grape vines?

[dingeryote]

What do you have against Sassafras?

Like woodchucks, it ain't a problem if it stays out of your crop field.

Sassafrass likes to pop up between blueberry bushes, and right next to a bush. Lop it off and it sends out another runner to come up further down the row. Pretty soon, you have 200' of a blueberry row with Sassafrass popping up.

Glyphosate on the lopped stubs doesn't help, and anything that will kill Sassafrass roots, will kill the bushes as well because of root to root contact. Velpar will knock Sassafrass back, but you run the risk of killing bushes or losing a couple years production if you knock the bushes back. There is no winning with the stuff, so it's a constant defensive battle.

Every fall we run Velpar on the margins to kill off the runners coming out of the tree lines, then run a root ripper down 3' to keep new invaders out. Then spend winter pruning and pulling out the Sassafrass that is coming up. I swear Sassafrass grows all winter.

I like burning it as well for shoulder season and for quick starts, and we have an endless supply in the woodlot.
But like Grape vine, once it gets into the field, it's war.

Anybody else make thier own File' from Sassafrass leaves?
I get a twisted sense of satisfaction from eating, burning, and killing the stuff, but darnif it isn't a handy and usefull Tree species.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Chris-PA]

Well, nature is a PITA but we wouldn't be here without it. Grape, poison ivy, sassafras, it's all native stuff that's been here longer than we have, but all the invasive stuff really bugs me. Briers and vines of all kinds, Japanese knotweed and stilt grass, and that autumn olive that comes up all through the woods. The only one I like is the wineberry bushes - they're a PITA too but my son and I love to eat them. I can't wait until some of the stuff down south gets up here - shouldn't be long until the kudzu arrives.

I swear I'm going to go out with the 142 this spring and just cut piles of autumn olive for firewood. I figure we should burn all the invasive plants first.

 

[brewmonster]

I figure we should burn all the invasive plants first.

Yessir! I say let's start with all that Norway Maple that's taking over every edge and hedge I see!

 

[fubar2]

Grape vines are really pretty easy to get rid of. Cut at least a one foot section out of the vine. Otherwise the root end will send up a shoot and reconnect to the vine and they take off growing again. Then you just let them hang, couple years later they dry out, get brittle and fall on their own. I've never sprayed them and I am just about rid of them. Matter of fact I will make an even trade of my acres of Multiflora Rose to anybody for their grape vines.

 

[cjnspecial]

I don't know about BTU's but they make great wood for smoking food. Similar to apple and other fruitwood.

+1.

 

[zogger]

Multiflora

Grape vines are really pretty easy to get rid of. Cut at least a one foot section out of the vine. Otherwise the root end will send up a shoot and reconnect to the vine and they take off growing again. Then you just let them hang, couple years later they dry out, get brittle and fall on their own. I've never sprayed them and I am just about rid of them. Matter of fact I will make an even trade of my acres of Multiflora Rose to anybody for their grape vines.

man that is some nasty stuff! Taken me six years now but got almost all of it I can reach easy wiped out. I wait until later in the summer when the japanese beetles are hitting them, then spray, get a great "twofer" then.

Poke I almost wiped out here, next will be the privet, got a lot of that done but it just sprouts and resprouts and spreads like crazy.

I inherited with this job fifteen years of 100% pasture and woodlot neglect. What a waste to let things get that bad...

Grape vines though I go out of my way to preserve. I have cut some, when absolutely necessary, but most I find I can work around well enough. I have plenty of wood to cut that isn't completely entangled, although the swamp wood tornado downed stuff is rather heavily laced up. I want as many wild critters here as can be supported, so trying to preserve what food they can get, as I eliminate the above ^ stuff they also rely on. We are finally getting/seeing some deer/turkeys/rabbits. etc, in numbers. The poachers about wiped them out, and I want to make it easy for them to live here, the ones that are coming back.

 

[fubar2]

man that is some nasty stuff! Taken me six years now but got almost all of it I can reach easy wiped out. I wait until later in the summer when the japanese beetles are hitting them, then spray, get a great "twofer" then.

Poke I almost wiped out here, next will be the privet, got a lot of that done but it just sprouts and resprouts and spreads like crazy.

I inherited with this job fifteen years of 100% pasture and woodlot neglect. What a waste to let things get that bad...

Grape vines though I go out of my way to preserve. I have cut some, when absolutely necessary, but most I find I can work around well enough. I have plenty of wood to cut that isn't completely entangled, although the swamp wood tornado downed stuff is rather heavily laced up. I want as many wild critters here as can be supported, so trying to preserve what food they can get, as I eliminate the above ^ stuff they also rely on. We are finally getting/seeing some deer/turkeys/rabbits. etc, in numbers. The poachers about wiped them out, and I want to make it easy for them to live here, the ones that are coming back.

I was once told that wild grapes make some of the best wine on the planet. Although I've never had any or figured out how they gathered enough of them to know. I like critters too but I'm trying to grow trees and established grape vines and mature trees just don't mix well.

I think God invented Multiflora Rose just so he can smite people and bring his wrath down on them without lifting a finger.

 

[super3]

Anybody else make thier own File' from Sassafrass leaves?
Dingeryote

I do.

 

[indiansprings]

I cut and try killing all the grape vines I can. When I was a kid 10-12 years old some of us boys used to cut them when they were about 1/2" in dia and whittle a mouthpiece on a a 6-8" long piece and smoke them. Thought we were really getting by with something. It always left a funny taste in your mouth and made it feel like your tongue swelled a little. Those were the simple days, four or five us trying to smoke them while swimming or fishing down on the creek.

 

[1project2many]

Where I grew up the wild grapes had taken hold and entire hillsides, miles of them, were nothing but grape leaves. The vines didn't produce much fruit and the little they made were usually sour. We had one across from my house that made sweet grapes every couple of years but it was an exception. Ya know, it was years before I realized that vine had completely covered an apple tree and almost killed it. Grapevine is a very fibrous "wood" and it likes to attract water. I probably wouldn't try to burn it.

Around here the scourge is Chinese Bittersweet. I pulled miles of roots out of the corner of my property after it had taken down a couple of nice Maples 5 years ago and it's still trying to return. Every year I walk the property every couple of weeks checking the hot spots for seedlings and sprouts. The birds like to sit in the trees and drop the seeds and from there the battle's on.

View attachment 208876View attachment 208877

 

[dingeryote]

Grape vines are really pretty easy to get rid of. Cut at least a one foot section out of the vine. Otherwise the root end will send up a shoot and reconnect to the vine and they take off growing again. Then you just let them hang, couple years later they dry out, get brittle and fall on their own. I've never sprayed them and I am just about rid of them. Matter of fact I will make an even trade of my acres of Multiflora Rose to anybody for their grape vines.

Fubar,
I wish cutting a chunk out would kill ours. Problem is the roots will also send up another vine elsewhere, and thanks to bieng irrigated, the roots will not die without lots of help.

On that Multiflora rose, there is only one answer. Scortched earth doctrine warfare. It can be gotten rid of rather painlessly if you don't mind the collateral damage. DuPont? Velpar® L herbicide

Had about 2 acres of the stuff in a section we cleared and then fallowed before planting, and it came back up. We had to put off planting for an additional year, but Velpar nuked it. At label rates for spot spray, mature trees are safe but might get knocked back and everything else will be deader than fried chicken with nothing coming up for a full year. Velpar makes things look like the moon. If you get the Velpar on now, the Multiflora rose will start to leaf out in the spring, and then croak. An additional application in late March will put a nail in it's coffin and sterilize the soil untill the following spring of 2013...it's evil #### but handy.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[fubar2]

Fubar,
I wish cutting a chunk out would kill ours. Problem is the roots will also send up another vine elsewhere, and thanks to bieng irrigated, the roots will not die without lots of help.

On that Multiflora rose, there is only one answer. Scortched earth doctrine warfare. It can be gotten rid of rather painlessly if you don't mind the collateral damage. DuPont? Velpar® L herbicide

Had about 2 acres of the stuff in a section we cleared and then fallowed before planting, and it came back up. We had to put off planting for an additional year, but Velpar nuked it. At label rates for spot spray, mature trees are safe but might get knocked back and everything else will be deader than fried chicken with nothing coming up for a full year. Velpar makes things look like the moon. If you get the Velpar on now, the Multiflora rose will start to leaf out in the spring, and then croak. An additional application in late March will put a nail in it's coffin and sterilize the soil untill the following spring of 2013...it's evil #### but handy.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

I started cutting sections out of the vines about five years ago and I do find a few new shoots but after a lifetime of fighting rose it amazed me how few. In five years I've all but wiped out the grape vines and not used spray.
I have another section of fairly open woods of smaller trees and thats where the rose is killing me, too much open canopy that lets light in and they go nuts. I'd be afraid to spray them other than spot spray. I wipe out any mother plant I find and shoots as I find them, but its like a full time job or they take over. Crossbow works pretty good on rose also. I take a pair of pruning shears along with me when I cut wood and when I get tired of cutting grab the shears and take a walk. Its a good way to relieve yourself of frustrations.

 

[fubar2]

Dinger, did you know some people use Multiflora Rose to make archery arrows out of? That right there tells ya how evil they are.

 

[dingeryote]

Fubar,

Those young trees should be fine with Velpar and spot spraying the soil, as long as the trees are 10' or so away and you use label rate for soil type. Go too heavy and you'll knock 'em back though.

I hear ya on the constant battle and sympathize. On top of the field cherry, sassafrass,Grape vines and poison ivy, the local birds have spread sumac in a 5 acre young field. Get 5 rows cleared and turn around, and they are coming back up LOL!!! Never ends.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[dingeryote]

Dinger, did you know some people use Multiflora Rose to make archery arrows out of? That right there tells ya how evil they are.

No doubt the stuff is evil. I have seen where the stuff pushed out our native Greenbrier and started to choke out Sassafrass.

Ya ever notice that theres nothing but bare ground under and around the darn things and there is never any Poison ivy in it?

The stuff we pushed up and came back, came back in a low spot in the field where we burned a bunch of brush. Even the Nutsedge didn't try in that spot. It's nasty alright.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[bbxlr8]

I've seen some that big also. They will kill trees out and make it very hard to fall a tree with them tied in together with them. They will hold a tree up with nothing but a little hinge wood left. I've never seen poison ivy over 2". I don't burn it but I will pull it off a tree. I'm not allergic.

Unfortunately on my property I have both big time. After moving to lehigh valley PA, I spent MANY hours with the axe walking the woods killing PI vines up to 6". I too kill the grape in mature trees and have several hung up from recent storms due to them.