ATV spray plan for planting loblolly following hardwood harvest

[Virginian]

My loggers are finishing up 30 acres of hardwoods.  State forester had mentioned just allowing natural regeneration but also said that a little seed money would produce a bigger harvest in 30 years.  Would desire to spend that money on seedlings vice hiring a helicopter to spray when I think I can do it from the ground as well or better.

Plan will be to mount a 26 gallon tank on a 4x2 four wheeler since the site is near perfectly flat and the stumps were cut so close to the ground.

Here's my plan that needs comment:
Plant improved seedlings at 10x10 spacing this winter
Go behind 1 month later with a 5' band of Arsenal AC over the top to reduce hardwood and weed vegetation
Followed by glysophate application between rows

[WDH]

Talk to @customsawyer.  He has a load of experience in doing this.  Hopefully, he will see this and chime in. 

[curdog]

For herbicide release you will probably need to wait a little longer than a month.  Usually mid august or September when the buds have hardened for the year is when you should over spray with arsenal.  Your plan will work, I did the same thing for my shortleaf planting this past year but on a much smaller scale.  One problem that you may run into is  (at least in my area ) hand plant rows are not anywhere near straight,  and following the rows or finding them to band spray could be difficult.
I'd check to see what kind of cost share funds are available for herbicide treatments, if you do it yourself or hire it out. Helicopter spraying can be pretty cheap in certain areas, and add cost share, it may not be a huge expense.

[Claybraker]

I'm not a forester, so I'm talking out of turn here, but from what I've read, wouldn't it be better to give everything time to resprout, then a complete herbicide burn down this time next year, followed by possibly a controlled burn?

As a landowner, I understand the desire to get the next crop in the ground as fast as possible, but the growth rate studies seem to indicate the best return on investment is a good site prep *before* planting, even if that means delaying planting a year.

[customsawyer]

Claybraker is correct. You will be better off to put off planting until next year. One this will allow the stumps time to re sprout. Two when you first spray it you can get more aggressive with your chemicals and do a tank mix that will control more species for a longer period of time. Then a controlled burn and planting. Followed by a band spraying. This will give you the optimum potential of your land.   

[Virginian]

In my area controlled burns aren't allowed.  I think it is because of air quality...

My logger recommended I bomb the place with Arsenal (I think AC?) but said it would take a year to recover before planting.  I'm going to try and meet up with my local forester again.  Before he wanted to wait and see until after the logging was complete, particularly before discussing cost share.

[curdog]

Site prep spraying does work better in many instances over release especially if there is a chance of natural pine regeneration on the site. But I do quite a bit of release spraying due to the fact that the tax assessor will not give present use value  ( property tax deferment ) unless the seedlings are in the ground that year. The county tax savings is very substantial, so release is the route to go. I release seedlings with 14-16 oz. of arsenal and site prep with arsenal up to 24 oz. with a tank mix of accord,  escort,or whatever the vegetation on the site needs.  But the release spraying does well at the slightly lower herbicide rate on sweetgum, but does occasionally allowed some of the cherry to pop out a few scraggly leaves the following year.

[GATreeGrower]

If you want to plant pine, I would go with what Claybraker and Jake said and eliminate the competition first before  anything, even if you have to wait.