Clearing Big Bush Honeysuckles and Other Invasive Shrubs Using a Chainsaw - January 14, 2022
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
- The non-native bush Honeysuckles can grow to impressive sizes if left untreated. Their removal requires more thought and care than smaller infestations. While this work can be done with hand tools, like bow saws, it is much easier and faster using a chainsaw. We discuss our procedure and why we choose to do it in winter. We also explain why we choose to use a battery-operated chainsaw. Because we heat with wood, our procedure tends to focus on saving the majority of the cut brush for firewood, but the basic principles remain the same whether you are harvesting the wood, leaving it to rot in place, or hauling it to a burn pile. The proper and safe use of herbicides (glyphosate) to prevent resprouts from the cut stems is explained.
Oak Haven is a 60-acre private woodland in Southwestern Ohio near Cincinnati. Jim and Julie Varick both have degrees in Botany and over thirty years of experience in managing natural areas. They enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for the natural world and would like to build relationships with like-minded people to share knowledge and resources.
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I have cut or pulled 10's of thousands of honeysuckle bushes over the past 2 years. I have tried every concept imaginable. The absolute most effective and quickest method I have found so far is to pull it out of the ground. If the crown is removed it does not grow back. The roots do not need to be removed, just the crown which is usually shallow. For many smaller bushes, this can be done by hand and is easiest after a frost heave. Just grab the trunk and yank it out of the ground. Removing the crown has been 100% effective in my experience. For larger bushes, a portable winch takes them out and drags them to wherever I want them to be. Honeysuckle has shallow roots that spread out like spider legs. I cut one or two that will be in tension when winching. A sawzall is great for this. Just stick the blade in the dirt and move it until I feel a root. Pull the trigger and cut. The winch then pulls the entire bush out in operation. The roots are fragile and snap easy when bent. This is what makes the winch work so well. The roots have high tensile strength though. That's why I sometimes cut one or two opposite of the winch as I mentioned. Occasionally I will come across a bush that I cannot get the crown out. This is usually on a steep hillside with a lake at the bottom. The only direction to pull is uphill. This causes the winch to pull the bush into the earth stalling the winch. In this case I cut and squirt the stump with herbicide. I have found the cut&squirt method to be less than 100% reliable. It works most of the time, but not always. Especially if I get the timing wrong (time of year, unexpected rain, etc.). Five or more sprouts will pop up around the stump in a couple weeks. The sprouts have grown 7 feet in only 6 months. With 180 acres to manage, I do not want to go back and check all the stumps. So that's why I pull out the crown as often as I can. As for the chainsaw, I found honeysuckle to dull the chain quickly. I sharpen it every day when working with honeysuckle. I also have to tighten the chain a bit more than usual when cutting honeysuckle. Otherwise it derails often. This seems to be true of any saw regardless of make, model, or size. Every time a new helper comes out with his saw I suggest he tighten the chain. I always get the same response, "I'll use like this and see what happens". Minutes later he is walking back to the truck for his bar wrench. I got a saw with tooless chain tensioner just for honeysuckle. Thanks for the tip on using herbicide on the outer edge. That will save me time and money.
When we first bought our property, I used a front end loader to push over the honey suckle. Using a winch would be better where the loader can't go.
Makes me feel better watching someone else tackle this challenge. I’ve come to develop a hatred for honeysuckle and multiflora rose as I suffer through this process. At least we’re spending time in the woods! Really enjoying the videos! Thank you
It is good to be out in the woods. To be honest, I wouldn't look as closely at things in the woods if I wasn't always out there fighting exotics.
I hear you. We recently acquired a 75 acre property that has maybe 40 Acres of honeysuckle shrubs that took over the old grazing pastures. We're working on it!! 🤣🌿
I dont know how i missed this video. This honeysuckle has really taken over since my dad sold the cattle. I just want the woods to be like i remember as a kid walking on paths. I get so excited seeing an old cow path after cutting through the invasive crap. 😀
It's nice to have those moments of excitement! It makes all the effort worth while.
Good stuff! Love it!
We were so delighted to buy our property from an avid gardener, only discover that more than half of the well-established plantings are invasive species called out in our state’s no-fly list 🤦🏻♀️ One of these is a large honeysuckle that has been pruned into a massive tree form. I tried working on it last fall but couldn’t cut through the trunk-watching your video, I think either my chainsaw was undersized or needed to be lubricated better. Learning a lot and will report back up a few weeks on our success! Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge!
Sounds like you have a battle ahead of you. Good luck!
I really like your videos. I’m a forestry student and I wanted to learn more about invasive species and how to get them out of the way for our native species to regenerate.
Good luck in your Forestry career!
Same!
We're working on 40 honeysuckle-infested acres in WI and we've found that a sawzall with a pruning blade + glyphosate stump treatment works like a charm. The sawzall's benefit is that it can handle the big stuff while being less dangerous, and you don't have to worry about the blade touching the dirt. We have basically zero regrowth and we've been chipping as much of the honeysuckle as we can to use in our garden and for paths. Hope that helps!
@@aaaaallllld7576 Agreed, the recip saw is a perfect tool for managing shrubs.
Great video
Thanks!
great video & tips!
I became aware of the Amur honeysuckle a few years ago. My science-teacher daughter got me started with Identification and cutting and treating. Now I have a pole saw and sprayer, and although I’m a woman at 78, I enjoy working in the woods. Feels good to cut them down. (I’ve had many truckloads) I have 3/4 acre in town. They have really spread, so cities need to send out crews. I have relied on your videos for reaffirmation. Thank you for making them. I’m sharing and trying to get the word out..
Sandra, you are my new inspiration! Thanks for the comment. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for your compliment. I am now in Florida spending the winter near my daughter and family…..and now fighting Brazilian Pepper trees that are encroaching on my property….right on the edge, so guess what! It’s quite out of hand down here. Obviously many things go crazy down here in the warmer weather. Had a freeze a few weeks ago which caused a lot of grief though.
Great info we are in SW PA and have multi flora infeasting our woods it is now spring and it is worse than ever.
Love to see a video that gives good info on how to deal with an issue that we too are tackling. Also like to see someone making an effort to do it in an environmentally conscious way.
Thanks for the note. I either get the, "Thanks for being environmentally conscious" or "How can you keep destroying the world".
Ever try buckthorn blaster sponge bottle herbicide applicators? They're fantastic and there's no need to lug around a tank like that. Way simpler.
I will consider getting one! (They are out of stock currently.) I like the portability of the applicator, but I also like the longer rod on my sprayer so I don't have to bend over the whole time (particularly when using a brush cutter).
Clearing honeysuckle is so rewarding. We bought 5 acres along a river 3 years ago and I've cleared maybe 25% of my large honeysuckle stands. My method is remove entirely. I have some even bigger than the ones you show in this video. They get dug out with a pick axe and popped out with an ATV or truck (if I can get it there). It's so exciting to see what comes back in the spring. Last year I cleared a huge hill near the river and the entire hill was covered in blue bells!
It's exciting to see the results!
These videos are invaluable! I have massive, massive honeysuckles here, like I mean trunks the size of 300 year-old oaks. You wouldn't believe it. A neighbor helped take down like a 40-foot high tree recently, that trunk was only about 20 inches diameter. I can't do those of course myself, but I got plenty smaller ones to entertain myself with, and I have one strong helper a few times a week. The big goal though, from what I read is that I MUST pick an area to clear out then keep clear and I believe the best thing to do once it is clear is replant with natives asap so they can get a foothold. I ordered 130 seedlings (supposed to be a wildlife mix, 10 plants each of 13 species) to be delivered in spring. I hope I can clear enough space to have room. Thank you for your excellent work. I ordered them through a Indiana DNR program with Vallonia nursery.
Sounds like you are making an amazing difference! Having something to fill in the niche vacated by the non-native is important. Particularly when you are providing all that great sunshine down to the forest floor.
How did your plantings go?
Thank you for the video. I've been slowly learning about the different species in our woodland I didn't realize it was honeysuckle I was trying to remove last fall. The result this year was saplings everywhere! I've been doing some research and treated some of it but wasn't sure how much longer I could work on the larger shrubs. It's very useful to know I probably still have a couple of months I can be tackling some of the larger bushes spreading up the creeks, previously I thought I had to stop when the leaves were gone.
I am just shifting to cutting and treating the bushes and will do so until spring.
So glad to have discovered your videos as we battle the honeysuckle that has invaded our 17 acres. Would you be willing to do a video on your approach to the vine (not bush)? We have vines entwined in other precious bushes and trees and are afraid to spray.
It is labor intensive, but I would cut the main stem at the base and treat the cut stem with 20% glyphosate. It may do too much damage to try and pull the vines out immediately, so I would wait until they are dried and fragile.
I like your Wand of Death for the cut stems. It looks easier to use than the paintbrush method and without the overspray of hand spray bottles.
The right tool for the right job. I will add a paint dauber to my arsenal.
There are parts of my property that you cannot walk through if you tried. This gives me hope!
Hope is a good thing. Spending time beating the Honeysuckle into submission just gives you an excuse to be outdoors. Plus, you can cancel your gym membership!
We’ve been working on removing honeysuckle this winter but noticed last week that some of it is already starting to leaf out from this crazy spring-like weather in southwest Ohio. Will the herbicide still be effective? Thank you for your videos. They have been very helpful!
Thanks for your management videos, i've watched several now. I purchased a property last year that has a few massive stands of shrub honeysuckle and tree of heaven with a bit of autumn olive and bittersweet thrown in. Luckily they are pretty concentrated so it is no where near the effort you're putting in. I'll be tackling some of my larger honeysuckle today then hack and squirting my tree of heavens in July.
After doing some additional research i'll be spiking my glyphosate with a bit of triclopyr for the two shrubs and the triclopyr with a bit of imazapyr for the ToH. Some studies have show Imazapyr to be more effective than straight triclopyr it also has a bit more cross contamination through the roots. Unfortunately the tree of heaven stands are so dense there isn't really anything else to contaminate and considering the size of some of them (the "mother" is over foot and a half in diameter) I feel the extra boost is warranted.
You mention your bar oil is pretty pricy. Another bio friendly option is canola oil. There are quite a lot of accounts of people using it for decades. I'll be switching to it after my current bio friendly option runs out.
I have heard of people using canola oil as bar oil. I was concerned that it wouldn't store as well. As it is, I bought enough Motion Lotion to keep me going for years (to save on shipping). TOH could use more killing power than just the triclopyr. I will have to look into that. Glyphosate has worked perfectly by itself for cut stumps of Honeysuckle, Autumn Olive, Bittersweet, and others, so I am not interested in adding anything more to the mix. I have considered adding triclopyr to glyphosate for foliar treatments of Autumn Olive, Winter Creeper, and Burning Bush. Thanks for the comments.
We removed a neighborhood stand of Tree of Heaven with the "chainsaw and immediately spray the stump with 20% glyphosate" method.
You WILL get a horde of loosely-attached shoots the next spring, or two, coming from the roots. Patrol the area and pull them up as soon as you see them, or hit them with spot spray glyphosate.
The wood makes decent firewood.
It is August here in S Central PA and I am thinking the fastest way to open up the understory is to cut and squirt the larger shrubs and hand pull the saplings. This will give the younger native trees a boost and begin opening up the understory for other plants. There is no need to cut down the dead limbs later on away from the paths except for access to plant native shrubs.
Thanks for making these bush honeysuckle control videos. Helpful in comparing and improving to our efforts. Have you considered chipping on site, where possible?
I have definitely considered chipping. If I had a use for chips, I might consider it, but I don't want to haul them too far. I thought about chipping and just spraying on the ground, but I don't want to "mulch" the natives that may be trying to fight their way to the surface.
@@TheWoodlandSteward our plan is to spread chips and concentrate them on narrow trails. Hope to employ prescribed burning to regenerate native plants if the natural seed bank is viable
The cut branches make excellent screening against deer browse if you have certain trees or other plants you wan to protect from them.
Would you recommend seeding some robust native species on the cleared meadows? That could help prevent new invasives.
My property has the same problem a large population of mature honeysuckle. I'm glad to see it is manageable. I was curious to how long your battery last on your saw?
Manageable, but definitely a lot of work. When I am cutting firewood and running the saw pretty regularly I will run through two 6 amp hour batteries and one 9 amp hour battery in about an hour and a half. If I am just cutting shrubs and letting them lay where they fall, I can cut for several hours on one battery.
I live in Illinois have a lot of bush honey suckle with the berries on now. If I just leave it on the ground aren't the berries just going to seed more of the plant? Enjoy the videos. I've been running the smaller stuff through a chipper shredder "destroying" the berries. Thanks
I do wonder if the shredder chops up the seeds. I hate to leave the berries, but if I cut down limbs with berries I try to pile them together to keep the area that needs controlling smaller.
Appreciate your tips, and especially love it when Timber and Cayenne join you. You mention there is time when sap flow is too much to get good herbicide application. For honeysuckle in particular do you actually take a break in spring, and is there leaf emergence or other signs that it’s time to take a break?
We take a break in the spring from cutting honeysuckle because we have a full plate weeding Garlic Mustard. We do weed small honeysuckles while we are looking for GM. Because we are not out cutting in the spring, I can't give you any signs about sap flow from personal experience. I feel like honeysuckle has a less vigorous flow in the spring than some things things. If you don't see any sap flowing and washing off your herbicide application, you are probably fine. If you try it and find that you have a problem, please let me know.
@@TheWoodlandSteward Thanks for the feedback. We are just at first anniversary of starting restoration of our small mix of floodplain, wetland and upland woods. Cutting up to 5” diameter last weekend (Apr 2) we didn’t notice any high sap flow, so hoping we have good kill. Property just north of Muncie, IN so we are a couple weeks behind you in spring season. Thankfully we don’t seem to have garlic mustard.
Keep up the great work. We need whole battalions of folks like you! How did you dye your glyphosate? I've been thinking about adding some food coloring to my Round-Up just so I can see where it's going a little easier, but I wasn't sure if it'd work. I'll have to look into tying a sponge on to the end of my sprayer like that!
We use Liquid Harvest Lazer Blue Concentrated Spray Pattern Indicator by Sanco. I used to buy it locally by the pint (from Rural King), but it is cheaper to buy from the manufacturer by the gallon.
@@TheWoodlandSteward I'll have to look into that. While I was out fighting the privet, I noticed that I have Creeping Charlie infesting the land. With as much lawn as I have, I'll need some kind of marking dye to help me see where I've been!
Hello Jim, I have been enjoying watching and learning from your videos. I do have a question in reference to the fire wood you will use @7:18. How do you go about collecting the fire wood on 6 acres of shrubby and hilly woods? I ask because I have a similar issue. Many thanks in advance. M
I wish I had a good answer for you. I modified an old external frame backpack to hold firewood. I used that for a while until I decided that the wood wasn't worth the effort. It's a good exercise program, though.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Super helpful. We just acquired 55+ acres in central Northern Illinois, with roughly 20 acres of wooded area. Heavily populated with honesuckle...we never know how bad it was!
Question regarding new plantings. Is there any concern with the herbicide lingering if we want to plant new native trees and berries in the following spring after treating the honeysuckle stumps with glyphosate? Should there be an effort to remove the stumps the following year before planting new trees?
Glyphosate has almost no soil activity. It gets bound up and doesn't get into new planting. I have never had any problems. Farmers plant crops soon after spraying.
Excellent content. How long will your saw let you work before the battery dies? Keep up the good fight!
Because I am not cutting constantly (like I would be if I were just cutting firewood) the battery lasts for maybe any hour. I'm not sure on that.
Up in Iowa, there's a company called Rocoza Ag that's using drones to apply chemicals to crop fields. Got me thinking about the situation with huge patches of invasives like you're dealing with here. I'm fighting bamboo and privet, and would love to spray the bamboo leaves like everyone recommends, but I can't climb that high. A drone, though, could apply it in about five minutes. According to Rocoza Ag, they can cover a 400 acre field in under a day. Think about how many thousands of acres we have covered in kudzu, privet, honeysuckle and other such things. Knock them back with an herbicide and there's a bit of breathing room for the clean-up crew.
Interesting use of drones! I like the idea of not spraying up at the tops of plants, only to have the spray mist down on me.
@@TheWoodlandSteward The great part is that you're nowhere around when the spraying's done. You can be sitting in your warm car a half-mile away from the target, flying that drone while sipping a nice warm cup of coffee! 😁
I think there's a market for it, that's for sure. In Georgia, I remember seeing huge swaths of land overtaken by the kudzu. The real issue is that traditional aircraft can't get in there due to all the hills and valleys. Spot-targeting requires something that's nimble and can stay right at the tops of the plants to minimize overspray.... which the drone seems to do very well.
Can you talk about the equip you use? I would like to some myself.
Good point! Thanks.
Honeysuckle makes amazing bonfires
Lots of sparks
God that meadow is a massive tinderbox. Pray that it never catches.
eastern forests are now quite wet compared to western forests so hopefully fire is less of a risk too.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
@@jphickory522 Try the Good News translation in modern conversational English. Most people will relate to it better.
Hi, so I have goats that are eating the honeysuckle.... And sometimes I chop down the tall bushes for them so they can get to the high foliage. I don't want to apply chemicals obviously while they are nearby. Any advice for the best way to go back and kill the base of the larger bushes/trees since they didn't get treated right away?
I would try applying a Triclopyr 4 product mixed according to label directions with diesel or kerosene for basal bark treatment. The oil base give you more working time than the water based herbicides. The oil lets it absorb through the bark of the stump.
@@TheWoodlandSteward thanks!!!
Can this approach be used for Quaking Aspen shoots? Desire to only kill the suckers or shoots and not the parent tree. Understand quaking aspen is not invasive but looking for educated options. Thx
No. The glyphosate will translocate into the roots of the entire stand and damage the parent.
I with landscapers would stop selling quaking aspen as if it were a single tree! There are other trees with the same effect, minus the spreading shoots.
I'm going to agree with @lazygardens. I would assume that is may kill the parent tree as well.
A helmet would be a nice especially when you are using the saw above your head. Chaps will not save you when using a electric saw.
Good points! Thanks. I didn't realize the concern about electric saws and chaps. It looks like they area still helpful, if not 100%.
Is it better to spray stem ends that get shattered by my chainsaw rather than dab. Dabbing these is time consuming. I mean how do you even know what is cambium at that point? 1:22
I've never had any problem with dabbing the torn stems. If it is small enough to get torn apart by the blade it all gets covered by one dab. At that point it doesn't matter where the phloem is. If it is big enough to focus on treating just the phloem, there should be enough wood to hold it all together.
When I say shattered I mean it is splayed open into 1000 tiny strands about 1" - 2", different lengths. Again time consuming and probably just guesswork. Spray?
I bought a pair of chaps after I cut my leg open and nearly bled out in the woods.
Sorry to hear about your accident. I managed to cut my knee while scrambling under dense Honeysuckle with a gas chainsaw. I also bought a pair of chaps that I should wear more often. It helps me to use an electric chainsaw that isn't running while I am maneuvering into position.
@@TheWoodlandSteward yes, My gas saw wasn’t idled down all the way and I was fatigued from a long day of firewood cutting. The Chan was still moving as I rested the saw on my leg. The chain snagged my jeans and pulled the bar into my leg. It doesn’t take much
I’m interested in killing honeysuckle because my favorite trail in Morgantown WV is infested with it
You're SPRAYING ROUNDUP all over the forest, but you're WORRIED about a couple drops of motor oil DAMAGING the environment??
REALLY?????????
Good point! I can control the motor oil without decreasing my effectiveness. I haven't found an alternative to glyphosate that is safer and as effective, so I choose to minimize its use.
He is using glyphosate in a safe manner.