Buckthorn - Is it a problem in your area...

timmysaint

timmysaint

New member
Location
Ontario
Hi Fellas,

Just sussing this out, for the US. I'm in Canada- anyway, so a couple years ago I was doing some work and noticed this Buckthorn plant interaction. So, I went and isolated a chemical (plant-based) and then tested it both in the Lab and (finally) in the field, once we stabilized it and were able to get it to work through the sprayer (it was a bit of a pain, until we got the formulation down, because it is low solubility in water.

Right, so, I patented the chemical as a herbicide (with the USPTO and Canada), and my wife and I worked nights at the University (kids in tow, in a friggin' Crop Science lab....) to develop a synthetic method (I was a chemist as an undergrad) and blah, blah, blah which allows us to produce it pretty cheap (about 20.00 per KG AI). We are hoping to have the EPA/PMRA Registration fairly soon (18 months). So, this chemical herbicide is controlling Buckthorn (specifically) with 100% control at about .5% concentration or about a kilo per Hectare. We;ve tested it as Cut-Stump (better than Garlon), as a foliar on <2 year seedlings (100% control) and as a pre-emergent (also, 100% control). It is selective- so it doesn't affect Native Plants.

It's cool stuff. Fully-funded by getting down trees.

So, getting back to my question - do you do much Buckthorn in the states. Is it a big problem - here it is quite an issue (Ontario, Canada). We mostly use brush saws, and then try and hit it every few years, especially in places where chemical control is illegal. What kind of budgets would you have for this stuff (esp. state parks, municipalities)? So, ours is a PDS (Plant Derived Synthetic) and we challenged ourselves to complete the formulation with food-grade (to keep it edible) rather than other, typical, adjuvants (eg. toluene, really?)
 
Buckthorn is a big issue in the New Englnd states. Is your PDS herbicide effective against other invasives like knotweed, Asian bittersweet, multiflora rose etc? Interesting that it does not effect non-native plants, I'm guessing then that it is very specific to glossy buckthorn?

There is a lot of concern at the state level and with various non-profits addressing non-native invasives, it's likely a big market.
-AJ
 
Hi Moss,

Thanks for that. Yeah, we've got control with Knotweed (that was in our field plots) and Wild Fern. It is selective- my theory, which aligns with one of the Profs in Weed Science, is that it forms a transitional chemical in non-native plants that does significant cell damage, both foliar and root, but that, with native plants, is simply metabolized (it's 'breakdown' product is a secondary plant metabolite).

We haven't done more testing on other plants- our resources are limited (we paid everything out of pocket, and the patent was quite expensive) but we are adding other plants to a patent 'continuance'.

So, in our plots, the maples, conifers, dogwood (etc) is all good (unaffected). The Buckthorn is dead in 4 days of application. Like, brown-leafless, dead. And, it doesn't come back. They stay dead.

I'm hoping to maybe make a bit of dollars, eventually, to get our money back and a new Mountain Bike to boot. If the US market is at least marginal, hopefully, someone might license it from us. Again, I'm just seeing around here... Plus, I like the money, but I HATE brushsawing Buckthorn all the time.
 
U.S. market is not marginal, it's a massive market for what you have. If it performs as advertised with minimal to no effects on native plants and fauna (amphibians etc.) you've got a winner. I can't overstate how much a product like this would be welcomed.
-AJ
 
Last edited:
I agree - if this product does what is being claimed, it would be huge. I hate cutting buckthorn so anything to help in that fight would be truly welcomed!
 
Hi Guys,

I know, it does seem a bit too-good-to-be-true. I just hated buckthorn so much, and I remember saying to my wife (man, if only we could crack this problem). I actually got lucky- I was volunteering climbing for genetic sampling (hybrids) trees when I 'noticed' it - then did some plant sample, chromotagraphy...etc, and then more field surveys (there was 100% correlation), then greenhouse work, and finally field trials that proved it. Bit of a ride, and we've blown all of our savings on it (and our house down payment) so, I really hope it recoups. Our synthesis was just based on similar chemical synthesis (ie copied) and we've discussed with a bigger outfit (well, huge) and they can produce it, industrially, at about 10.00 per KG BA. Our control against Round Up were significantly better - my wife is a Plant Scientist, and her and the tech are sticklers, really, for that stuff, so those trials were legit.

Thanks for your feedback, tho, fellas. Thank you...
 
Buckthorn...spit... is a terrible invader all over.

I think that your product would find a market here

Does your product have any of the bad things like so many treatments do? Can it be used near surface water? How toxic is it to applicators? What about overspray and residuals?

Best of luck
 
Hi Tom - the product is pretty much safe. We emulsified it with Crop Oils and it's stable so we didn't need to do any fancy (re:toxic) chem to get it into spray form. The motility is zero- we spray, and you can see the line where it was applied. Little drift. No leaching. We've done some crop row studies, and it definitely binds to soil. It is rain fast pretty quick (it was actually raining when we did our field trials, and poured all next day, and it still killed the Buckthorn). It breaks down in sunlight completely in about 8 hours, but likely persists in soil for a few months. Having said that, it is nothing 'new' to the soil, and is broken down by other plants/bacteria naturally. Non-bioaccumulative. Acute LD50 (rat) is on the high(ish) side at 1000mg/KG but still below most other herbicides (coffee...etc) but chronic toxicity is zero. Non-carcinogenic...etc (if it were carcinogenic, we'd all have cancer). It is also applied at a fraction of the weight to what, say, RoundUp is.
 
We have an effective control and completely safe for the environment. No spraying, no chemicals, no license, no patents, required, any one can do it.
Cut to ground and exclude the light.
I am happy to just spray the fuckers dead and hope to see this soon. Try it on Poison Ivy. Gout weed, japanese knot weed etc.??
 
Can I get some on the black market? I want to try! I actually have about 2 acres of buckthorn to cut if itll ever stop raining and the swamp can dry out

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
One of our test plots is on a wetland/riparian section at a farm around here. The foliar spray works fine - same as in drier soils, and there was no leaching at all. We actually applied it WHILE raining. We developed all the synthesis in house, so there isn't anything available industrially yet. Once registration is under way, we are looking for a chemical manufacturer in USA or Canada so we can trust Quality Control...etc - and they will be more likely to innovate to make the synthesis greener, more cost-effective ...etc... plus, you know, I'm from here....

We haven't tried it on blackberry... like blackberries or is it something else?
 
timmysaint said:
One of our test plots is on a wetland/riparian section at a farm around here. The foliar spray works fine - same as in drier soils, and there was no leaching at all. We actually applied it WHILE raining. We developed all the synthesis in house, so there isn't anything available industrially yet. Once registration is under way, we are looking for a chemical manufacturer in USA or Canada so we can trust Quality Control...etc - and they will be more likely to innovate to make the synthesis greener, more cost-effective ...etc... plus, you know, I'm from here....

We haven't tried it on blackberry... like blackberries or is it something else?
Click to expand...

Particularly Himalayan Blackberry around here, Rubus armeniacus
 
No, we haven't test that. It looks like it's more prevalent in BC- there are isolated occurences in Ontario, but I haven't seen it in our neck of the woods. Damn- another imported plant... now dominating the PNW. It will likely end up in the greenhouse - once we open up our research.
 
Hey TCtreeswinger. So you can do it a couple different ways. Per goat per day or a lump sum amount. Each one of my jobs this year has gone with the lump sum. It’s easier for us that way and the customer is happy because we stay until they are completely out of food.

I bid jobs based an acreage, access, and density.

This ranges from $800-$1300 an acre. Most of our jobs have been coming in right about $1000 an acre. Now saying this, it’s a local cost I don’t have to travel far. If I had to come to St. Paul there might have to be extra cost? I’ve honestly haven’t been over that way yet but I’m not against it!

We have some people that are pretty experienced so they watch the herd so discount for that as well.

Want to shoot me an email? I’d be happy to speak with you about what your looking to do and what you do! Dana@scapegoats.biz
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom