Bedding maintenance

[ZAG]

I have an area that has many smaller diameter ash trees that are dead and one benefit is sunlight to the ground.

I did some tsi/hinge cutting 3-4yrs ago and this area has really blown up and has gotten pretty thick. Thick to the point It’s fairly tough to navigate and I think that’s effecting how often the bed inside. 
It has a lot of autumn olive, multiflora rose and some other zero value shrub. Ideally with removing these hopefully more grasses or goldenrod will sprout up. This is fairly close to the new food plot so my goal is to get this looking good to keep the deer close!

With this nice little stretch of weather I tried some hack and squirt using my battery powered Stihl and a squirt bottle of brush killer. Not sure how effective this will be but having decent temps and no freezing for a few days I figured I try it. Have a ton more to go but its a start.

Here’s a few pics

[ZAG]

Probably one of the nicest Jan 2nd’s I’ll ever get in the woods! Fantastic day!

[Bucndoe]

DR mower will crush that it no time

[Bucksnbows]

Multiflora rose. Not good in deer bedding areas, so kill that crap. Otherwise, the thicker the better! 

[G-man]

2 hours ago, ZAG said:

I have an area that has many smaller diameter ash trees that are dead and one benefit is sunlight to the ground.

I did some tsi/hinge cutting 3-4yrs ago and this area has really blown up and has gotten pretty thick. Thick to the point It’s fairly tough to navigate and I think that’s effecting how often the bed inside. 
It has a lot of autumn olive, multiflora rose and some other zero value shrub. Ideally with removing these hopefully more grasses or goldenrod will sprout up. This is fairly close to the new food plot so my goal is to get this looking good to keep the deer close!

With this nice little stretch of weather I tried some hack and squirt using my battery powered Stihl and a squirt bottle of brush killer. Not sure how effective this will be but having decent temps and no freezing for a few days I figured I try it. Have a ton more to go but its a start.

Here’s a few pics

Multiflora rose and autumn olive are easiest and best controlled in early spring at 1st sign of leaf out.  Theybare 1st and only shrubs to show leaves along with honeysuckle.  A simple mix of gly ( roundup )at 2%  applied with back back or hand sprayer  knocks them out quick and minimal disturbance to soil so seeds dont germinate.

[ZAG]

1 hour ago, G-man said:

Multiflora rose and autumn olive are easiest and best controlled in early spring at 1st sign of leaf out.  Theybare 1st and only shrubs to show leaves along with honeysuckle.  A simple mix of gly ( roundup )at 2%  applied with back back or hand sprayer  knocks them out quick and minimal disturbance to soil so seeds dont germinate.

I gave this a try on the autumn olive. Multiflora rose ill have to take a broader spraying approach.

Edited January 3, 2023 by ZAG

[G-man]

1 hour ago, ZAG said:

I gave this a try on the autumn olive. Multiflora rose ill have to take a broader spraying approach.

To dilute.  Buy a gerneric 41 % and mix it heavy 2 to 5%  will kill it. Been using a 20 gal sprayer on atv with want and  just killing back trails and pockets  i can get into. Get further along every year. 

[Bucksnbows]

Unless you really hate non native plants, keep the autumn olive. It’s a bedding area and not a foodplot, and the olive is great bedding cover. And I’m one that gets paid to kill invasive plants. 

[Keith Nehrke]

It does suck that anything you open up will fill in with invasive species. I eradicate Japanese knotweed, Oriental bittersweet, and Swallowwort. I tolerate Autumn Olive and Honeysuckle. Buckthorn and Prickly Ash seem to come up everywhere; the thorns make management painful sometimes (I buried 3/4" in my eye once). Multiflora got set back by disease a few years ago, but it seems to be making a comeback. Time to grab the sprayer. 

Overall though, I could spend all day everyday fighting this stuff and it wouldn't make a difference. The best competitor wins. I try to plant native species so that they have a chance, but outside of dogwood it seems like everything gets pummeled by insects or deer. 

I've been to some beautiful places that haven't yet experienced this influx of foreign garbage and tell folks there to treasure what they have. The woods is a vastly different place once the invasives take over.

[ZAG]

10 hours ago, Keith Nehrke said:

It does suck that anything you open up will fill in with invasive species. I eradicate Japanese knotweed, Oriental bittersweet, and Swallowwort. I tolerate Autumn Olive and Honeysuckle. Buckthorn and Prickly Ash seem to come up everywhere; the thorns make management painful sometimes (I buried 3/4" in my eye once). Multiflora got set back by disease a few years ago, but it seems to be making a comeback. Time to grab the sprayer. 

Overall though, I could spend all day everyday fighting this stuff and it wouldn't make a difference. The best competitor wins. I try to plant native species so that they have a chance, but outside of dogwood it seems like everything gets pummeled by insects or deer. 

I've been to some beautiful places that haven't yet experienced this influx of foreign garbage and tell folks there to treasure what they have. The woods is a vastly different place once the invasives take over.

No doubt. I’m gonna take a stab to at least knock it down. My arms all cut up from them damn thorns. Gonna get the blade for the stihl and attack it that way and have someone spray behind me. 

[ZAG]

19 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Unless you really hate non native plants, keep the autumn olive. It’s a bedding area and not a foodplot, and the olive is great bedding cover. And I’m one that gets paid to kill invasive plants. 

My vision is to add some clumps of pines for some overhead cover. Remove mfr and aa and ideally it induces further grasses/goldenrod growth and cover in the 0-5ft range. 
Maybe even seed in some native grasses to help the regeneration process. 

[ZAG]

Got 2hrs in this am. I wanted to get home for the Bills game.

Today I kinda passed over the smaller ones ones and hit the larger AO. I found some pretty large diameter ones.

My brother bought the echo brush cutter blade today so that will work great on the smaller crap.

[ZAG]

Well, got a couple hrs of work in today. This crap is big, tall and everywhere. Parts are so damn thick its impenetrable.
Got a long way to go but thankfully weather has been very cooperative!!

[ZAG]

Oh, one thing I wanted to mention is the fact I’ve been using the battery powered stihl the entire time. I have two batteries and exhausted both of them. A little to big of a job as it chews up the battery life fairly quick. I enjoy how quiet it is and how light it is. The next day ur bodys not reminded that you lugged around a heavy chainsaw 😁

I may take a ride back down tomorrow and start a fire and start burning this stuff up. My original thought was to just leave it but there is sooooo damn much of it.

[mowin]

11 hours ago, ZAG said:

Oh, one thing I wanted to mention is the fact I’ve been using the battery powered stihl the entire time. I have two batteries and exhausted both of them. A little to big of a job as it chews up the battery life fairly quick. I enjoy how quiet it is and how light it is. The next day ur bodys not reminded that you lugged around a heavy chainsaw 😁

I may take a ride back down tomorrow and start a fire and start burning this stuff up. My original thought was to just leave it but there is sooooo damn much of it.

I've been thinking about getting a electric chainsaw.  How long did your batteries last? Understand you were pushing it...