Hack and Squirt Question

Natty Bumppo

5 year old buck +
Back in early April I began taking some trees down in a corner of one of my food plots to create more food plot and open up some nearby apples to more sunlight. Been bucking up and stacking the wood and was hoping to get all of the trees on the ground before leaf out so I didn't have to deal with full canopies once on the ground. Didn't quite get there.

About 10 days ago I tried the hack and squirt method on the few remaining red maples. Was hoping to kill the trees so they would drop their leaves and I could then drop, delimb, and buck then up like it was mid winter. I've never done hack and squirt before. I used straight 41% gly. Made several hacks around each tree. The trees show no signs of stress at all.

Do I need to be patient? Is it a bad time of year for hack and squirt? Should I just go in a girdle them and be done with it?

Thanks in advance.

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Definitely be patient. It takes a season to really see any sign of stress and then even longer to deteriorate. I have some in a plot 4 years old still standing but dead. That one on the right is a tall task for hack and squirt. Girdle may have been better. Anything bigger than my thigh I will generally girdle.
 
Definitely be patient. It takes a season to really see any sign of stress and then even longer to deteriorate. I have some in a plot 4 years old still standing but dead. That one on the right is a tall task for hack and squirt. Girdle may have been better. Anything bigger than my thigh I will generally girdle.

Thank you. I had no idea. I was thinking I'd start to see a burn down like I see in my plots in a few weeks.

Going back in with my chainsaw.

Appreciate the response.
 
Thank you. I had no idea. I was thinking I'd start to see a burn down like I see in my plots in a few weeks.

Going back in with my chainsaw.

Appreciate the response.
Yes sir. It’s just a long cycles with translocation of nutrients to the roots.
 
I’ve read somewhere that hack and squirt with 41% gly should be done in the fall when the tree sap is going down into the roots for a better kill. Spring time application with sap rising pushes the gly out of the cut. I did this on aspen trees up to 6 inch diameter one late fall and had 100% kill the next spring.
 
I’ve read somewhere that hack and squirt with 41% gly should be done in the fall when the tree sap is going down into the roots for a better kill. Spring time application with sap rising pushes the gly out of the cut. I did this on aspen trees up to 6 inch diameter one late fall and had 100% kill the next spring.

Not just with gly but any hack and squirt


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I’ve read somewhere that hack and squirt with 41% gly should be done in the fall when the tree sap is going down into the roots for a better kill. Spring time application with sap rising pushes the gly out of the cut. I did this on aspen trees up to 6 inch diameter one late fall and had 100% kill the next spring.

Thanks for the response. I had heard that too. Makes sense.
 
Take a chainsaw and cut the 1st inch into the tree. Do a 2nd girdle cut 2 or 3 inches higher. Hack and squirt is typically done with todron TRU. That is picloram and some 2,4D amine in it.

triclopyr is another commony used hack and squirt chemical.

Mae the girdle cuts and put the chemical on the cuts. Alot of these premixed chemicals use diesel / heating oil as well. The oil prevents the cambrium layer from wicking water up the tree. Do 3 rings if you dont have alot to girdle.

If the sap bleeds out the tordon, it get absorbed from the bark. Young trees can be killed without even cutting into the cambrium layer. I think they call it a basal application.
 
Take a chainsaw and cut the 1st inch into the tree. Do a 2nd girdle cut 2 or 3 inches higher. Hack and squirt is typically done with todron TRU. That is picloram and some 2,4D amine in it.

triclopyr is another commony used hack and squirt chemical.

Mae the girdle cuts and put the chemical on the cuts. Alot of these premixed chemicals use diesel / heating oil as well. The oil prevents the cambrium layer from wicking water up the tree. Do 3 rings if you dont have alot to girdle.

If the sap bleeds out the tordon, it get absorbed from the bark. Young trees can be killed without even cutting into the cambrium layer. I think they call it a basal application.

Got it. Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time to respond.
 
As for translocation of the chemical for hack and squirt... I did the Harper's cocktail (Arsenal, Garlon, water + blue dye) during a handful of days this January. I mainly targeted every sweet gum I could find and most of the elm. That made up a lot of canopy in some areas. Somewhat by accident I witnessed a pretty crazy thing regarding the chemical. On a few test trees I shaved the bark down to the cambium below my standard hack. You could literally watch the blue dye get wicked down the tree in real time. It moved inches within 1 minute. Granted I'm not a biologist so I can't say whether this chemical made it all the way to the roots... I can say that it was headed that way at a rapid pace!

I'm going to share these pics of what I witnessed. Please refrain from telling me I didn't hack enough or that the trees are too big, or that I'm going to kill 7 people with all the widow makers. I'm not an idiot. Any trees with widow maker potential will be felled in a year or two with chainsaw (after the entire tree and root system is dead). On the big gums I went around and made a dozen or more deep cuts. They received lots of chemical. Most of the areas I treated would be considered "sanctuary areas" with little to no human activity, ever.
 
I’ve found elm particularly sensitive to Tordon RTU just as info and quick to decay.
 
As for translocation of the chemical for hack and squirt... I did the Harper's cocktail (Arsenal, Garlon, water + blue dye) during a handful of days this January. I mainly targeted every sweet gum I could find and most of the elm. That made up a lot of canopy in some areas. Somewhat by accident I witnessed a pretty crazy thing regarding the chemical. On a few test trees I shaved the bark down to the cambium below my standard hack. You could literally watch the blue dye get wicked down the tree in real time. It moved inches within 1 minute. Granted I'm not a biologist so I can't say whether this chemical made it all the way to the roots... I can say that it was headed that way at a rapid pace!

I'm going to share these pics of what I witnessed. Please refrain from telling me I didn't hack enough or that the trees are too big, or that I'm going to kill 7 people with all the widow makers. I'm not an idiot. Any trees with widow maker potential will be felled in a year or two with chainsaw (after the entire tree and root system is dead). On the big gums I went around and made a dozen or more deep cuts. They received lots of chemical. Most of the areas I treated would be considered "sanctuary areas" with little to no human activity, ever.
nice work

I would never criticize a fellow sweetgum assassin

bill
 
Please refrain from telling me I didn't hack enough or that the trees are too big, or that I'm going to kill 7 people with all the widow makers. I'm not an idiot.

If they do take it as a compliment. I had a state forester once tell me I was lucky to be alive after he walked an area I hinge cut.
I took that as compliment to my agile ability to get the heck out of the way when things went other then planned….
 
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