Wanted to add some browse shrubs around my plots but was thinking about when I spray my plots with Gly, I’m worried about the drift and getting on the shrubs. Obviously, I’d try to spray when there was no wind but was still worried and wanted to get people’s thoughts. I know I can do with with tillage instead of spraying, but I’d rather do no-till. My other thoughts was if I planted the shrubs, was to spray by hand with a 4 gallon backpack sprayer by the shrubs. Any ideas? Should I separate the shrubs aside from my plot so I eliminate my concern or will I be fine with spraying if there is no wind?
Shrubs to border food plot?
- Thread starter BobinCt
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
There is another way to accomplish this. Probably the biggest benefit is the feathered edge you get between open timber (presume that now borders you plot) and the plot itself. All the wildlife biologist I've talked to applaud edge feathering. One way to get this is to plant shrubs of varying heights with taller ones near the woods and smaller ones closer to the field. This is a lot of work and can be expensive, but it is a fairly permanent solution.
You should never spray when there is wind. Boom sprayers are much better than boomless when it comes to drift. If you go to the trouble and cost of planting shrubs as feathering, I'd simply leave a strip around the plot where you don't spray. Just let it grow in weeds as you final feather.
A less expensive approach is to simply let the edges revert to nature. There is plenty of native seed in your seed bank for native stuff to grow up. This typically provides both feathering and browse. In a few years when it is almost too large for your bushhog to handle, bushhog it flat. Then just repeat the process.
Both ways work. One is more work up front but lasts much longer. The other is low cost but does require bushhogging. How frequently you need to bushhog it depends on the size of your equipment.
Thanks,
Jack
You should never spray when there is wind. Boom sprayers are much better than boomless when it comes to drift. If you go to the trouble and cost of planting shrubs as feathering, I'd simply leave a strip around the plot where you don't spray. Just let it grow in weeds as you final feather.
A less expensive approach is to simply let the edges revert to nature. There is plenty of native seed in your seed bank for native stuff to grow up. This typically provides both feathering and browse. In a few years when it is almost too large for your bushhog to handle, bushhog it flat. Then just repeat the process.
Both ways work. One is more work up front but lasts much longer. The other is low cost but does require bushhogging. How frequently you need to bushhog it depends on the size of your equipment.
Thanks,
Jack
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j-bird
Moderator
Around my trees and shrub plantings I simply try to only mow and try to consider the spacing for that purpose as well. Spraying can be a bit of a risk. So in those areas my plot suffers or I'm pulling by hand or weed whacking or spraying with much smaller more precise equipment. Cage your shrubs and mark each cage with a flag or ribbon. And it never fails....your watching out for one cage and sure enough you have run over another in the process! If your planting these shrubs around the edge of the plot - I would simply plant them so you can mow between the edge of the plot and your shrubs and then another pass between the shrubs and the main body of your plot. Spray the main body of your plot and use the mowed areas as a buffer for your spraying efforts. You can also space the shrubs from one another at the mower width as well. I figure in those areas my focus is the shrubs and not the plot so if the plot suffers some then so be it. If your mowing with something fairly narrow (say a lawn mower) you may want to make 2 passes.....if your mowing with a ATV or tractor mower of roughly 4 feet or more I think 1 pass would be fine. Simply use other safe "low drift" practices near these areas to further ensure you don't accidentally kill your shrubs.....you will loose enough of them to other accidents enough as it is. Just my opinion.
Bill
Administrator
Before I planted miscanthus screening I tried to use shrubs because there are power lines above the area.
Many of them didn’t make but there are a few red osiers and button bush left. They are where I don’t want them so over the years I’ve mowed them, disked them and even sprayed right over them while spraying beans(direct drenching in gly)
They may look bad for a bit but I can’t kill them. Now if I wanted to save them they would probably die!
I’d say watch the wind and try not to get too much drift on them and they’ll be ok. I might not spray close during establishment.
Many of them didn’t make but there are a few red osiers and button bush left. They are where I don’t want them so over the years I’ve mowed them, disked them and even sprayed right over them while spraying beans(direct drenching in gly)
They may look bad for a bit but I can’t kill them. Now if I wanted to save them they would probably die!
I’d say watch the wind and try not to get too much drift on them and they’ll be ok. I might not spray close during establishment.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
......I have a small pile of mangled cages that have been kissed by the shredder as you describe....
bill
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I also have a few cages that have went from round, to resembling a squished Pac Man, but I just reshape them and restake them.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
I little off topic but something I do to promote shrubs; I make brushpiles and use them for protection. After 3-4 years I'll push the brushpile to a new spot and leave the shrubs that sprouted naturally. Really easy and effective way to create and protect native woody plants that normally get browsed to hard to mature.
Anyone make long rows of teepee's over your planted shrubs with cattle or hog panels? Plant a row of elderberry or something, teepee it, then walk away. In a year or two the shrubs will be growing out of the panels and getting browsed. They won't be able to eat them down low enough to hurt them so they just keep growing out to get browsed continuously.
Anyone make long rows of teepee's over your planted shrubs with cattle or hog panels? Plant a row of elderberry or something, teepee it, then walk away. In a year or two the shrubs will be growing out of the panels and getting browsed. They won't be able to eat them down low enough to hurt them so they just keep growing out to get browsed continuously.
j-bird
Moderator
I have a bad habit of having to pull them out of the bush-hog! I forget I have all that length behind me when taking a turn and ....chop, chop! And then a lot of cursing on my end. I also have an issue with watching the bush-hog and catching a cage with the FEL and mangling it that way. I'm just an accident waiting to happen around cages with a tractor!!! They also tend to catch on the booms of my sprayer from time to time as well..... come to think of it...my trees may be safer without the cages and just see what the deer do to them without protection! Despite all of that I do have some that actually make it to tree size!
j-bird
Moderator
I have not done it but I have considered doing it with shrubs as well as annual plants that the deer love but can easily over browse, like garden plants....or even seeing just how bad the deer will hammer soybeans in a small sample.
sagittarius
5 year old buck +
You may have to cage the shrubs just like apple trees for the first several years to help them get established. Service berry, wild american plum, high bush cranberry, hazelnut, elderberry. I have a 8'-20' grass buffer between plots and shrubs. Deer will browse them year round, even with lush white clover or soybeans a few feet away. Deer do like the variety.
