Asian Honey Suckle removal?

[fields_mj]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question or not, but there isn't a specific place for invasive species so feel free to move this to a more appropriate location.

My question is what are the best ways to remove Asian Honey Suckle?

I've used a brush cutter with triclopyr, and that works well. I've also pulled small stuff up by hand. Recently, I learned that if you cut it and bust up the stump, it will also die. I saw this in application with heavy equipment (excavator), but I'm wondering if there's a way to do something like that on a smaller scale to avoid having to apply the herbicide. I'm thinking a large, straight shaft trimmer with 3 or 4 forester blades mounted on the end that have 1/4" spacers in between. Something that can be used to cut it off, and then turned on end like an edger to bust up the stump. Personally, I'm dealing with about 10 acres of creek bottom where it's started taking hold in spots. In some places, it's spotty, in a few places its thick, but those places are quickly expanding. I want to hit it next spring before it's too late. There's a reasonable chance that I'll be tackling it by myself which is the main reason I'm looking for a way that doesn't involve the herbicide. Too easy to cut a bunch and then miss an area with the herbicide, which just ends up making the stuff angry...

If any of you have noticed this stuff growing on your property, kill it immediately. Over the past 10 years, I've seen it totally over take thousands of acres of forest to the point that nothing else is growing. Not even multiflora rose. We cleared about 2 acres (drop in the bucket) last spring, and went so far as to drag it out in the field so it could be disposed of. I was shocked to see that the forest floor was absolutely barren afterwards. This stuff has little to no nutritional value, its foliage is bad for the water system, and once you get enough of it, it alters the soil, and of course it spreads like wild fire. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad stuff. I don't care if your wife thinks its a pretty bush in the yard. Kill it now.

 

[echomeister]

I cut it up into small pieces with a top handle saw and scatter them around. Clear low enough so you can mow the area.
Then in the spring when it has first growth cut it to the ground, leave no leaves at all. Keep at it through early summer making sure no green vegetation is allowed to grow. It will die.

 

[fields_mj]

Unfortunately, this is about an hour from the house so hauling the tractor up to mow it every few weeks won't work for me. Also I can't get any equipment into some of these areas. Where I can, I plan on putting the tooth bar on my bucket and just ripping it out of the ground. One hillside has some pretty well established growth that will likely be too big for me to budge with my little compact tractor. I'll cut that and dose it with triclopyr because it will be hard to "miss" what I've cut. Maybe by the time I go through it with the tractor and cut the big stuff, the remainder will be a lot more manageable.

 

[fields_mj]

Random thought. Any opinions on stuff low to the ground and using a debarker attachment on a chainsaw to bust up and kill the remaining stump? I'm thinking of putting it on a 28" bar so I don't have to bend over to do the work. Might still be more effort than its worth.

 

[WilliamBill]

Honeysuckle is definitely as invasive as OP describes! Here are several methods of control that I've borrowed successfully from others and used where practical:

1. When the plant is small and the soil is moist, hand pulling is an option if the entire plant can be removed.

2. The cut-stump method involves cutting the bush off at the stump and applying a 20 percent glyphosate solution with a sprayer or brush to thoroughly cover the freshly cut area.

3. Foliar spray the leaves with a 2 percent solution of glyphosate and water plus a non-ionic surfactant, which improves the chemical’s ability to adhere to the plant. This method should be used in early spring or late fall before or after the leaves of desirable native plants are present.

4. The basal-bark method consists of spraying a mixture of 25 percent triclopyr and 75 percent horticultural oil to the bush’s stems to a height of 12 to 15 inches from the ground. Thorough wetting is necessary for good control.

5. Mowing once, twice or more per year prevents honeysuckles from becoming a problem initially or redeveloping after clearing an area.

6. Goats can kill honeysuckle all on their own with a few grazing events over the course of a couple of growing seasons, but many choose to use goats in combination with manual cutting and precise herbicide applications. Goats take an impenetrable jungle of honeysuckle and turn it into something that property owners can manage. Then, cutting can happen much easier, and herbicide can be applied on the cut stumps to prevent re-sprouting.

Another strategy is the graze-cut-graze approach. Goats are used in year #1 to stop the spread of honeysuckle and prepare the area for manual cutting. No herbicide is used, which allows the cut stumps to re-sprout aggressively. That’s a good thing, as long as goats have been scheduled for another pass in year #2. Re-sprouting forces the honeysuckle plants to use a lot of stored energy, weakening them. The goats then prevent the new sprouts from maturing.

 

[fields_mj]

I didn't realize that glyphosate would kill the stump. Pretty sure I have a couple gallons of that (41%) in the garage. If not, its easy enough to get at my local ag supply. Plus, I already have a sprayer that I've dedicated to it. With the triclopyr, they wanted us to cut it and leave about 18" of the stump to spray, and the triclopyr was mixed really thick. I was back in that area this fall, and of the 2 acres we cleared, it killed 90% of it. There was a small amount of regrowth from some of the stumps, and we knew that would be a concern with doing the work in the spring. Overall, it was still very effective. That property has hundreds and hundreds of acres that are infested, so our effort was a drop in the bucket in that regard. However, it did prompt additional, large scale efforts that are having a much more significant impact. My suggestion for future efforts will be to focus on areas of the property that are less infested so that we can eradicate it from those areas, and leave the really thick stuff for the larger scale, mechanized efforts.

Something of note, the area that we worked on was a state fish and wildlife area. We spoke with the property manager about the issue again this fall and mentioned the use of goats. He said they had looked into that and opted against it because goats carry a disease that's easily transmitted to the local deer population which is still recovering from wasting disease. Seems like that should be something that the goats could be tested for and vaccinated against, but it would be something for a land owner to keep in mind. Personally, I would think that is the best option for large scale application, but that's just me and I don't have goats