Some idgit crashed their van (driving under the influence) into the entrance of our local Walmart injuring a person. Don't care what anyone thinks of Walmart-good or bad. If I were on this jerks jury, I would make sure he got clean and sober via a long prison term.
That is bull thistle. Just separate the crown from the root and give it a couple squirts of roundup. Try not to disturb the ground to much bc chances are you are helping to plant more. You can be fined in Oklahoma if you have that stuff in a pasture and dont try to eradicate it. I bought some sorta biological injection, all natural, about ten years ago when we had a small wave of it come though. Stuff is a pain if it gets established.
Yeah, it is definitely not fun. Been using one of these to yank them, but have not been following up with a chemical Have some ortho ground clear, so may try that after the rains
Have you tried girdling the trees? Just cut thru the bark all the way around the trunk, should kill the tree. If you cut them down they resprout.
I had thought of that but these are very young and there are hundreds in this half acre spot. Have half a mind to drag a plow through and hand pull roots. Then burn anything that sprouts.
I might get some do gooder report me for burning. We have a burning ban in place to protect the firemen and DNR people who would report to a fire. But a guy down the road was burning yesterday. Our town has never allowed burning on a Sunday. I have a spot along the field line that I wanted to burn so that I could clean it out and plant pines. Might have to do that tonight and then blame the neighbor. "Well, his embers started this fire...."
Can't burn on a Sunday? That is crazy. Sundays were always a good fire day, people would do yard work Saturday burn a pile, holdover would escape and bingo.
Cultivator with sharp blades running 2" deep.. or weed flamer torch after a good rain.. or Tordon and some loppers. I have a patch of Sumac that deer like to bed in during the summer but I control the spread of it with a cultivator that I run 2" deep. Cuts the crown from the runner roots and keeps it confined until i have to run it again next year.
Speaking of burning.. when I was in my teens my grandpa made me burn fence lines. He would give me one of those little old metal pump sprayers full of kerosene and a hatchet to cut limbs off cedars. I would use the cedar branch to "smother" the fire if it got out in the field by whacking at the fire like a madman. He would leave me with a jug of water and a sandwich. Good times.. cant do stuff like that these days.
Also a great way to season firewood. Girdle the trees you want to cut down for firewood then come back 2 years later and cut them down and chop em up. They‘ll be seasoned and ready to burn and no rot whatsoever. Saves a bunch of space since you’re essentially seasoning the wood while it’s still standing in the forest. Just make sure that you pick healthy sturdy trees because cutting down a dead half rotten tree is a good way to get smushed.
One thing I would consider before eradicating, do the deer eat them? I started to cut out Hackberry and Redbud tree but instead cut them off 18" from the ground and let them sprout out, the deer demolished them. I think it has something crazy like 30% protein and a high level of selenium.
If you were asking me that question, it is no. I have seen no browsing of these. They have 1 to 1.5 inch thorns on the branches. Need a stout pair of gloves to handle them. They are SHARP!
