A burn would be really great but I don’t think that is a possibility given nearby residences. I have decided I am going to focus on a .5 - 1 acre area and see how it goes, thanks
Wow, thank you for all the insight, this is very helpful and encouraging to hear of sucess without herbicides. I am defnitley interested in this modified shovel you talk about too.
I have decided I am going to focus on a 1/2 acre portion of this park and see how it goes. I will have one other person to help for sure, but no firm plans to have a big crew for this.
This is encouraging to hear! There are not a whole lot of honeysuckle for me to tackle at this location, but I imagine that technique would work well for buckthorn too. Our early Michigan-the-ground-is-mud-from-snowmelt-spring would be a great time to do that, sounds like, haha.
Maybe, there is buckthorn present inside a couple of vernal pools at this location, though. perhaps I can cut them when the pools fill up so the stump is submerged and it drowns that way. Thanks!
This is defnitley a good technique but not entirely realstic for a 5 acre lot though. Most of this lot is white pine though, so there are thick mats of needles in some areas that act as mulch I could utilize
Fair enough, but it sounds like it’s going to be a tough task when your options are so limited. Come back later and let us know what you tried and how it went.
It’s just a cheap garden shovel, that I cut a lopsided notch in the tip of with a hacksaw, then used a steel file to sharpen the longer, more gradual side into a chisel blade (as in, sharpened from the front only and not the back) so it will slice cleanly through the roots without binding.
Then eventually I also got smart and painted the handle bright purple, which saves a lot of time looking for it in the woods every time I carelessly lay it down somewhere.
It works great on multiflora rose of all ages. (You have to be careful pulling that stuff even when young, because if the roots break away, rather than being cut, they usually take a bit of the woody crown with them and resprout. And it works great on youngish autumn olive and bush honeysuckle, but absolutely can’t cut through an old autumn olive taproot, and is not the easiest tool for old honeysuckle, though still doable.
I have not tried it on buckthorn.
Here are some pictures:
Friends of the Mississippi River has been experimenting with buckthorn removal without pesticides since 2019 and has resources to share, such as crucial cutting periods:
https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/new-tool-our-toolbox-buckthorn-control-critical-period-cutting
oh, thanks!
The shovel is remarkably fast. A long handle not only provides a lot of valuable leverage, it also keeps the worker away from the thorns more.
Reducing the seedbank of garlic mustard is helpful. A relatively fast way of doing that is to use a string trimmer on the patches just after they have come into full bloom.
Doing so eliminates the year’s main seed increment. Regrowth is limited because there is a lot more competition from other plants after that.
Hand pulling is more effective on the area where it is possible, but a string trimmer can easily do ten times as much ground. Definitely realistic on a half-acre target area.
Timing matters a lot. Too early and the flowering shoots are not high enough to be cut. Too late, there will be viable seeds and you will also damage the other species that you are depending on to compete aggressively.
Yeah, it is fast, and I especially like the way it doesn’t require cutting each stem individually. Even the biggest, bushiest, multiflora rose bushes can just be dug up as a unit, and dragged away to the nearest brush-pile.
I’ve used persistent cutting of new shoots to eliminate bamboo. I would suggest cutting stems to the ground then mowing/bush hogging the shoots frequently till you starve the root systems. For areas that aren’t mowable a trimmer with a metal blade can be used. This would also cut new seedlings. It would also prevent most of the mustard from going to seed. Mowing frequently during the growing season. Start small to see if it works. A forestry mulching machine grinding everything to the soil might be the best way to start.
Опустошить почвенный банк семян. Семена будут прорастать и гибнуть из-за недостатка света.
Потом сажаем желаемые растения.