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Using herbicide to maintain a trail sapling free

Started by livemusic, June 13, 2019, 08:28:40 PM

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livemusic

I am usually not keen to use chemicals when I don't have to. BUT... I don't want Lyme disease as I enter old age, lol! I like to walk a trail I cleared around my forested property for exercise and enjoying being in the woods. What about spraying the trail with Roundup or some other herbicide? Someone mentioned another chemical, a basal bark herbicide. Not familiar with that but I'm no forester! Other than whacking bushy stuff or saplings that come up on a routine basis, like I do now, what could I do to keep the trail/road clean so I don't touch any leafy stuff with my legs as I hike? Ticks could still climb up my boots but I'll apply insecticide and I figure scarping a leafy growth is more apt to have ticks on it? The trail grows up pretty fast with green growth. I whack it back once or twice a year but with that, I'm sure walking through a lot of green stuff if I don't keep it cut down.

This tract is 40 acres, so, the trail is maybe 0.7 mile, meandering around but generally following the perimeter. I have it wide enough to drive my John Deere Gator on it, it probably averages 6 to 7 feet wide. But might widen it so a truck or tractor could get through. For now, just walking and/or the Gator. I have no idea how much herbicide would cost for that even if it's an okay idea!
~~~
Bill

Southside

They will drop from the canopy too and any grass you may cross, so I think the return for the effort would not be worth it.  Better to invest in quality tick preventative applied to or part of your clothing.   
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btulloh

Unless you widen it some you're going to have trouble with things growing in from the sides.  Little saplings get started and immediately start sticking there limbs out where there's space and light.  That'll still happen if it's wider but if you can run the tractor through a couple times a year with the bush hog it'll help.  Occasional traffic with the Gator and tractor will keep most of the stuff out of the road, but the sides is where things get more complicated.  Controlling the saplings on the side is critical and it's easy to slip up and let 'em go for a year or two (for me at least).  That's when the chainsaw comes out - the sweetgums grow like weeds and put limbs out in the road.

Herbicide can help, but it's better to just drive the road now and then to keep stuff down.  If the road is a little wider, use all of it and don't just make railroad tracks with the gator and tractor.

I've got a couple miles of old logging roads I keep open and I haven't found a magic bullet.  As long as I use them on a regular basis, the roads stay clear, but I still have to deal with what's growing on the sides.  

It'll be interesting to see what shows up these replies.  I can always use some fresh methods.

Good luck.  
HM126

farmfromkansas

If you want to kill trees, the only chemical I know that works is remedy.  And you must apply it with a surfactant to make it stick to the leaves.  Preference is a good surfactant.  I use 8 oz of preference and 8 oz of preference in a 25 gallon atv sprayer, and spray till the mixture drips off the leaves.  Seems to work best in August and September for me.  We have to keep the hedge trees killed on our grass or the hedge takes over here in Kansas.  Does not work on the so called cedar trees that come up in our pastures, only thing that seems to work on them is to cut them below any green.
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Nebraska

I have read somewhere about attaching a reservor to a batwing brush mower and making a drip system that dripped a 2,4,D mixture as it mowed  brush in the authors pastures, I  have contemplated adding it to my six footer here. I know roundup is hard on new tree seedlings because I accidently whacked a few when I was establishing a riparian buffer crp project on my farm along a small creek. If you widen the trail and control the vegetation it will help with the ticks (not tick proof) especially if you would keep the grasses back and add a layer of gravel. 

treemuncher

Spraying Glyphosate (RoundUp) on any unwanted branches will kill off only the branch on a tree. Treated branches will die off, dry out and fall off of the main trunk. The rest of the tree will remain alive and continue to grow.

I've seen it done on highways and I have done the same on my own property. Works well for keeping the encroachment in check.
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