Clearing Huisache and Mesquite

[texasjohn]

CTW, I know right where you are I've got relatives in both the Corpus and Victoria area.

As you doubtless know, people have been root plowing and chaining and bulldozing mesquite down there since the late 50's... if it was easy, the thickets would have been removed by now.

Your county agent will be your best source of info.... and, even if you do go the mechanical approach, be prepared to continue the fight for at least another 5 years... plan for it now... this is not a one time thing....No technique will be 100%.. and that is your aim...100% removal..else infestation will reoccur... just drive around...notice the various heights of the mesquite in your neighbor's pastures... then ask them how long it has been since they sought to controll mesquite. Moral...it comes back ifyou don't follow up aggressively for numerous years. Also, what is your pear situation? Typically, mechanical removal of mesquite tears up lots of pear and allows it to spread really fast... causing another pernicious problem.

There are various solutions/mixes for reclaim... I have had good success with a mix that includes small amounts of reclaim, some diesel, surficant, and water...I mixed it in a 300 gallon tank... with 5 gallons of diesel as I recall. timing is significant....as I recall, best is about 70 days after bud break when the leaves are recharging the roots. The chemical moves fromthe leaves directly to the supporting root system and kills it.

Yes, reclaim is expensive....but it is amazingly specific to mesquite.... I sprayed a mesquite bush intertwined with a small oak tree and there was a native vine also in the mix. The mesquite died andthe vine and oak didn't even lose one leaf. You spray exactly the offending tree.

Remedy is another herbicide that I have had very good luck with... it is a basal spray for small plants.

One significant point is that if you spray plants while they are small, then the cost of control is reduced. Let them grow, and your removal cost grows even faster.

PM me if you want further details, etc.

 

[wushaw]

The nut or the section just below ground level is the portion of the Mesquite needs to be removed to kill the tree. The roots themselves just die off.

I have dug up so many mesquite stumps I have taken notice as to what happens if you don't get that nut section of the tree.

Honey Locus roots will provide minimun of two years of new plant growth if not kept in check with herbicide.

I feel for you if you have prickley pear to deal with also. Whatever you do.....Don't mow it. It will spread like the pleague.

Prickley pear has to be removed mechanically root and all or expensive Liscense only herbicide applied.

 

[CTW]

Wushaw, it's interesting that you said mesquite has a nut that needs to be removed, that's sort of like poison ivy. Good info. I don't really have any cactus, most of that has been eaten by the cows over the years, we burned off the needles.

Texas John, I contacted the County Agent yesterday for his help and I think he'll be a good resource through this process. We gotta give those A&M guys something to do! Our place has been spared for now with what promises to be a big nightmare for many, the Trans-Texas Corridor/I-69. Initial plans had this foreign toll road plowing right through our place but plans changed and they decided to go further east through Refugio County where we have another place. I guess I saw this as a new lease on life for this property and decided to fix it up and return it to pasture land like it should be.

CTW

 

[mikim]

"foreign toll road" ain't it amazing? I never talk to anyone who's in favor of building this system ....at least in the way it's being done .... but our ricktator seems completely oblivious to what the people want ... and is going ahead with it. I'm sorry - but I gotta believe it's all about his bank account balance. Good luck with your mesquite ... I have more prickly pear than mesquite but seems we all deal with one, the other, or both.

 

[texasjohn]

CTW... I understand re the toll road... also, keep an eye on your water underground... as doubtless you know, there are those who think they need it more than you do... and are working to suck you dry. I love this site... particularly the ability to see either a map, satellite photo, USGS map, etc. of the area:

Berclair, Texas TX Community Profile: City Data, Resources, Maps

Nice houses in Berclair:

Berclair Mansion - Berclair, Texas

I assume you know of the book: Tales from the San'tone River Bottom. It has stories from the Berclair area. I did the layout/design for it.

Wushaw has explained why you see so many sprangley mesquite trees.... A&M uses the fancy name "multi trunked". The point is, the roots have buds for some distance down the roots underground... I think it is maybe 1 foot or so... and even if you take the top of the tree away, unless you get EVERY one of the roots that have this bud potential, then you will get regrowth.

Suggest you talk to your County Agent about using a controlled burn as part of your pasture rennovation tools... can be very effective properly implemented.

For those who believe that all you have to do is to keep shredding and eventually the roots will die.... just look along the roads of Texas in the early fall...you will see healthy mesquite shoots coming up where shredding has been done... oh...maybe 40 years or so continuously

 

[kossetx]

If you google texas a&m brushbusters you will find lots of info. From experiance, for very large trees get a dozer/root rake. For med/large trees the remedy/diesel cut stump trick works well. It will give you a 90% kill rate with a 15% ratio. A&M has been backing off the mix ratio as years go by. For small bushes, lets say smaller than 2 feet, I like the remedy/reclaim folier spray. If you think remedy is expensive wait till you buy reclaim. It is 2X as much. But a gal of each will make 300 gal of mix which came out to only slightly more than 1.00/gal last time I bought it 2 years ago. The exact measurement is 2oz of each per 3 gals, along with the highly important blue dye and a sufficant.

Now the bad news. Mesquite beans can lie dormant for 50+ years before germinating. The key to the program is maintenance. I patrol my pasture in may/june constantly. Every year I kill 2000-3000 new growth trees on only a 40 ac pasture. I actually count and record the daily numbers. While they're small, 2 gal of rem/rec will do anywhere from 300-400 new growths so it actually isn't too costly. The initial clearing can be costly though.

If you need any more help let me know.

 

[texasjohn]

Kossetx tells it like it is.

I'm hearing that you should purchase your chemicals immediately. Apparently the Olympics are being held in the heart of China's chemical industry... where pollution (along with jobs) has been exported in extreme degree. Wanting to make a good impression and reduce air pollution during the olympucs, they are shutting down their chemical industry in the area until after the olympics.... thus prices are rising EXTREMELY fast... so says a neighbor who has recently purchased some chemicals.

 

[wushaw]

Yea TexasJohn I also belive the mowing theory is BS also. It just keeps it short.

 

[kossetx]

I need to revise my numbers/gal rate. Yesterday I sprayed 405 small to medium plants with 6 gallons of spray. Seems like I used to get more. I need to look it up as I do keep track of the numbers. The trees were all 2' or less. This is my 3rd year of maintenance spraying and I'll probably spray far less than 2000 trees.

If you use the BB remedy/reclaim mix do not spray it on desirable oaks. I regularly kill oaks and winged elm with this mix. I think TXJohn was using only reclaim in his mix.

 

[texasjohn]

Agreed, only RECLAIM... never used the chemical combination because I was only interested in killing mesquite. Reclaim is very, very mesquite specific, did not hurt grass or any other growing thing where I applied it.


Kossetex has the mixture... it's about what I recall.. Yep, blue dye so you can see where you have been (after a while, one bush looks just like the others), surficant, diesel, water, herbicide.