Killing unwanted trees, hack and squirt method

[Larry Caldwell]

Garlon. All you need is a cut to the sapwood, so I usually use a machete. If the tree is over 18" dbh, make two slashes. It won't work when the sap is rising in the spring, but any other time it works well.

 

[eddie48]

I recall being in an area where a whole lot of mature trees had been ringed to kill them several years before. Now, the trees were starting to rot and fall and the area was definitely unsafe to walk in, much less to try to cut any firewood. You need to remember that the trees you kill will, eventually, be on the ground. I'd rather just cut them for firewood to begin with and not just kill and leave them.

 

[oosik]

Long ago my father and the next door neighbor could not come to an agreement on how the neighbors tree should be pruned. Major limbs hanging over on dad's property. Dad dug down on our side of the fence - found a major root to this tree - cut the end off the root - soaked a rag in a chemical - wrapped it around the cut root and buried the whole thing. It took six months but the tree died and the neighbor had to pay for its removal.

The chemical was Toxaphene. Its a DEADLY poison that has been totally outlawed in the USA for many years. Originally used to control pests in the cotton crops. Before being totally banned, one of its final uses was in the rehabilitation of lakes - elimination of undesirable fish species, so desirable species would survive introduction. It worked well but its deadly attributes never could be overcome. It simply would kill everything - and unfortunately it did kill people.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I recall being in an area where a whole lot of mature trees had been ringed to kill them several years before. Now, the trees were starting to rot and fall and the area was definitely unsafe to walk in, much less to try to cut any firewood. You need to remember that the trees you kill will, eventually, be on the ground. I'd rather just cut them for firewood to begin with and not just kill and leave them.

Slash and squirt is for stand conversion, not parking out an area. You don't care if the trees eventually fall over. If you want to cut firewood, go cut green trees.

 

[kenmac]

Anyone tried it? Basically you just put hatchet cuts in a tree and squirt a herbicide into the cut and die off should occur over time. If you have experience, what herbicide did you use, and did you get good results?

I haven't used a hatchet . I used a drill and 5/8 bit to drill several holes into the trees. Put in my 41% glyphosate over several days. Within a week the trees died.

 

[mcfarmall]

I've used this method on Tree of Heaven, Boxelder, Mulberry, Oak, and Autumn Olive. My experience has been that the method is most effective, at least in my region, when performed in mid October when the sap is flowing back to the root system. The Mulberry is the hardest to kill, with Autumn Olive and Boxelder#2, Tree of Heaven #3 and Oak #1 (easiest). Spring treatment in my experience has been marginally effective. The Boxelders treated in the spring after fully leafed out turned brown within a week or two but some tried to leaf out again with tiny leaves all over the branches and sucker sprouts near the stump.

I use a cheapo hatchet that I ground down to a narrow width the same as the hammer end of the hatchet, I've also used the tip of the chainsaw to make shallow cuts every 4" around the circumference of the tree. It's important not to make a complete circle girdling cut or the tree will go in to emergency survival mode and send up sprouts everywhere.

Surveyors tape is a easy way to mark the treated trees for later evaluation and cutting after they die. When I get around to cutting the tree, I spray the cambium/sapwood area of the stump IMMEDIATELY with glyphosate & 2,4,D cocktail after felling the tree as an insurance policy.

Piling the brush from the tree onto the stump and burning the following spring really helps to eliminate sprouting as well. Use a hard rake to keep pushing the coals up around the stump.

My wood cutting projects are all done between October 1 and May 1. I hate cutting green leafy trees. The brush is too heavy and the outdoor temperature is too high.

 

[/pine]

"TREE KILLER" E-Z-JECT LANCE - farm & garden - by owner - sale

 

[TnAndy]

As a teen in the 60's, I worked for the Forest Service one summer on a crew where we went in behind loggers and did the slash/squirt method on all the stuff they left standing (to clear cut). We used 2,4, 5T (Agent Orange) by the 55gal drum loads poured into a hand held tube with a sharp blade on the end and a lanyard to release the chemical into the cut ring.

Funny, my buddy gets a VA check for Agent Orange because he was in Vietnam (and never saw any), and we practically bathed in the stuff here at home about the same time period.

 

[kidr]

Try tordon. Slash with hatchet apply to wound. I slash a few times= dead tree.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

I have done a fair amount of investigation into this process. Conventional wisdom today seems to be that there are 3 herbicides that are most effective; Garlon, generic name triclopyr; Arsenal, generic name imazapyr; and Round Up, generic name glyphosate. I tried glyphosate in the recommended 50/50 solution about a week ago. I tried glyphosate first because of it's low price and easy availability. I always have some around. If it works good I'll probably stick with it. I might experiment with triclopyr and/or imazapyr later on, but from a cost standpoint glyphosate is the easiest on the wallet.