Garlon 3A Vs River Birch

[MSdeer]

Lurking for awhile, first post here.

  My deer stands overlook large sandbars on a creek. Every year the River Birch and Willow saplings grow up and hinder my visibility. Up until now I have been cutting them down with a chainsaw each fall. As you know, each cut stump sends up 4 sprouts each spring. They get thicker each year.  I'm getting too old for this ! ("slave's work" as a member here posted).  The River Birch are the worst.  They grow in thick clumps, like in a stretch 5-10 yards wide and 50 yards long, in several spots. There are hundreds of stems, between finger and wrist size. I cut them ALL down, at ground level this past fall (took 3 days).  My idea was to use herbicide this spring and get rid of them for good, or at least put a serious dent in them.  Because of the number of stems, my plan was to hit the young shoots with foliar spray this spring. My research suggested that Garlon 3A would be best for this. I bought a 2.5gal jug at Forestry Suppliers in Jackson.
  I didn't get back to the sandbar until 2 weeks ago. The new growth is already well developed, about knee to mid thigh high. I wanted to be sure to kill the Birches in the most critical stretch, so I mixed the Garlon 3A at 4oz per Gallon in my backpack sprayer, and added some Dawn dish soap to make it stick. I feel like I got pretty good foliar coverage. I hope to be able to make it back within the next 2 weeks to see how it worked. 
  My main question is mixing ratio. The instructions are mostly lbs/acre, etc, not really useful for mixing in backpack sprayer. I called the manufacturer, and the nice lady told me something that sounded too low to me, IIRC less than 1oz per gallon.  My main questions is anyone with real-world experience can tell me how many ounces of concentrate per gallon for reliable kill, but not waste.  Primarily River Birch and Willows.  Also any other suggestions, etc. I also have access to glycophosate 41%. I do not have any heavy equipment. I did just get a Stihl FS 240 and assortment of blades, including the Oregon Maxi blade that Swamp Donkey uses.  

[DelawhereJoe]

Some herbicides are very toxic to aquatic life you should use them with extreme caution or not at all around streams. Bush-b-gone can be painted onto cut stumps and it will kill the roots to keep them from going back. Any chance of investing in a field and brush mower ?

[MSdeer]

The Garlon 3A is ok for my application per the manufacturer. Cut-stump is out of the question, committed to foliar at this time.

[Claybraker]

Label calls for .5 gallon Garlon 3 for 100 gallons of spray, so .64 oz/gl, or 2.5 oz/ 4gallon refill in a back pack sprayer.  The taller the sprouts are, the better, as long as you can still cover the foliage.  It's also labeled for tank mix with glyphosate if you want to add a little more broad spectrum while you are spraying. Waving wand technique with the sprayer.  Give it some time and take a look at it again just before dove season.

[WDH]

I mix garlon at a 3% solution and have had excellent results.  That is 3.84 ounces per gallon.  What you mixed is pretty much dead on with I have used.

[MSdeer]

Thanks for that. I hope to find good results when I return to the property, and touch-up any spots I missed.  Was hoping to get by with a less concentrated mix, due to the cost, but anything is better than cutting it with chainsaw !

[pine]

Be careful, while Garlon 3A is an authorized aquatic area herbicide some locales require a permit for any aquatic area application, due to the risk of downstream issues. 

As to calculating out the dose in a backpack sprayer your sprayer should be calibrated at least yearly for each user. (according to all the sate and federal certification experts) 

Take a 1/128 acre area, 340 sq feet say 5 feet by 68 feet (not exact but close enough) and see how many gallons are used from your sprayer.  Fill your 4 gal sprayer with 4 gallons water.  Take an area that you have measured out (5 x 68) and spray it with the water.  At the end measure  how much water you used by measuring how much you have to put in  the sprayer to refill it.  Then take that amount and multiply it by 128 and that is how much water/carrier you spray per acre for that sprayer with that nozzle. From that it is easy to take the amount of A.I per acre or concentrate per acre to mix in the sprayer.

Here is another similar method
Backpack Sprayer Calibration for Woodland Applications

[MSdeer]

    I finally got a callback from the Dow Agro rep for my area. He consulted with another one of their guys and got back to me.  He said that Birch is on the "harder to control" list, and mine being growth from cut stumps, harder still.  He said not to go below the 3% solution (as WDH stated). He also said adding 0.5% Imazapyr to the mix will help the Garlon translocate to the roots much faster, and do a better job. Also said to use the NIS, as I planned to do.
     That being said, one of the other guys went out to the property last weekend. He asked me "Did you spray the sandbar ?  Everything is brown !". So, apparently what I did last trip worked.  I'll see for myself in about a week, and spot treat anything I missed.
    

[MSdeer]

Everything I sprayed last month is as dead as Elvis. 

[MSdeer]

In case anyone else is interested, I have been at this for 2 years since I started this thread.  I have made progress on the mixing ratio, etc.  The most economical thing I have found for general use around the hunting lease is essentially making my own "Crossbow". 1.5 oz Garlon 4 and 2 oz of 2-4D Amine per gallon in my 25 gallon ATV sprayer.  Will kill just about any broadleaf including birch and briars (foliar application).  May try to go even lower on the Garlon to save $$.  Still use the Garlon 3 if near water.  I no longer have a birch problem on the sandbar.  A few new ones try to pop up each year, I just walk the area with a backpack sprayer and give them a little squirt.  On one of the sandbars where there is a food plot, the cockelburs have been severe.  Plain 2-4D at 2oz per gallon works great on those, and it's cheap.