Honey Locust after the fact

[sunfish]

We have way too many Honey Locus here. Nasty, Nasty stuff, but is good firewood.
Almost not worth the trouble to process though...

 

[midwest_170]

A quart spray bottle loaded with Round-up or other herbicide takes care of that problem but you have to make regular patrols looking for the little shoots. I cut a Black Locust out of my yard and it took about 5 years before shoots quit coming up. The year AFTER I cut it, a shoot came up through a crack in the back porch concrete slab 20' away from where that tree had been

Harry K

You should be using tordon. Tordon kills trees and prevents any new trees from growing for the next 3 years. Also won't kill the grass. Round-up is not labeled for trees, just grass and weeds.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

 

[Landmark]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

Don't think a bird would land on that thing. WOW!!!

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Don't think a bird would land on that thing. WOW!!!

Don't think????

One built a nest in it. Who needs ADT home security!

 

[Landmark]

Don't think????

One built a nest in it. Who needs ADT home security!

I stand corrected. Probably safest bird in the US

 

[old_soul]

Don't think????

One built a nest in it. Who needs ADT home security!

Can't believe people would try to process something like this for firewood. It would take all day screwing around to make a pickup load of wood.

I hate to waste anything too, but replacing tires would cost more than the value of the wood..............

 

[Landmark]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

Maybe wait until the tree dies and build a fire to burn all the thorns off when they are dry. Then you could get to the tree perhaps. And I would only try this after the family of birds moved away. (in case PETA was prying) haha

 

[BCS]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

That is the worst one I have ever seen!! Where is this located?

 

[BCS]

You should be using tordon. Tordon kills trees and prevents any new trees from growing for the next 3 years. Also won't kill the grass. Round-up is not labeled for trees, just grass and weeds.

I have read some mixed reviews for Tordon. I use a product called crossbow for fence rows and it is listed for Honey locust and black locust has anyone had any experience with this

 

[turnkey4099]

You should be using tordon. Tordon kills trees and prevents any new trees from growing for the next 3 years. Also won't kill the grass. Round-up is not labeled for trees, just grass and weeds.

RU works on almost anything that is green and growing. I use it for perennial weeds (Canadian Thistle, Morning Glory) and it works well painted on stumps immediately after cutting a sapling. Tordon would probably do a better job but hten I would be fooling around with two different bottles of spray.

Oddly, I discovered by accident that 24D will kill Lilac sprouts.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Back in the day they used those nasties for nails. I saw that on the internet so it must be true.

Harry K

 

[firebrick43]

I have equal luck with tordon and crossbow. Both work better if mixed with a small amout of diesel fuel and painted on right after it's cut. Diesel fuel helps three suck the chemical down into the roots

 

[mn woodcutter]

When I "have" to work with them in a well traveled area I normally either work them off the trunk as high as I can reach with a hatchet or chainsaw. One trick is to put down a tarp to catch them as they hit the ground. Fold the corner up and carry them all at once and put them in the back of your truck or burn pile. A pitch fork works well for the bulk of them at distance too. Drop the tree and strip the tree first of the limbs you don't want. Get them out of the way and get all the thorns off the trunk and get them gathered up. It's a lot of labor and time but if you have to do it it's nicer than dealing with the thorns later. That was always my job as a kid when I went with Dad.

The red colored ones are the nastys. They are still alive and VERY tough.

Think you got a bad one? Think again......

There is no way I would willingly cut that up for firewood. We have some around here but nothing that loaded with thorns. That is just nasty!

 

[coog]

Much of the Black Locust around here are dying. They seem to lose their thorns with their bark. Glad to have a carbide chain after they are dead standing for a couple of years. Outrageously good firewood.

 

[turnkey4099]

Much of the Black Locust around here are dying. They seem to lose their thorns with their bark. Glad to have a carbide chain after they are dead standing for a couple of years. Outrageously good firewood.

Probably dying due to the Locust Borer. They moved in out here about 15 years ago and did a pretty good job killing BL. I think the borers have may have either died out or moved on. I haven't seen much damage from them recently.

Yes, BL loses the thorns which are very small after about two years. They really aren't a problem except for getting stuck while piling brush.

I have no trouble cutting dead BL with regular chain, I shrpen my own chains and one will usually last me through one work session.

Harry K

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

That is the worst one I have ever seen!! Where is this located?

It is along the road near my parents house, here in Ohio. Whenever I get a tree that has a few vines or thorns I think to myself, "Well, at least it isn't as bad as that tree by Mom and Dads."

 

[coog]

Probably dying due to the Locust Borer. They moved in out here about 15 years ago and did a pretty good job killing BL. I think the borers have may have either died out or moved on. I haven't seen much damage from them recently.

Yes, BL loses the thorns which are very small after about two years. They really aren't a problem except for getting stuck while piling brush.

I have no trouble cutting dead BL with regular chain, I shrpen my own chains and one will usually last me through one work session.

Harry K[/QUOt
Good to hear that about the chain. I always have carbide on one saw because I also cut a lot of dead (read: petrified) Hedge, which will destroy the teeth in one pass. The regular chain is faster.

 

[lindnova]

I never knew honeylocust had that many thorns. The ones around here are the thornless blvd variety trees and might have a few single thorns sticking out. Never knew they were that bad!

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I have read some mixed reviews for Tordon. I use a product called crossbow for fence rows and it is listed for Honey locust and black locust has anyone had any experience with this

I worked at an AG Chem operation for 12 years during and out of high school. Back then Tordon was THE product to use. The Tordon RTU worked VERY well for painting stumps of trees you didn't want to come back. We used quite a bit of the RTU when we were doing fencerows and dad first got 40 acres of woods that hadn't been touched for 50 years. It had scads of grapevines choking and hanging in the trees. Spent about 4 days straight with dad cutting and me following up paint the outer edges of those vines. Whole different woods now.

We also use Tordon pellets but you have to be VERY careful with those as they work REALLY well and will kill other trees and such if it leaches around. I believe they quit making those in the 80's and it seems like Tordon got to be a restricted use herbicide, meaning you have to have a license to buy it. Another product called Spike came out then in pellet form and worked well. I think you can still get that but it is pretty pricey. They may have weakened it some since then but the stuff I still have here works well. It just takes a while to work, meaning a few years.

Never used Tordon to spray growing trees so can't help you there. We used Acme Super Brush Kill and Crossbow. They both work pretty well but again, kind of slow on trees. Rose bushes go quick though! We usually sprayed and let it go for a couple months then retreated what was still green. Follow up the next year. Some trees are harder to get than others. All these products will not effect grass. They are systemic so they kill roots and all.

I Never liked using Roundup for ditchbanks as it would kill everything causing a leaching problem till stuff would grow back. Normally when it did, it would be weeds instead of grass and make a bigger mess. Roundup has NO residual, meaning it only kills what it touches. Once it hits the ground it neutralizes and is done. So much so a lot of nurseries spray beds with it and several hours after plant live plants with no ill effect. If you want everything to be dead and stay dead they make soil sterilant herbicides but they can leech farther than where you spray after the rains come down. That is why we always recommended Roundup for homeowners driveways as you could basically "paint" with it and not have it leech into the yard.

Hope this helps.