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Post by smsmith on Dec 1, 2023 7:59:50 GMT -6
Son of a..... Art, Are you busy this winter?? I have most days scheduled with appointments this winter. These fish need counciling! I wonder if I could bill Walz for my medical advice on fish! i don’t worry much about buckthorn except one area on the edge of our yard. I like the cover it creates. The thicker the better.
I also do not want to spend the rest of my days on a hopeless cause. just my choice and it is not the right choice for everyone. If buckthorn is just getting started, battle it. I also do not want a lot of exposure to the chemicals. I have had enough of that during life. If I didn't have prickly ash, ironwood, blue beech, wild grape, and ongoing aspen re-gen that's nearly impossible to walk through I probably wouldn't be fighting buckthorn either. There's a chunk of ground on the south side of 27 not far east of Flensburg that I look at least once a week. The understory was still almost entirely green with buckthorn a couple days ago. I'd imagine it's completely impassable except for the bushhogged trails. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they shoot some nice deer off that piece. Unless some disease/fungus develops that targets buckthorn, I'd expect the stuff to completely take over in many areas in the not too distant future.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 6, 2023 14:31:22 GMT -6
A word of advice/caution on basal spraying.
I've always used el cheapo garden sprayers for basal spraying. I figure if I get a buckthorn spraying season out of a $20 sprayer, I'm money ahead of buying a $150+ sprayer with better seals. I suppose if I got 8 years out of the more expensive one, it'd work out...but I doubt that'd happen.
At any rate...the el cheapo sprayers aren't all equal. I've had several that lasted through almost two buckthorn spraying seasons (I don't use them for anything else). Today, I had the seals fail on one that I just started using this year when last year's sprayer seals failed a few weeks ago. I wasn't paying attention and ended up getting a shoe/foot and lower pant leg full of diesel mix when I moved the sprayer. The mix had backed up through the seals and was puddled in the top of the sprayer. Not a huge deal, but those shoes will never be able to come inside again. The pants may or may not be able to stay inside after I wash them a couple times in hot water and double detergent. I guess I'd also rather not get soaked in the shit.
That said, I got a nice area cleared out around one of the crabs I found this year. I cut a bunch of young aspens, willows, and ironwoods down all the way around, then sprayed the stumps. I also basal sprayed a bunch of smaller stuff to the SW and W of the crab. It should get a bunch more sun next year.
I think I'm about done with diesel and Crossbow for this year. I was toying with hitting some ironwoods, but I may have had enough "fun" for this year.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 7, 2023 4:33:33 GMT -6
A word of advice/caution on basal spraying. I've always used el cheapo garden sprayers for basal spraying. I figure if I get a buckthorn spraying season out of a $20 sprayer, I'm money ahead of buying a $150+ sprayer with better seals. I suppose if I got 8 years out of the more expensive one, it'd work out...but I doubt that'd happen. At any rate...the el cheapo sprayers aren't all equal. I've had several that lasted through almost two buckthorn spraying seasons (I don't use them for anything else). Today, I had the seals fail on one that I just started using this year when last year's sprayer seals failed a few weeks ago. I wasn't paying attention and ended up getting a shoe/foot and lower pant leg full of diesel mix when I moved the sprayer. The mix had backed up through the seals and was puddled in the top of the sprayer. Not a huge deal, but those shoes will never be able to come inside again. The pants may or may not be able to stay inside after I wash them a couple times in hot water and double detergent. I guess I'd also rather not get soaked in the shit. That said, I got a nice area cleared out around one of the crabs I found this year. I cut a bunch of young aspens, willows, and ironwoods down all the way around, then sprayed the stumps. I also basal sprayed a bunch of smaller stuff to the SW and W of the crab. It should get a bunch more sun next year. I think I'm about done with diesel and Crossbow for this year. I was toying with hitting some ironwoods, but I may have had enough "fun" for this year. I really don’t want any more exposure to the sprays as I think back to all of the things I have been exposed to in life. Roundup, asbestos, disinfectants and surgical scrubs that are risks, etc.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 7, 2023 8:23:08 GMT -6
A word of advice/caution on basal spraying. I've always used el cheapo garden sprayers for basal spraying. I figure if I get a buckthorn spraying season out of a $20 sprayer, I'm money ahead of buying a $150+ sprayer with better seals. I suppose if I got 8 years out of the more expensive one, it'd work out...but I doubt that'd happen. At any rate...the el cheapo sprayers aren't all equal. I've had several that lasted through almost two buckthorn spraying seasons (I don't use them for anything else). Today, I had the seals fail on one that I just started using this year when last year's sprayer seals failed a few weeks ago. I wasn't paying attention and ended up getting a shoe/foot and lower pant leg full of diesel mix when I moved the sprayer. The mix had backed up through the seals and was puddled in the top of the sprayer. Not a huge deal, but those shoes will never be able to come inside again. The pants may or may not be able to stay inside after I wash them a couple times in hot water and double detergent. I guess I'd also rather not get soaked in the shit. That said, I got a nice area cleared out around one of the crabs I found this year. I cut a bunch of young aspens, willows, and ironwoods down all the way around, then sprayed the stumps. I also basal sprayed a bunch of smaller stuff to the SW and W of the crab. It should get a bunch more sun next year. I think I'm about done with diesel and Crossbow for this year. I was toying with hitting some ironwoods, but I may have had enough "fun" for this year. I really don’t want any more exposure to the sprays as I think back to all of the things I have been exposed to in life. Roundup, asbestos, disinfectants and surgical scrubs that are risks, etc. Yeah, I get that. I don't really want any more exposure either, but I also don't want buckthorn so I have a choice to make. Have you seen the report showing glyphosate levels in urine of pregnant women living near (1/3 mile as I recall) ag fields? I have no idea if the report is peer reviewed "science" or agenda driven "science". If it's actually provable science, it is a bit concerning.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 7, 2023 12:43:31 GMT -6
I really don’t want any more exposure to the sprays as I think back to all of the things I have been exposed to in life. Roundup, asbestos, disinfectants and surgical scrubs that are risks, etc. Yeah, I get that. I don't really want any more exposure either, but I also don't want buckthorn so I have a choice to make. Have you seen the report showing glyphosate levels in urine of pregnant women living near (1/3 mile as I recall) ag fields? I have no idea if the report is peer reviewed "science" or agenda driven "science". If it's actually provable science, it is a bit concerning. I have not seen that.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 7, 2023 13:22:44 GMT -6
Yeah, I get that. I don't really want any more exposure either, but I also don't want buckthorn so I have a choice to make. Have you seen the report showing glyphosate levels in urine of pregnant women living near (1/3 mile as I recall) ag fields? I have no idea if the report is peer reviewed "science" or agenda driven "science". If it's actually provable science, it is a bit concerning. I have not seen that. I just Googled it and this was the first hit, I'm sure there are other pages/sources out there with the same article/info. I'd love to know whether it is actually science www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/06/weedkiller-pregnant-women-near-farms#:~:text=Pregnant%20women%20living%20near%20farm,scientific%20paper%20published%20on%20Wednesday.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 13, 2023 14:05:16 GMT -6
The buckthorn war was re-opened today. I went through close to 2 gallons of diesel/Crossbow. I should have my NW 20ish acres "done" for the year. I'm sure I missed some in there somewhere, but it can't be that many. One good thing so far is that none of what I sprayed today were berry loaded females. I also sprayed whatever was growing around 3 wild crabs that I topworked this spring. I'm trying to create decent sized openings around them. All three had good takes from this spring's grafting. LPVFW crab, Munson Sweet, and Hayford Sweet all had 2-3' of growth on the grafted scions. It felt good to get back to work in the woods for a few hours. edit...I finished up mowing/blowing leaves off trails today, then grabbed the sprayer and went back to work. I really regret letting the buckthorn go as long as I did. I went through another gallon and a half or so. I darn sprayed something that I think is a crabapple. Of course, I didn't have my flagging tape along. Now I've gotta wade through the old hinges/brush and try to find the damn thing again so I can flag it and figure out what it is next year.
I went back and tried to find this wild crab. Damned if I could do so, I'm now relatively certain I was just a dumbass that day and confused a buckthorn with lighter colored bark for a crab. I did flag a couple buckthorn that didn't show clear evidence of having been sprayed, I may get them yet this winter...and I may not.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 24, 2024 15:10:31 GMT -6
We cut a lot of buckthorn today . I am definitely sore. Never ending .
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Post by Sandbur on Feb 24, 2024 17:26:29 GMT -6
We cut a lot of buckthorn today . I am definitely sore. Never ending . I opened up a deer sidewalk that I had ignored for too long. I am sore as well.
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Post by biglakebass on Feb 24, 2024 18:54:13 GMT -6
We cut a lot of buckthorn today . I am definitely sore. Never ending . Hope you sprayed it after cutting.....
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 25, 2024 8:39:23 GMT -6
We cut a lot of buckthorn today . I am definitely sore. Never ending . Hope you sprayed it after cutting..... My son has a mix he uses . Yep
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Post by Bwoods11 on Mar 9, 2024 16:48:11 GMT -6
Couple more hours of buckthorn attacks ! It’s been so nice, hard to not be in the woods !
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Post by smsmith on Mar 13, 2024 13:34:01 GMT -6
Went thru another 1.5 gallons of mix today. Had to get out for a bit before the house is full of people. Found two 9-10' wild crabs in some thick stuff. More topworking targets I went to check on these trees today and drop some bigger trees to their south and west. I'll spray stumps tomorrow. I noticed that most all of the limbs within my reach are dead/dying on one of the trees. I'm guessing that's due to lack of sunlight. I scraped the cambium at around 8' with my knife and it was bright green, so there's plenty of life in the tree yet. I'm hoping that giving it a bunch of light helps it to take off. The downside is that I won't have any nurse branches when I top work it this spring. I'll bark graft as many scions as I can get around the perimeter and hope for the best. The other tree is getting more sun and the lower branches are alive. That one will get a bunch more sun this year too.
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Post by benmnwi on Mar 13, 2024 14:07:56 GMT -6
How is the fruit on these two wild 9-10 foot tall crabs? Hopefully you have better luck bark grafting than I have had the few times I've tried it. That grafting must require more skill than I have.
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Post by smsmith on Mar 13, 2024 14:15:16 GMT -6
How is the fruit on these two wild 9-10 foot tall crabs? Hopefully you have better luck bark grafting than I have had the few times I've tried it. That grafting must require more skill than I have. One had fruit smaller than a dime and the other's fruit was maybe nickel sized. I imagine more light on each would increase fruit size at least a bit if I wanted to leave them alone. I don't Bark grafting has given me pretty good results lately. Getting a good flat cut on the scion is important.
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