Invasive Species Removal?

[ATH]

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Application methods vary -- squirt bottles, sponge rubber-banded to the end of a stick (herbicider carries the solution in something like a cut-open milk carton to dip the sponge into for refills), or a mini paint roller (3-4") again with a dip container. The roller also makes it easy to apply herbicide to leaves or the stem of stuff that's too small to cut.

I tried putting a sponge with a wire tie on the end of backpack sprayer. It worked well, but hitting the sponge on the stump a few hundred times meant we chewed through sponges pretty quickly. Not a big deal, they are cheap. We switched to scotch pad sponges and they last a full day. We had good results with minimal sprouting.

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When there are tons of small cut stems to treat, some will be missed. We often accept that knowing that whatever gets missed, or needs retreatment, will become obvious soon enough. It's never a one-and-done job anyway so one or more return visits will be needed.

Both points are good to remember:
1) Some WILL be missed. Sometimes just not treated because its easy to lose them in thick piles. Others for whatever reason it doesn't take. But 90% hit and efficacy is very realistic.
2) Even if the first round is 100% effective, there will still be new seedlings coming along. They need revisited. I generally recommend at least every other year so they are caught small. We like mid-fall visits when the invasives are the only thing still green so they are easy to spot. Sunny and temps over 60 degrees and foliar treatment with glyphosate is very effective.

 

[macrocarpa]

This park that I am doing the invasive species removal in, it’s an Oak, Maple, Beech, Hickory Forest, but there’s a large section of it where the understory is 2-4’ Ash. I wonder what’s gonna happen.

 

[ATH]

Ash will get to 2-3" then die...at least that's what has happened other places I've seen that. Maybe it'll stick around long enough to hold back next crop of invasives while some native understory is established.

 

[ATH]

PS: is that an area you've already done? Looks relatively clean of NNIS.

 

[macrocarpa]

PS: is that an area you've already done? Looks relatively clean of NNIS.

This area with the ash understory is pretty clean of invasives naturally. But they built a bike trail close by so I’ve been monitoring what moves in after the disturbance. So far its mostly Allegheny blackberry filling in along the bike trail.

 

[ghostice]

A couple of years ago had a bunch of willows to get rid of with stumps in the 8 to 10" size. We just cut them low and took a battery drill with a 1 1/2" spade bit and drilled a bunch of holes a couple of inches deep and filled them with Roundup full strength. Because the stumps were smaller, to keep rain/ kids/ dogs away we used plastic dinner plates upside down on top with a roofing nail or two to keep them on. Came back a year later and ground the stumps et voila, willows haven't reappeared.