Tree Gradling?

[darkhollow1]

Over this past fall and winter I kind of started a little TSI project in my timber. I gradled hundreds of junk trees with both a chainsaw and hatchet. I have been noticing that most of these trees are getting green leaves as if nothing was ever done to them. Is this common for gradled trees to get green or is it possible I didnt get deep enough to kill them? thanks.

 

[TimberPig]

When you girdle a tree it should not leaf out. Girdling should cut through the bark and sapwood completely around a tree, usually 1" or so is sufficient, depending on the thickness of the bark. The usual problem with gridling is that certain types of trees will develope suckers that start growing up from just below the cut line, eventually giving you a bush like tree. I have read that the best time to girdle trees is shortly after they have leafed out. I believe the theory is that the tree expends a fair amount of energy producing all those leaves and the girdling prevents the energy produced by the leaves from making it back to the roots.
I would guess you did not go deep enough if the trees are leafing out normally.

 

[bjkpharmd]

TP has it right. Sorry to say it but I think you are going to get to "practice" again.
I don't think that the suckering hurts much and does provide browse. It isn't high enough to shade anything so I never worried about it.

 

[Ghost]

Double girdling and applying Tordon to the girdles is a dead tree!

It is also not recommended to girdle trees this time of year. Certain insects will transfer any desease coming from the "bleeding" of sap from the girdles.

This is why most TSI is completed from the late Fall on into March.

 

[m_kat]

Some trees will have some stored energy and H2O left up in their trunks above your cut. They can leaf out. Only time will tell if your cuts were deep enough and all the way around. As was mentioned earlier, the best way to make sure they are dead is to apply tordon all the way around your cut. No questions then.

 

[darkhollow1]

Well hopefully some of them will die. I guess time will tell. I read somewhere that tordon should not be used because it can possibly kill surrounding trees. Anybody experienced this?

 

[Old Buck]

I've had the same experience as Ghost. I used to girdle trees with mixed results. A double girdle through the cambium convinces almost all trees that you are serious. Sometimes it just takes awhile. A single girdle and Tordon RTU does the same.

Tordon is less effective when a lot of sap is flowing because it tends to flush out of the tree. It is the most effective when the tree is transporting energy to store in the roots in the fall. That is when I usually try to kill black locust since they are so prone to suckering from the roots any other time. Basically fall to sap flow time in the spring is a good time for Tordon.

The trees you do not want to use Tordon on are the oak unless you want to chance killing others of the same specie in the same area. The reason is that oak will root graft with other oak of the same kind. Therefore if you want to kill one trunk of a multi-trunk oak coming from an old stump just double girdle the one(s) you want to kill.

This could also happen with oak trees some distance away from eachother if the roots still make contact.

If you get too aggressive with Tordon you can also kill an area around the tree. I've had spots where I put too much on and it kills everything for several feet around.