What to do with sweet gum?

[Reagan]

I’m hunting a new place this year. There is a lot of sweet gum. I don’t think it has much wild life value. Doesn’t seem to be good for logging and even if it were most are 10-14 in diameter. There is no other timber that would need cut yet.

I do need to thicken up some areas so I plan to get out my chainsaw this winter. Sweet gum appears to be a readily available target.

Should I hinge them?

Cut them down?

Do I need to spray them? Will they stump sprout or sucker?

Does it make decent firewood?

What do you do with it?






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[Skelly]

It’s a junk wood. I typically just use for bonfire wood.

I have a lot on my property. I have not seen any wildlife usage

 

[144]

They will definitely stump sprout. I would use herbicide on them or you’ll have a lot worse issue after cutting them than you do now. Planning to do the same to a lot in my place this winter.

And I agree with Skelly, junk wood. And they produce some of the loudest leaves you’ve ever stepped on going to a deer stand, once they die and dry out...


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[Native Hunter]

I don't do hinging, so someone else can answer that. I will say that where they like to grow around here, they are like an invasive species. Once you open up the canopy, millions of them will sprout from seed and choke out other desirable trees. They grow twice as fast as white oak and get as big as white oak. They grow as fast or faster than yellow poplar.

Spray the stumps with pure Gly. That does the job to prevent sprouting .

As firewood I would rate it about the same or maybe a tad better than soft maple. It is hard to split too, so I wouldn't even try splitting any.

 

[MickT]

Hack and squirt


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[Triple C]

As others have said...cut and spray immediately. Otherwise, within 5 years you'll have 5 times as many trees from the suckering that will be upwards of 18 to 20 ft tall.

 

[Bill]

It is hard to split too, so I wouldn't even try splitting any.

Indeed! Nearly impossible to split even with a hydraulic splitter once it gets big. It's got a grain like a corkscrew. And I don't know if anything eats all those darn seeds (we call them Monkey balls)

One thing Reagan said was he needs to thicken up some spots. No, sweet gum isn't the best tree for deer. But if you open up an area of sweet gums new seedlings will explode. I wouldn't want a full stand of it, but if you need stem count "quick" in a few areas it might be a good choice.
Sometimes we need to work with what we have. Again I wouldn't plant it but if it's there it gets thick, quick...

Also not much Timber value but it is used. When I had my land in NJ logged they took gum. The mills were using it for spacers between stacks of good mill boards.

 

[davidhelmly]

We just had a couple hundred acres cut on a property that we lease, they cut all of the big sweet gum and thinned the pines. The landowner said that sweet gum is actually bringing more than pine right now, I think they mostly make pallets out of it.

 

[Reagan]

Wow. Thanks guys. I never hunted a place with much sweet gum on it. This sounds like a battle I’ll never win.


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[MickT]

Is this land you own or hunt? Don’t kill anything without the landowner’s blessing.


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[Reagan]

I own it. I can’t imagine anyone would be dumb enough to kill trees on a property they don’t own. That would be a fast ticket to no hunting permission.

When I look at the amount of sweet gum that is there and the amount of pods on the ground, I doubt I will ever make a dent in it. I’m going to start with one particular section of woods and cut down the bigger trees and spray any saplings that I find. Maybe plant some conifers since it is a bedding area.


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[Skelly]

I own it. I can’t imagine anyone would be dumb enough to kill trees on a property they don’t own. That would be a fast ticket to no hunting permission.

When I look at the amount of sweet gum that is there and the amount of pods on the ground, I doubt I will ever make a dent in it. I’m going to start with one particular section of woods and cut down the bigger trees and spray any saplings that I find. Maybe plant some conifers since it is a bedding area.


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Well there are some dumbasses out there.

Buddy of mine let a long time friends son hunt his property this year (up in till a couple weeks ago). The kid put a ground blind in and decided that the 10-11 10’ tall white oaks were in his shooting lanes so he decided to cut them down.

Can’t fix stupid.