Dealing with Sweetgum saplings

[Muddy Waters]

Sweet Gum....what a fight...I've gone thru about 6 acres of my woodlot cleaning out SG from 1" to 8" in diameter...most of the six acres has a good stand of 25 yr old Loblolly..I used Arsenal/Chopper and the cheaper generic Imazapyr...used 1.3 oz/gal with 3 oz/gal of Roundup in a Stihl backpack sprayer for sprouting stems up to four feet...



the 1" to 3" material was chopped with one of the brush knives and a 50% water/Imazapyr in a spray bottle squirt to the cut stem...using the same knives a cut was made diagonal downward into the cambium and a shot of Sweet Gum Killer was injected on the 6" plus diameters...

BASF touts Arsenal/Chopper with good reason...it works...I went to see the test plantations and the yield on treated vs untreated was 1.6 tons/acre/year for Pine...

http://www.coontailfarm.com/

[GW]

That's good to hear Muddy Waters. The qt of concentrate that I bought was $170 and for stump application they recommend 6 oz per gal of water.

I ordered the carbide blade that I linked to above It's from the same seller but a different item number with cheaper shipping in the US. The blade was $20 and Shipping was $5. It might be a waste of money in the long run because I'm cutting into soil most of the time.

[Muddy Waters]

if you are clearing for a future house site, using that carbide brush cutting blade makes a lot of sense... I don't have a problem with a few stobs sticking up for a while...it shouldn't take but a small amount of chemical to keep them from sprouting back...if you do have a few hard cases just mix a hand pump tank full and hit them...

for a cost savings, you may want to try the Imazapyr generic...substantial savings in all quantities...

[GW]

The reason I'm cutting off so low is because our loggers will be thinning the pines soon and I don't want to create tire hazards.

[Tom]

A 2" or 3" tall stub shouldn't bother a tractor tire and even most street type treads will push a sweetgum stump that size over rather than allow it to penetrate.  You would be creating a stumbling hazard, if anything, and I'll bet your loggers are so used to stepping over stuff laying on the forest floor that they won't even notice them.  Now, if you leave a stick, six inches tall, they might trip.

You will find that a little time with your clearing saw will have you expertly clipping them off close to the ground without getting into the dirt.  Just leave a flat top.

[SwampDonkey]

Just let me at'm with my FS550. Like whacking grass. ;D

https://forestryforum.com/board2/index.php?topic=613.0

Near the end is a video.

[GW]

Cheater!  :-\

[ibseeker]

SwampDonkey, is the Stihl FS 250 a powerful enough brushcutter for a small woodlot owner to work with? I won't be working it like a commercial guy would, only cutting small hardwoods/pines less than 2" and not a lot of continuous work, many breaks during the day. Any opinion on the new 4 cycle engines that require a pre-mix?

GW: Did you check out the Husqvarna brushcutters? Any opinions given to you?
On the saw blades....did you check out or try the 3 edge or 4 edge cutting blades? When I was looking at the Stihl dealer's saw blades they didn't have much of a selection. Where did you find the one you bought? ebay?

Did you get much kick back or the cutter head bouncing around?

I was going to use the Arsenal until Tom mentioned that it doesn't work on pine. I'll have to check out Imazapyr....great name but it should be for a pesticide.

[GW]

ibseeker, I think the FS 250 is a commercial model and fairly expensive. I paid $290 for the RedMax and it's considered light commercial quality. The Stihl dealer I use doesn't like the 4 mix engines at all. I didn't check Husky because there's no dealer near me. I don't think the 3 or 4 edge blades will work on 2 inch saplings. The blade that I got with the trimmer is a 22 tooth chisel tooth model. I ordered the 100 tooth carbide tipped blade from a guy through ebay. I didn't have much trouble with kick back.

[SwampDonkey]

The 250 is almost as powerful as the 350, only lighter and with more displacement. If your going to cut 2" brush you'll get through it a lot easier with a clearing saw blade. Those 3 or 4 winged blades are only meant for raspberry, burdock and pencil sized woody stems. It's not as easy to get injured with those machines as a chainsaw. Make sure you wear a harness and never reach for the blade to remove a stick, shut it off first. Only takes a second to loose a finger, maybe 3 seconds to restart the saw. ;) See if the dealer will give you a Jonsered or Husky harness instead of the Stihl harness. Those Stihl harnesses are hard on the hide of the lower back and the underarms.  :

I've only used the FS550 myself and can't comment on the 4 cycle models. The FS550 has been around for quite some time and has been a good design I would say.

If you choose a Husky, can't go wrong either.

I think the warrantees are longer on the non-professional models. I think Echo is the only saw that warrants a full year on professional saws. I don't care for them.

The FS550 is $1250 CDN, might be more if you don't run a thinning crew. Dealers here give about $200 off the price I think.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't think the FS250 is big enough for commercial operations. It is classed as a brush saw. I never see them here. Plus what makes me say no is they have year warrantee, where the commercial ones have 90 days and are clearing saws.

[rebocardo]

> did you check out or try the 3 edge

I use the 3 wing design, you can get through a 2" sapling, eventually, more like burn through it. It is quicker to just take out a hand saw and cut it. I put a good edge on mine so it cuts quicker (which they say not to do), but, it is still pretty much unsuitable for a large amount of big saplings.

[beenthere]

rebo
You have a pic of your blade?  I'm thinkin the talk has been about a saw blade, not the 3 winged chopper blade for grass....maybe I'm wrong here.

[Wudman]

GW,

I work in the Southern Piedmont of Virginia.  Sweet gum (L. styraciflua) is a prolific seeder and pioneer species here.  It will outrun a Virginia Pine across a field.  If you have a seed source and are getting daylight to the ground, you are pretty much wasting your time trying to control sweetgum saplings by mechanical and hack and squirt means.  You can wipe it out this year, but a seed crop will re-establish it immediately if ground conditions permit.  It can grow 6 feet a year in this area.  If you want to attempt control, I would suggest a directed spray of herbicide to the standing sapling crown for anything you can reach that way (Backpack or tractor.)  Glyphosate (Roundup, Accord, Razor, various generics) is very effective on a sweetgum.  It can also be tank mixed with Arsenal of Chopper (Imazypyr).  You would want to minimize non target contact.  Imazypyr when used according to label will not kill pine, but you will get significant growth stunting if applied over the top.  You mentioned mowing.  That would be an effective deterrent if done regularly.  It will take a number of years to kill the sprouts.....and post-thin, you'll have big pine stumps and brush to contend with.  Hope things work well.

Wudman   

[GW]

Thanks Wudman. Once these saplings are down I'll see to it that the lot stays mowed to prevent new growth. The property is on the market so I don't want to wait for these trees to die slowly. Good point about the pine stumps, I wonder how much it would cost to grind a few hundred of them...