sep0667
Land of the Whitetail
I've been working on farm some the past two winters on a plan drawn up by my district forester to control invasives, specifically bush honeysuckle and multiflora rose. Have your district forester come out and inspect the property and they will make a plan and then you can do the work and largely be reimbursed through the nrcs. I've only done 12 arces. Next winter need to do a much larger area. My farm is quite thick with MFR and some scattered honey suckle.
My plan has me doing basal bark spray (spraying just the bottom 12 or so inches of the base of MFR with a 1 part Trychlophyr and 4 parts diesel. Mix in some mark-it-blue dye and you can easily see what you have already treated. I just go through with a 4 gallon backpack sprayer. For the BH you have to stump cut it and then spray the stump. I did 6 acres last year, got it done in one weekend and only took about 10-12 hours maybe. Same thing this year. The 6 acres I did last year all the MFR is dead as can be and you can easily snap the twigs of the plan or kick the base and it snaps right off, its all gray and dead. So much easier to move through the area. The 6 acres I did this year was much thicker, some areas literally an impenetrable wall. Its been about 2 months since I did the project and you can already tell everything sprayed is dead, they are not leafing out and the stems have all turned a darkish purple. I did all the spraying while my dad cut the BH and then I treated the stump. Its hard work, but as long as you are not out of shape totally doable. It felt overwhelming at first, but once you get going like I said we got 6 acres done in one weekend, maybe 10-12 hours total in a weekend. Next winter I plan to bite of a much larger area, maybe 20-25 acres.
You can go in there and just see how much more sunlight is actually getting to the ground where its not all chocked out with MFR. Its only been a year since my first spraying, so I have not really noticed other stuff growing in. It could be to early or I just dont know what Im looking for. My forest floor is also largely field with buck brush/coral berry, which is a native. Next weekend I'll be interplanting swamp white oak and wild plum into the first 6 acres.
My plan has me doing basal bark spray (spraying just the bottom 12 or so inches of the base of MFR with a 1 part Trychlophyr and 4 parts diesel. Mix in some mark-it-blue dye and you can easily see what you have already treated. I just go through with a 4 gallon backpack sprayer. For the BH you have to stump cut it and then spray the stump. I did 6 acres last year, got it done in one weekend and only took about 10-12 hours maybe. Same thing this year. The 6 acres I did last year all the MFR is dead as can be and you can easily snap the twigs of the plan or kick the base and it snaps right off, its all gray and dead. So much easier to move through the area. The 6 acres I did this year was much thicker, some areas literally an impenetrable wall. Its been about 2 months since I did the project and you can already tell everything sprayed is dead, they are not leafing out and the stems have all turned a darkish purple. I did all the spraying while my dad cut the BH and then I treated the stump. Its hard work, but as long as you are not out of shape totally doable. It felt overwhelming at first, but once you get going like I said we got 6 acres done in one weekend, maybe 10-12 hours total in a weekend. Next winter I plan to bite of a much larger area, maybe 20-25 acres.
You can go in there and just see how much more sunlight is actually getting to the ground where its not all chocked out with MFR. Its only been a year since my first spraying, so I have not really noticed other stuff growing in. It could be to early or I just dont know what Im looking for. My forest floor is also largely field with buck brush/coral berry, which is a native. Next weekend I'll be interplanting swamp white oak and wild plum into the first 6 acres.
