Clearing land and killing stumps

[MIKE IN lINO III]

I'm in the second year of thinning my woods. I've cut down about a billion pencil thin ash trees and I am starting to cut down another million baseball bat size ash trees. I noticed that the stumps are sprouting up and I would like to kill them.

The woods is about 3.5 acres and all work is being done by hand and chainsaw.

What is the best way to permantly get rid of the stump?

Spray chemicals on them? I don't want to kill the other underbrush, mainly ferns.

Does burning them with a torch work?

Mike

[Tom7227]

I was at a seminar at Pheasant Fest in Madison and they had a number of talks about controlling this sort of stuff. The process they talked about involved spraying the trees with chemicals and there was a list of them that had various properties. Some of the chemicals could be sprayed on the tree trunk and that would kill the tree - I think that was for trees bigger than 3 or 4 inches. Some of it could be put on the stumps and that would kill the roots. The smaller stuff you either sprayed with a roundup type chemical or just kept on mowing it down until the roots were so worn out that they couldn't generate any more.

Garlon, Transline and glyophosphate were ones listed. Maybe you could get some good advice from the U of M extension service. I know they have a detailed list of what to do with buckthorn. The issue with the chemicals seemed to get awfully complicated knowing which to use, how strong and when to apply.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[leechmann]

Mike I know this isn't what you asked, but I would hire someone with a cat. They have these buckets with metal mutiple forks sticking out that they can run 4 or 5 inches down in the dirt and it rips out all the roots. Leaves the top soil in place and really does a nice job. It costs a little more, but the job is over quickly and you don't have to pour chemicals all over your new land.

Good luck

[titelines]

I would second leechmann's response.

We looked into chemicals when we cleared our building site, but in the end we had the guy come out with the back-hoe. He charged us $80/hour, but only took 4 hours to take out over 300 stumps.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Thanks guys,

It's a little more complicated than just clearing the land.

A little back ground.

This is an 8 acre parcel that has 108' of lake shore. 2/3's of the land is open hayfield and is classified as a wetland. The other 1/3 is the woods that goes from the hayfield to the shoreline and is also classified as F5 wetland. So, bringing in a backhoe or bobcat is out of the question. I've had this land for 4 or 5 years and I am painfully aware of what I can and cannot do to it. It took me a year to get approval to build a driveway from the dirt road, across the open field to my cabin location.

Keep the ideas coming.

Mike

[tedl]

There are chemicals that you can use in wet lands. But you need to be a licensed applicator. You could call some tree services and they may be able to do it for you.

A tree service I used to work for made everyone get a license.

[kobear]

If you don't want to disturb the existing ground cover.

If you are cutting them down:

Mix Roundup at 10:1 (contact solution on the label) and paint onto FRESHLY cut stumps. Best in fall. Garlon 4 is better but expensive.

If just treating standing trees/brush:

Garlon 3 painted or sprayed onto the lower trunk will absorb and kill even in winter.

Often cutting or shearing alone will make the roots resprout everywhere. For Poplars it's best to girdle the tree and leave standing they will die in two years and kill the root also.

[Juneau4]

Time and an ax, split and cut or a hatchet all stumps will die. IT's either doing that or use chemicals that will kill stumps.

[delcecchi]

Roundup can be applied with a brush or sprayer to the cut surface. It degrades in a week or two, leaving no residue.

[Powerstroke]

Are the ones you are most concerned about the bigger ones or the little ones?

For the little ones, I would say your most effective choice would be to pull them, roots and all. No sprouts, no roots, no chemicals.

Bigger ones can be pulled too but they would require a lever like tool called a weed wrench or similar product. You can google that. That will pull them up by the roots. I've used these several times for removing buckthorn where sites were sensitive or chemicals would not be recommended.

You can continue to mow the sprouts as they come up and they will eventually die, but it may take a few years.

Chemicals will be the easiest, but most risky for further damage. A homeowner can purchase non-restricted pesticides for personal use. This would include products like Round-up and BrushBGone. They are non-selective, which means they will kill everything they touch. Both of these will work well for your project. Mix them at the recommended rates. It does not need much. Put it in a small spray bottle or a sprayer with a small squirt tip. The best method would be to put a piece of cloth or sponge on the spray tip so that it doesn't drip or spray other plants in the area. Dab or spray the stumps right after cutting.

On larger stumps you only need to wet the outer ring of the stump. That is the only part of a tree that is alive. All the wood in the middle of a tree is dead wood and wetting it would be wasting chemical. Smaller stumps its hard to not get the whole stump, but when ever possible only hit the outer ring of the stump.

Our crews would use this method on buckthorn and rarely used a gallon a day. It goes a long way and is very effective. Be very careful about spills and exposure to plants you want to keep. Don't spray trees you want to save, even if you're just cutting sprouts on a bigger tree, they are connected and you will harm the larger tree.

[FISHINGFARMER]

A product we have used for killing fence line trees and trees that are germinated wild around buildings is a product called Tordon. It contains the chemical Picloram in it.

Very simple to use and very effective in killing unwanted tree's. Simply ax a scrib mark in the trunk and apply to the area or cut entire tree down and apply to stump. Very little of this product is needed. We wait till fall to do this to trees as the killing rate will be higher when trees are taking in more sugars and starches for winter,thus going into the root system.

Dow Chemical company makes the product and is sold in farm stores under the trade names of Tordon and Grazon. No restricted chemical application license is needed to purchase the product.

Farmer

[WaveWacker]

Cut and chemical treat stumps with herbicides listed above in the fall is the best. Open "hayfield" that is considered wetland sounds like a type 2 wetland. Wooded area if considered wetland would be a type 6 or 7 or a bog type 8 (which it doesn't sound like it is that). So are you saying that driveway/cabin spot is being planned on what has been delineated out as wetland?

One way or the other, according to state law (Wetland Conservation Act) barring any other local ordinances, if the wetland areas are dry at some point in the year that equipment can cross it without "rutting" things up (this is the best way to describe what may be constituted an impact) you can cross wetland areas with equipment and removal of veg. is not regulated. What area of the state are you in?

Still with that said the cutting and chemically treating is a cheaper option.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Wave,

You are correct, the woods is a class 7 wetland.

The open field were we did put a road in and were I was able to get a the cabin in was classified as 2.

I'm north of Grand Rapids.

Mike

[Powerstroke]

I would say that using equipment to clear the land would be easier, but if there are desirable trees that you want to save, then it wouldn't be advised to disturb the roots of plants you plan on keeping. Creating a building site will be more than enough stress for trees you plan on keeping.

[hayseed]

A product we have used for killing fence line trees and trees that are germinated wild around buildings is a product called Tordon. It contains the chemical Picloram in it.

Very simple to use and very effective in killing unwanted tree's. Simply ax a scrib mark in the trunk and apply to the area or cut entire tree down and apply to stump. Very little of this product is needed. We wait till fall to do this to trees as the killing rate will be higher when trees are taking in more sugars and starches for winter,thus going into the root system.

Dow Chemical company makes the product and is sold in farm stores under the trade names of Tordon and Grazon. No restricted chemical application license is needed to purchase the product.

Farmer

I would highly recommend using something besides any picloram product if your near water or in porous soils. Tordon is a restricted use product and picloram has an extremely long half-life. Over a year. It also tranlocates readily through root systems to species you may not want to destroy. Glyphosate (Roundup) has no residual activity, but is non-selective, if it contacts, it damages. Best I've found for Ash control and most other species , is triclopyr (Garlon) either basal treatment or cut stump just before or after leaf drop. Good luck.

[icehousebob]

I run a small tree service in the western suburbs and have killed thousands of Buckthorn. On the small stuff, I pull them with one of my weed wrenches. The bigger stuff gets cut and the stumps sprayed with one of the sprays containing Triclopyr. The two that I buy are Ortho Brush-Be-Gon or the new one made by the Bayer corp.I buy the jugs rather than the aresol cans, because the aresols have less than 1% active ingredient. I use it full strength instead of diluting, but only spray a bit directly on the stump. I like to use it in a one pint plastic spray bottle. I mix in some bright colored food coloring so I can see which stumps have already been sprayed. Sprayed sparingly, one quart can be used to kill several hundred Buckthorns.

[goblueM]

I second the triclopyr/ Garlon. If you can manage to get your hands on some Garlon 4 or Garlon 4 Ultra, do it! Mix 1 part Garlon to 4 parts of an oil base like Diluent Blue and you're good to go

[HawgMan]

Hey Mike,

Sounds like a family weekend of help may be in order! We should pick a weekend when it dries up a little & have at it. If yur headed up north for Easter, we'll get'er planned & pick a date.

Oh by the way, we'll bring the solids, you supply the liquids!! LOL

Take Care