Killing autumn olive

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have declared war on these bastards, and it’s a tall task on my place. Portion of my land is 30 year old, cattle pasture. Invasives galore. Right now AO is my nemesis. I have some massive ones on my place. I’ve had really good luck cutting them and stump spraying but it’s a pain and leaves a mess. This summer I’ve had three foliar spray sessions with great success it appears. Triclopyr and glyphosate will toast them. But...it’s weird, I will get a graveyard dead kill on everything the spray hits but if I can’t reach the top of the tree or miss a clump of leaves it’s no worse for the wear. I would have figured the spray would get in the roots and kill the whole tree. How are those clumps surviving and am I actually killing the tree or pissing it off for a bit?
Here’s one that has been killed I hope.

 

[yoderjac]

It is pretty much impossible to get rid of. A military base near me planted them, I think back in the 60s, as a wildlife habitat improvement project. They do have wildlife value but they are non-native and we now know they are very invasive. The base is fighting the same war as you. The actually used bulldozers to take out the planted AOs which were huge. It is hard to get approval to spray on a military base, so they were not spraying when I was volunteering there. The big problem was that birds would eat the berries and poop them all over the place. Individual seedlings are sprouting up everywhere. Over many thousands of acres, it impractical to kill them all.

I'd suggest you look into hack and squirt. Here is an article on using Garlon 4 for AO as well as general control techniques: https://www.techlinenews.com/articl...ielaexagnus-umbellata-thunbi-in-natural-areas

 

[Tree Spud]

I have declared war on these bastards, and it’s a tall task on my place. Portion of my land is 30 year old, cattle pasture. Invasives galore. Right now AO is my nemesis. I have some massive ones on my place. I’ve had really good luck cutting them and stump spraying but it’s a pain and leaves a mess. This summer I’ve had three foliar spray sessions with great success it appears. Triclopyr and glyphosate will toast them. But...it’s weird, I will get a graveyard dead kill on everything the spray hits but if I can’t reach the top of the tree or miss a clump of leaves it’s no worse for the wear. I would have figured the spray would get in the roots and kill the whole tree. How are those clumps surviving and am I actually killing the tree or pissing it off for a bit?
Here’s one that has been killed I hope.

Foliar spray can stay localized until tree/shrub goes dormant and herbicide moves down through main stems and into the root. There is a chance that this might not happen as when you kill a top branch, the nutrients will stop moving.

My best success on AO, buckthorn, honeysuckle, etc. is to fill a cleaned out large dish soap bottle qith 1 part Galon4 and 3 parts diesel fuel. Apply on main stem/trunk about 8"-10" above the ground. The diesel acts as a penetrant to move through the bark layer into the cambrium (the main nutrient highway). You can do any time of year and you will get a complete kill roots to the top.

 

[goatman]

Like tree spud said your best kill will be fall as sap goes down. Looks like Garlon 3a translocates down to roots. When I was spraying for the rural coop we used Tordon K. Now Tordon 22k is the same as Tordon K which is available for farmers. Tordon K was only for right-of-ways.

 

[MRBB]

its a hard deal as they stuff spreads so easy
if it was me and had the $$ , I would rent a good sized caged skid steer with a good brush cutting head, and run over as much as I could, then come back and stray things
odds are however you will never get rid of it all, ,a s there is most likley lots of seeds in the ground now already starting to take hold, and re grow
so, the name of the game mostly ends up being maintaining it, rather than ever getting rid of it

as crazy as it sounds, I WISH I has some here, on one property, it gets SO many trespassers , I would love to plant the stuff on 3 sides and let it make a mess no one would want to walk thru,
but its illegal to plant and classified as an invasive species!, Multi flora rose is a like plant,. I also, looked into, but again, is illegal to plant!!

it also though has some nasty fast growing thick nasty cover making, that honestly a LOT of wildlife loves and will use as cover, food and ??

but I do know it can get out of control real easy

as I said, once its there, its all about maintaining it, we have it on a LOT of state game lands(public hunting lands)
and all they can do is mow it every yr to keep some sections open
they planted it YRS back, to MAKE cover where there wasn't any, before knowing the down side to it!
and then made it illegal here once they did!

 

[Rit]

Hopefully you aren’t getting rid of that to plant hardwoods. It makes such good cover. Especially when mixed in with native habitat. I will cut some of it back if I start to get to much in one area but other than that I don’t touch it. Sometimes I just reset the big stuff with a chainsaw but most times it does it on its own. Mature AO on my place gets really brittle.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Hopefully you aren’t getting rid of that to plant hardwoods. It makes such good cover. Especially when mixed in with native habitat. I will cut some of it back if I start to get to much in one area but other than that I don’t touch it. Sometimes I just reset the big stuff with a chainsaw but most times it does it on its own. Mature AO on my place gets really brittle.

No not planting anything in its place, just trying to get rid of them. They will literally choke out a place on my farm. They will build an impenetrable wall along openings. I just want them dead and then go from there.

 

[yoderjac]

No not planting anything in its place, just trying to get rid of them. They will literally choke out a place on my farm. They will build an impenetrable wall along openings. I just want them dead and then go from there.

Yes, they do have significant wildlife value, but they threaten native species. That threat to native species is plenty of reason to manage them. Kill and remove what you can. You'll probably be finding and killing them for the rest of your life. It is pretty hard to eliminate an invasive species once it is established in an area, but it can be managed.

One more idea if you have planted autumn olive grown in an open area (they were often planted as field buffers). Once you kill and remove the the initial bushes, you will likely get lots of young autumn olive seedling in that area. As it turns out, when the seedlings are young and supple, deer will browse them. Just keep that field mowed high (8" - 12"). They won't grow large enough to go to seed and they will provide a food source for deer. Hopefully, you will eventually exhaust the seed bank of them. I have not done this myself but others have. I've tried this technique with Bicolor Lespedeza and it has worked well.

I used bicolor as field dividers knowing it was a non-native and considered an invasive species in some areas. It has not been a problem for me and hasn't much escaped the initial planting. Unlike AO that seems to spring up in the woods, BL seems to need more open area where it is easily mowed. I've had no problem converting areas between bicolor and planted fields. There is some bicolor seedlings for a year or two after a field is converted to crops, but that doesn't hurt anything. Deer eat it and after a couple years, it seems to disappear from that planted area.

AO may behave differently, so you might want to look into this technique more before using it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[jremmons]

On the property I manage, we spend much of our summer killing autumn olive and other aggressive invasive plants such as Multiflora rose and Bush honeysuckle.
I've done different herbicide tests and trials at different rates. For foliar applications, 1.5% Crossbow (a combination of the ester forms of Triclopyr and 2,4-D) in water + a surfactant absolutely destroys the AO. We do only apply this when temperatures are below 85 due to vapor drift concerns.
When temperatures are between 85 and 90 we swap over to using Garlon 3A (the amine form of Triclopyr) at 1.5% with 0.5% 2,4D amine and a surfactant. Both have proven very effective, I just find the Crossbow application a little cheaper and faster acting.
Because these are foliar sprays, you need to get very good coverage on the bulk of the leaf area to get long term control of the entire plant. For exceptionally large/tall plants this sometimes proves difficult, so in the fall/winter I will sometimes use a basal bark application of Garlon 4/Crossbow (ester forms) mixed with diesel at about a 20% solution. This is a much slower process and only viable in my mind for fewer, large plants. However, it provides very good kill and long term control.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

On the property I manage, we spend much of our summer killing autumn olive and other aggressive invasive plants such as Multiflora rose and Bush honeysuckle.
I've done different herbicide tests and trials at different rates. For foliar applications, 1.5% Crossbow (a combination of the ester forms of Triclopyr and 2,4-D) in water + a surfactant absolutely destroys the AO. We do only apply this when temperatures are below 85 due to vapor drift concerns.
When temperatures are between 85 and 90 we swap over to using Garlon 3A (the amine form of Triclopyr) at 1.5% with 0.5% 2,4D amine and a surfactant. Both have proven very effective, I just find the Crossbow application a little cheaper and faster acting.
Because these are foliar sprays, you need to get very good coverage on the bulk of the leaf area to get long term control of the entire plant. For exceptionally large/tall plants this sometimes proves difficult, so in the fall/winter I will sometimes use a basal bark application of Garlon 4/Crossbow (ester forms) mixed with diesel at about a 20% solution. This is a much slower process and only viable in my mind for fewer, large plants. However, it provides very good kill and long term control.

Very good info and sounds like we are on the same page. I know I will never totally eradicate them but I can’t sit idly by and let them flourish. Plus the bulk of my issues are on easily accessible paths/roads/openings so tank spraying from a 4 wheeler isn’t an issue.
First two applications this year were 2% triclopyr, 2% 2-4d, 5% glyphosate and a surfactant. This last one was 2% crossbow, 5% glyphosate and a surfactant. I have some that are so tall I can’t possibly reach with the wand so the winter basal application seems like a good approach.
I have gotten really good kills on AO and multiflora with the first two formulas. I haven’t been back to see the third but I have no doubt of it’s effectiveness. Was just concerned when I would “kill” 90% of the tree and 10% will still look no worse for the wear.

 

[jremmons]

Yep, a couple members of my crew have been spraying edges along fields, prairies, food plots, and fire lanes for the past couple weeks from a side by side; we save the backpack sprayers for the areas where we truly cannot get into most easily. Even from the paths we find we are able to get 15-20' into the brush.
I've been experimenting each year with lower and lower herbicide rates simply as a cost saving approach. I'm to the point now that I think we could get a strong kill with just a 1% Crossbow solution, but I need to do so more data collection on that front.
With triclopyr on thing to remember is it is primarily a systemic herbicide, so it may take a little longer to see full results.

One thing I'll add is we almost always follow up back to the same areas, either that same year or for the next couple of years. With autumn olive and especially multiflora rose, the foliage gets so dense that we often miss some plants. Plus if the plants are sufficiently large they seem to be able to pop back up after only 1 application.
With all invasive species, I think it is best to focus on management as opposed to eradication; true eradication is likely impossible except in the most ideal of circumstances, and if that is your goal but you never get there, you may get discouraged.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Exactly...I think eradication is a fools errand but management is attainable. Definitely gonna follow up as well. I enjoy it so it’s no a chore for me. Also where do you stand on the effectiveness of fire on AO? I plan on burning a lot of this come February/March.

 

[ghilliehunter]

Dawgs,
I too am at war with autumn olive as well as honeysuckle. I've had good luck cutting then stump spraying with 50/50 glyphosate and water. But like you, it's a difficult process. I'm going to try garlon basal spraying this year. Pic shows what I'm up against.

 

[g squared 23]

My property has a beautiful mix of AO, JBH and MFR. I think I saw a native shrub once or twice.

If I ever sell it, the description will have to go something like this: “Property is a habitat manager’s dream. You’ll never run out of projects to keep you busy year round.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

My property has a beautiful mix of AO, JBH and MFR. I think I saw a native shrub once or twice.

If I ever sell it, the description will have to go something like this: “Property is a habitat manager’s dream. You’ll never run out of projects to keep you busy year round.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

that is funny! I actually thought about naming my property tour “land of the invasives”.

 

[jremmons]

Exactly...I think eradication is a fools errand but management is attainable. Definitely gonna follow up as well. I enjoy it so it’s no a chore for me. Also where do you stand on the effectiveness of fire on AO? I plan on burning a lot of this come February/March.

Fire alone has been iffy, at best. I've found it works well to keep it at bay, but that it doesn't really seem to kill it at the roots. We have had great success using fire after/in conjunction with herbicide and mowing/mulching. I'm thinking of doing some tests with more frequent fires (e.g. every year) and growing seasons fires (e.g. July, August) in some areas just to see the difference.

 

[OakSeeds]

While a little pricey, throw a root grappler on a skid steer (unlike MMRB, I'd dig it and not cut it ... results probably about the same) and get busy if you want to knock out 30-40 acres of heavy infestation in 3-4 weeks. Pile it up; let the bunnies use it for 6-8 months and then have mucho bonfires. Spray the root sprouts for the next couple of years and you'll begin to manage your invasive problem. Since AO leafs out early in the spring, your second/third year followup efforts should make AO easy to spot and easy to spray or to pull by hand - if 20" or less - in moist, loose spring soil (not my preferred method). AO tends to be very shallow rooted. We take two weeks dedicated each summer to eradication of invasive species using various techniques. Ya never get em all .... just try to reduce their numbers via elimination.

 

[TreeDaddy]

.....Sweetgums are my autumn olives........

bill

 

[yoderjac]

.....Sweetgums are my autumn olives........

bill

Are they? AO is a non-native with great wildlife value which is why it was introduced in many areas. Sweet gum trees are native to the south east. You are probably on the ratty edge of the native area in Walton. They have minor browse value for deer. Most of the wildlife value is for insects. In its native range, sweet gum is in general balance with other native plants and doesn't really threaten them. Not true with AO. Because it is non-native, it does threaten native vegetation. (The bad or good of this is a value judgement and it depends on your perspective). While many folks wan to get rid of both, it is usually for different reasons. For AO, it is because of the threat to native species. For sweet gum, it is because it has low wildlife and economic value compared to other native species and competes well against them.

I don't blame you for despising sweet gum as some do AO. From my perspective, nature is always changing. New species will always be introduced in a new environment. Management is just a way to slow down the peaks and valleys, reducing impact on the species we care about, until nature finally absorbs the change and develops an new equilibrium....for the moment.

 

[blueKYstream]

Cutting and stump spraying AO is a chore and a half! I've done it that way and AO has won. If you are in an open area, using a tractor bucket to push them over, roots and all, is an easy way to do it. Mowing with a bush hog and then spraying is another way. For backpack spraying, I find it easier to do a basal bark treatment. I haven't experimented with many, but Brustox (triclophyr) works well. I use a 25% Brushtox, 75% diesel mix. It does not work well for bush honeysuckle though. It will work on MFR.