The Forestry Forum

I've got about an acre of orchard grass east of my house.
Volunteer trees keep popping up in there.  I've
chainsawed em, beaver bladed em and bushhog'd
them but they keep popping back up.
Does anyone out there know a good way to permanently
get rid of them?

whitepe

Whitepe,

What do you use the orchard grass for and what kind of sprouts do you have?  You can use chemical control either broadcast or individual plant.  Chemical depends on use and plants.

Brushhogging will eventually gain control of the situation.  The more often the better, but it needs to be when the 'sap is up' so as to deplete the plant of nutrients.  Brushogging in the winter is pretty much of cosmetic value only.

Noble

PS I don't have a parasol and wouldn't admit it iffn I did.

Noble

Noble,

I use the orchard grass just for looks, something I
don't have to mow very often and something to keep
the weeds out.  It is not used for animal consumption
except the deer occassionally bed down in it.
I don't know what kind of trees they are. I've got a couple
of different types. I'll run down the lane with the camera
and be back in about 10-15 minutes.  I last bushhogged
in early March when we had a warm weekend.
I'll put the photos on my --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.

Whitepe

Noble,

The pictures are on my --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.com/user/whitepe2

Of course one of the trees isn't a tree at all, just
those dang canadian thistles.  I wish Kevin
would take those thistles all back to Canada.


Whitepe

Looks like muhlberry to me.  They are real persistent.  The biggest problem is the way the seed gets dispersed.  Birds eat the berries, then deposit them where you don't want it.

You could use a chemical spray, or go the natural route  -  goats.   :D

Want to read an interesting page on Canadian Thistle ?

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1688/acanthis.html

Ron,

Mulberry makes sense for one of the trees.
I just sawed one up this week on my LT15 that
I had to cut down at the end of my lane so the township
could widen the road.  Any idea on the other tree?
Also what chemical spray should I use? Roundup?

Whitepe

Whitepe,

Brushhoging in July and aug. is probably the most effective time.  2,4-D ester would have been the recommended spray to control both brush and thistles when I worked with that sort of thing.  There may well be more effective stuff now.

Most thistles are biannuals, to control them with chemicals, you apply it in the fall of their first year when they are in the 'rosette' stage.  The second year when they put up a stalk and flower is too late to control them well with chemicals.  They are getting ready make seed and die.

Most of your unwanted growth looks to me to be sumac of some sort.  It should kill easily in the spring.  Spray it when the leaves first reach full size but before they become hardened.

Your picture 0434 looks like Mulbery.  You may want to save it for the birds, otherwise spray it like the Sumac.

If it were me, I'd just brushhog it when the unwanted stuff started poking up.

Noble

I like Mulberry jelly. mmmmm    I've also heard that mulberry makes a good bow.  I was told this by a local bowyer, not something I know first hand.  :P

I agree with Noble.  Just keep bushogging but do it more often.  2-4D would work good and wouldn't kill your grass like RoundUp would.

Tom,
The mulberry jelly sounds good. The racoons sure
like them.  Mulberry and osage orange must
be first cousins. I can't tell them apart once
they are sawed.  They both are yellow-orange
when freshly sawed and then turn a light chocolaty
brown when light has a chance to get to them.
So it makes sense to me that they
would be good for making bows.  I saw some
nice woodenrecurves in Jays Sporting Goods in Gaylord
when coming home from the U.P. My wife is interested
in indian lore and I bought her a long bow that a fellow
made who works in the local Woodcraft store. He's
a retired CAT machinist.  Nice article
about the thistles. Very interesting.

Noble,

I think that I will 2-4-D em early this week and
then bushhog em this weekend. That way the
2-4-D will have a chance to work on those roots.
There's only two thistle plants. I will 2-4-D them,
wait a few days, cut em out and burn them.

My wife thinks that the thistles are pretty as she was
looking over my shoulder when I uploaded the pictures.
I won't tell her grain/dairy farming father, he will disavow
any knowledge of her being his child.  He hated
thistles with a vengeance in his wheat fields.

Whitepe

Corley5

I will give em the old 2-4-D / bushhog one two punch.

(https://forestryforum.com/smile/kickass.gif)

By the by,  are Wolverine shoes made in Wolverine, Mi?


Whitepe

That thistle is the Scottish flower. Best not let any Scottish environmentalist hear about you 2-4Ding their national flower! :o :o  Woe be unto you laddie..... ;D

Mulberry is a beautiful wood for woodturning. Anytime you cut a sizeable tree down, notify some local woodturners they'll take it off your hands I'm sure. ;) :)

No Wolverine footwear isn't made hear in Wolverine ;D

Why not Greg?  Red Wing shoes are made in Red Wing, Minnesota.  Why wouldn't Wolverine, Michigan make Wolverine boots? ::) :-/

I don't know and I can't explain it ::) ;D ;)  Red Wings are actually made in Red Wing?  That's 8) 8).  Gives me a new appreciation for my footwear.  I was quite disappointed to discover that my last pair of Rockies were made in China >:( :( :o

Yep, Red Wings are made in Red Wing! 8) 8)  Red Wing is a very nice, medium sized town on the shores of the Mississippi River. I'm not sure if they have 3 or 4 stop lights. ;D  Years ago, Red Wing pottery was a huge business there. No more though.  Now, Red Wing pottery i$ a very collectable and can be quite $pendy.  

I dont even want to know about the Shoes I wore when I was a kid. Red Ball Jets. Enough said about that I think

Where's the town of Redball located Jeff?  Is that in Michigan? :D

I had a pair of Redball shoes once.  They were black with reddish brown rubber.  I hated them.  Mom got them for me and acted real proud, like I should be too. But, I was playing Jr. Hi. basketball when the important kids had White Converses.  I was so embarrassed.   :-[

The only salvation was that I would forget how I was dressed in the heat of the game and eventually learned that it didn't matter anyway. :-/ :P

I'm still trying to get past the picture of you playing basketball.   :D

Oh great, thanks al ot Ron. Now I got that picture stuck in my head too.

I was a little better than slim in those days but nothing like now. I sure wish I could get some of those years back.  I was #16 and my best buddy was #10.  Jerry and I were the Guards.

   LOLOL! My friend Liz at work is presently more than a little chubby- earnestly trying to lose weight and still at the point where when she walks up the hill to work she is sweatin' and dyin'- but she played softball with the work team the other day and totally faked them out. Seems she'd played a bunch in HS and nobody knew it- they all came in close and she faked them out entirely batting, catching, and throwing (Ok, she's still working on the running)..

   As she put it- 'It ain't over til the fat lady sings!'- and she's qualified to say it 8) 8) 8)   lw