sprayer when doing my 15 acres at 3 oz p/gallon. It don't take as much as you might think. When using the boom sprayer you couldn't see any contact on the leaves. Took about 2 weeks to kill it. Different varieties had different lag times for kill.

My experiences with Remedy have been that it has no effect on plants that are not considered "woody" plants. You might research your centipede in that regard. Or stop by your local chemical dealer and ask. You'll be there to buy the chemicals anyway.

Let us know your results.

 

[ovrszd]

Hello all, Me and my wife bought our place about six years ago. There was about five acres that had been clear cut by the previous owner. He let it grow up and by the time we got it, it had grown up a lot. We hired a forestry mulcher to come in and clean it up. In the process of harrowing it and getting it ready to seed. My question is there are so many maple and gum saplings that just keep on coming back. I brushhog them as low as I can and just keep cutting them but they always come back and then some. What is the best way to take care of them?

Going back to your original post.

I've also found that a slow burning fire kills the crap out of saplings. I'm talking trees or woody plants 18" tall or less. Especially Eastern Red Cedar, which is a very hard tree to kill.

 

[3gunr]

Ovrszd has it right, Before i started using tordon the honey locust would sprout like crazy and i have lots of them and red cedar, I have found i can push the red cedar over and they will break off at the bottom. I have been able to pop the root out pretty easily on smaller ones , Not so with the locust or osage they have very long root systems.

 

[big bubba]

w/only 5 acres, mow multiple times during growing season. i don't like the chemical approach, esp give small acreage & you don't make a living off it.

 

[Hay Dude]

w/only 5 acres, mow multiple times during growing season. i don't like the chemical approach, esp give small acreage & you don't make a living off it.

Agree. We have been trained to use carcinogenic chemicals as first lines of defense instead of other methods first.
I have 5 or 6 small fields basically created out of overgrown trash, now producing hay. Had stumps, suckers, hemp dogbane, small cedars & lots of sweet gum.
Didn’t use chemicals. Used a mower, a disc on a few, a landscape rake and seed. They look like lawns now.

Made hay off this hilltop field 4 months after this picture was taken. It was scrub brush, autumn olive, blackberry stickers, hemp dogbane and other junk. It could just as easily been grazing land like the OP wants.

Here’s another I cleared about 10 years ago. Didn’t use any chemicals on this one, either. I cut this in the fall and by the following June it was producing abundant hay.

Here’s a field of saplings cut in October of 2015

Here’s same field this summer making hay

 

[ovrszd]

w/only 5 acres, mow multiple times during growing season. i don't like the chemical approach, esp give small acreage & you don't make a living off it.

Multiple mowings will not kill saplings. Some species actually thrive on it. Mowing will control tall growth but that's about all.

 

[EddieWalker]

Not knowing where you are at, this might help or be totally worthless. I live on 68 acres in the Piney Woods of East Texas where the trees are worse then weeds. 200 years ago there where forest fires and the old trees choked out the small trees, but when people settled here, they cleared the land, then abandoned the land, and the land comes back super SUPER thick with trees growing inches apart. Pines, sweet gums and oaks will take over a cleared area in just a year. In two years, they are ten feet tall and impossible to walk through.

I've found that constant mowing eventually works. I like to clear an area with my backhoe by digging out the tree with the rootball attached. Then fill in the hole and compact it. The native Bahia and Coastal Bermuda grass will start to grow almost as soon as it rains in the Spring and Summer. It's very rare that I need to spread grass. Other weeds will mix in with the grass, but if I keep it mowed, the weeds become fewer and fewer. For some weeds, I've sprayed 2,4-D with good results. It's controlled, so you have to buy it by the quart to get it over the counter in my area.

For years, I mowed with a 37hp tractor and 6 foot rotary cutter. It got the job done, but I was never able to mow all of my land in a single year. I focused on the areas I felt where the most important, but I was in a losing battle in other areas. Last year I bought a 70hp tractor and 12 foot batwing. This has allowed me to mow my entire place 3 times last year. The difference is significant. Mowing several times has had a huge impact on what comes back. I'm still nowhere near where I want to be, but for the first time since owning my land, I can see it really getting where I want it!!!

I'm in the process of buying 40 acres in the Mabank area. It's totally different there. More open, much flatter, different soil, and tons of Mesquite. The coastal Bermuda is very impressive, but there are so many Mesquite trees there that it's impossible to hay it. I have to remove thousands of them, but since it's such a big project, and 62 miles away, I'll start in one area and work my way out. My plan is to spray the trunks with Remedy mixed with diesel. That seems to be the most common method at killing the Mesquite down to the root system. Then I will mow the saplings after they have died, and dig out the bigger trees with my backhoe. This will be a multi year, never ending project, but one that I'll start getting hay from as soon as I can, and then work on expanding the size of the hayfield until I'm haying all that I can off of the 40 acres.

Chemicals are expensive and require years of application. First year will give you measurable results, but from what I'm told, it takes five years, spraying in the Spring and again in the Fall, to get to the point that you don't have to keep spraying chemicals anymore.

I now look at hayfields differently. It's amazing how much work it took to create and maintain them!!!!