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Honey Locust Tips

Snail3496

Snail3496

Well-Known Member
I am on my first farm ever with bad honey locust all over and have been tinkering with the most efficient and least painful way to thin them. I realize the pods are good deer food, but going into my 2nd spring on this farm it seems around 80% of them don't produce any pods and exist only to pop tires and eyeballs. Plus - I have a lot of young oaks that wouldn't mind the extra room either.

My question - have any of you come up with any great ideas for knocking these things out by hand? Chainsaw and triclopyr have worked on the few I've done, but is a two person deal for most of them. Some of the really bad ones are even hard to get the saw in there unscathed. Read guys take a drill w 1/2"+ drill bit, bore 2" or so into the trunk, and then spray some gly or diesel into it. They then die standing and the needles dry out. That seems to be the best sounding idea so far. Anyone have any experience or tips?
 
I've had okay luck chain sawing 2 parallel rings, 2" deep, about 6" apart, around the trunk of the tree. I imagine if you spray some of this poison concoction into the cuts, that would do a pretty good job of killing the stubborn ones, and keeping them from sprouting new growths out of the bases. Probably reapplying it would help too.
 
I’ll echo garlon 4. Triclopyr is the generic ingredient. A lot of guys have been drilling the holes & mixing hot/strong dose. Some adding diesel, etc. Sounds like smokes it. I’ve girdled & treated the cambium layer in past & that’s great - but if a drill works- interesting! I’d for sure try it!!!!!
 
I started drilling and spraying locusts on our place last week. I was told a 4:1 mix of water and Gly would do it too and I had some on hand, so I'm hoping my source is right. I went overboard on the amount of holes so hopefully that helps. I'll certainly report back on how it worked.
 
CottonwoodCanyon said:
I started drilling and spraying locusts on our place last week. I was told a 4:1 mix of water and Gly would do it too and I had some on hand, so I'm hoping my source is right. I went overboard on the amount of holes so hopefully that helps. I'll certainly report back on how it worked.
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How deep with the hole? At a downward angle to hold the Gly? I was told 50% straigt GLy will kill a tree doing the method Skip says above by Girdling and spraying the cambium. But I would think drilling would be faster and safer.
 
Yes they were drilled at a downward angle to create a pocket for the solution to collect in. I used a 1/2" spade bit and each hole was approx 2" deep. I might increase the Gly %. I got about half done last week, half are getting this treatment tomorrow.
 
Slick said:
How deep with the hole? At a downward angle to hold the Gly? I was told 50% straigt GLy will kill a tree doing the method Skip says above by Girdling and spraying the cambium. But I would think drilling would be faster and safer.
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The few I tried were at an angle as well. Just seems to make sense to do it that way. Tough tree or not, you'd think drilling a big hole and filling it with strong chem would fry any type of tree any time of the year. We will see.
 
I have unsuccessfully tried remedy and diesel on larger honey locust. It works very well on smaller ones, but has not worked for me on large trees. I double girdle and lay chemical in the bottom cut and get great results with large ones. Girdling does suck on multi-stem trees with large thorns for sure. In my area, honey locust pods only seem to be emergency food for wildlife. I see lots and lots of pods left on the ground untouched.
 
I have girdled giant ones and sprayed tordon in the girdle. They all died. In the past 13 years they have sloughed off the main branches and such and are not much more than a large, tall, standing dead stump.
 
bwese said:
I have girdled giant ones and sprayed tordon in the girdle. They all died. In the past 13 years they have sloughed off the main branches and such and are not much more than a large, tall, standing dead stump.
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Have you ever seen any surrounding trees get side effects of the tordon? I've never tried it but hear it will also kill any other close by trees with overlapping roots
 
I drilled and sprayed a large amount of Honey and Black locust this winter. 1/2" spade as mentioned and if the tree was larger I would do 2-3 holes at an angle. First time trying it but have heard great results from others that did. I used Triclopyr 4 and mixed it hot
 
Snail3496 said:
Have you ever seen any surrounding trees get side effects of the tordon? I've never tried it but hear it will also kill any other close by trees with overlapping roots
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I’ve treated several hundred trees with Tordon and never experienced that. I have heard of same species trees root grafting, but again I have never seen it.


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Snail3496 said:
Have you ever seen any surrounding trees get side effects of the tordon? I've never tried it but hear it will also kill any other close by trees with overlapping roots
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I did a pretty good sized TSI job and have also killed HUNDREDS of locust in pasture cleanup. I also talked with the chemical rep and a university forester and the non target tree issue comes when the same species grafts roots. So by killing a locust next to an oak you would be safe. Any flashing you would get to the oak probably came from excess chemical being washed into soil from a rain.
 
Jerry Gille said:
I have unsuccessfully tried remedy and diesel on larger honey locust. It works very well on smaller ones, but has not worked for me on large trees. I double girdle and lay chemical in the bottom cut and get great results with large ones. Girdling does suck on multi-stem trees with large thorns for sure. In my area, honey locust pods only seem to be emergency food for wildlife. I see lots and lots of pods left on the ground untouched.
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Not telling you what to do but there is no reason to double girdle if treating the bottom cut with chemicals. The double girdle method is a tactic used when no chemical is to be used and to keep the target tree from grafting over a single cut. Double girdlestypically work best on mature trees.
 
Muskrat24 said:
I did a pretty good sized TSI job and have also killed HUNDREDS of locust in pasture cleanup. I also talked with the chemical rep and a university forester and the non target tree issue comes when the same species grafts roots. So by killing a locust next to an oak you would be safe. Any flashing you would get to the oak probably came from excess chemical being washed into soil from a rain.
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As it turns out, I am heading to a property this evening to review it and do an amateur consultation, etc. What I know from looking at aerials thus far is that there is about a 12 acre "pasture" that used to house an elk herd that is now all grown up with locust trees. It is also sloped, how steep I do not know yet, but it looks to be sloped enough that it would not be suitable to plot/crop it. We'll see.

My question is...assuming we want to remove the fairly dense stand of locusts...what would be the best method? I am sure you don't want to try anything with an inflated tire...unless you have an unlimited supply of new tires available. :)

I am thinking a tracked skid steer...but what attachment and method would be best? I wouldn't want a field full of little branches with thorns on them for the next ??? year(s) laying out there. Thoughts, ideas, experiences??? TIA.
 
This is my first go at killing these and they are all along a creek (not in a pasture), but here's my plan:

Kill them this spring and hopefully they die and dry out, then this fall I'll spray the grasses underneath with gly, run a spring burn through there, then plant a nice buffer strip of switch! Open to any critiques or suggestions to my plan!! I'm fully aware that I'm a rookie to the habitat game.
 
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