Clearing brushy areas--need herbicide recommendations

[LauraleesFarm]

I live in East TX and we are clearing some brushy areas on our property to make more pasture. Hubby is digging stumps and pushing over trees with a backhoe. Some of the areas are not very accessible yet. I am going to need to spray for briars/vines, small sweetgums, small cedars and such. We have an applicators license. What herbicide would work for these brushy areas? I would prefer to spray rather than to bush hog if possible.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Mix some brush kill (Bayer and Ortho make pretty good ones) and some 2-4D, or if your not worried about grass add some Round up and kill off everything.

 

[Anonymous]

Go in with a mower, let it get a little greengrowth back, and hit it with glyphosate.

 

[ga.prime]

Remedy or a generic herbicide having the active ingredient triclopyr. It will work better if you don't mow it but you have to get it on all the foliage from top to bottom. So, don't mow it or cut it down unless the stuff is too tall to get spray on it up to the top leaves.

 

[Anonymous]

Gp, why not now it? Around here the woody stemmy stuff can usually be killed best when it has tender fresh growth. Just curious.
That remedy stuff is EXPENSIVE!

 

[dun]

If there wasn;t briers thrown into the mix I would go with Remedy, but with briers Surmount is the best stuff I've found, expensive but it will do anything that Remedy will do and more.

 

[ga.prime]

Hook, mowing it gives less foliage for the herbicide to gain entry into the vascular system and you also have to wait for it to leaf out after mowing.. Dun, I've had just as good a luck with Remedy as Surmount in killing briars. They're both good- I like Remedy better because there's no root zone activity which doesn't make any difference as long as you stay away from trees you don't want dead. I use Surmount on prickly pears, it will kill them. Surmount costs less.

 

[Anonymous]

Makes sense on what the op was talking about. I overlooked those details. Thanks

 

[dun]

Hook, mowing it gives less foliage for the herbicide to gain entry into the vascular system and you also have to wait for it to leaf out after mowing.. Dun, I've had just as good a luck with Remedy as Surmount in killing briars. They're both good- I like Remedy better because there's no root zone activity which doesn't make any difference as long as you stay away from trees you don't want dead. I use Surmount on prickly pears, it will kill them. Surmount costs less.

With Remedy I've had to spray briers a couple of years in a row to eliminate them, Surmount it just has taken one shot. Plus I didnl;t have to wait for them to be in full bloom, hiting them any time they;re growing with surmount has wiped them out. What I'm calling briers (other then saw briers) are blackberrys.

 

[ga.prime]

What I'm calling briers (other then saw briers) are blackberrys.

Right, that's what I'm calling briars too. If the Remedy doesn't kill them all on the first spraying, then a secondary spot spraying will. Surmount is probably best to use if there's not any trees/shrubs in the area that you don't want killed. Some considerations are economy, effectiveness, side effects.

 

[dun]

What I'm calling briers (other then saw briers) are blackberrys.

Right, that's what I'm calling briars too. If the Remedy doesn't kill them all on the first spraying, then a secondary spot spraying will. Surmount is probably best to use if there's not any trees/shrubs in the area that you don't want killed. Some considerations are economy, effectiveness, side effects.

Interesting to me that Surmount won;t kill young walnut trees, at least it didn;t in the pasture that had a big brier patch with a bunch of small walnut trees in it. Killed the briers, the persommons and the saffafras but didn;t do a thing to the walnuts.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

On the property in question, most of the briars are not blackberry vines. They are the kind that climb up into the tree and have thorns on the stems. They have a few leaves along the stems and more leaves are at the ends. If you mow them, they grow back. I don't know if this is the same as saw briers or what to call them. I just call them briars.
Also there is a ton of honeysuckle vines, muscedine, trumpet vine, and cherokee rose (native rose here). Making a big mangled mess of everything.
The land was clear cut and left in a big mess about 10 years ago. So it is covered in sweetgum suckers and saplings and stumps. Lots of stumps.

 

[ga.prime]

On the property in question, most of the briars are not blackberry vines. They are the kind that climb up into the tree and have thorns on the stems. They have a few leaves along the stems and more leaves are at the ends. If you mow them, they grow back. I don't know if this is the same as saw briers or what to call them. I just call them briars.
That sounds like the smilax family. They'll go away voluntarily when you eliminate the trees and shrubs they climb on. I wouldn't target them.
Also there is a ton of honeysuckle vines, muscedine, trumpet vine, and cherokee rose (native rose here). Making a big mangled mess of everything.The land was clear cut and left in a big mess about 10 years ago. So it is covered in sweetgum suckers and saplings and stumps. Lots of stumps.
Remedy or Surmount will work on all of these very well and won't hurt any kind of grasses you're trying to grow.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I live in East TX and we are clearing some brushy areas on our property to make more pasture. Hubby is digging stumps and pushing over trees with a backhoe. Some of the areas are not very accessible yet. I am going to need to spray for briars/vines, small sweetgums, small cedars and such. We have an applicators license. What herbicide would work for these brushy areas? I would prefer to spray rather than to bush hog if possible.

Well from an ole boy that live's in the thicket mix one gallon of 2-4-D- with a half gallon of Remedy to 100 gallon's of water. It will take it all out except the grass. Get you a good boomless sprayer anywhere the tractor can go or run over it is dead.

 

[ragweed]

surmount is basically grazon and remedy mixed. but around here we spray the briars after the berries have dropped off the plant. because the plant is taking to the root. in the spring the plant is bringing from the root. and dont mow until the briars are good and dead. and surmount does give you some residual.

 

[ga.prime]

surmount is basically grazon and remedy mixed.

No, it's not. Surmount has the active ingredient picloram. Remedy has the active ingredient triclopyr. Grazon has the active ingredients picloram + 2,4-D.

 

[greybeard]

GA Prime is right about the difference between Surmount and remedy, except Surmount also has fluroxypyr herbicide in it, which I can't use here as it is extremely toxic to fish and other aquatics. (I live next to a river and have a lot of pond area myself)
Here's a list of herbicides with fluroxypyr as an ingredient: (Surmount is listed)
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides ... .meth.html
Pasture Gard will probably do what ya want too, which is triclopyr and fluroxypyr--if you can use it without a problem. I believe Tractor Supply carries it.
Yes, Remedy is expensive, but not as expensive as Grazon Next.
If you live close to Bryan Texas, I've found that Producers Co-op usually has the best prices on Remedy, Grazon, and other herbicides--and they have cases and cases of it stacked up this time of year.

Roundup won't come close to doing the job on what the op is talking about, plus, it will kill grasses ya want to keep. It will 'hurt' some woody weeds, but sweetgum suckers will just laugh at Roundup and it's generics.

Remedy and 2-4D will kill most of the bad crap, and leave the grass, and not hurt any grass seedbank.
Mix it yourself as Caustic Burno said, or buy Crossbow since you have an applicators lic. Crossbow can be bought for about $65/gallon, but Crossbow only has 16% triclopyr and Remedy Ultra is listed as 60% triclopyr.
I tried 1 gal of Crossbow, and had poor results with it and went back to Remedy Ultra.
There are a couple of generic versions of Remedy Ultra available at places like Keystone Pest Solutions.

Here's an older post by Dun about Surmount with more details.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=66152

The only way I would mow first, is if I was going to IMMEDIATELY hook on a sprayer and spray the crap out of the brush as a cut stump procedure, but you are better off imo, doing the cut stump thing with a backpack sprayer and spraying it hard and heavy with herbicide mixed with a penetrant like diesel. If you wait too long, the cut stump of even small brush or saplings scabs the cut surface off with dried sap, and you wasted time and $$. I try to cut stump spray within 30 minutes, especially with sweetgum--they are tough to kill.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

Well from an ole boy that live's in the thicket mix one gallon of 2-4-D- with a half gallon of Remedy to 100 gallon's of water. It will take it all out except the grass. Get you a good boomless sprayer anywhere the tractor can go or run over it is dead.

Thanks for posting this. I already have some 2 4 D but it doesn't seem powerful enough by itself. I'm going to look for some Remedy to add with it. we have a 60 gallon sprayer with a hand nozzle, its on the back of our 50 h cabless tractor.

Will the Remedy kill cedar saplings? Grazon doesn't seem to touch them.....

 

[dun]

Well from an ole boy that live's in the thicket mix one gallon of 2-4-D- with a half gallon of Remedy to 100 gallon's of water. It will take it all out except the grass. Get you a good boomless sprayer anywhere the tractor can go or run over it is dead.

Thanks for posting this. I already have some 2 4 D but it doesn't seem powerful enough by itself. I'm going to look for some Remedy to add with it. we have a 60 gallon sprayer with a hand nozzle, its on the back of our 50 h cabless tractor.

Will the Remedy kill cedar saplings? Grazon doesn't seem to touch them.....

Grazon isn;t designed to kill them. On cedars Remedy works better as a basal spray then a foliar spray.

 

[ragweed]

surmount is basically grazon and remedy mixed.

No, it's not. Surmount has the active ingredient picloram. Remedy has the active ingredient triclopyr. Grazon has the active ingredients picloram + 2,4-D.

thanks for the info ga.prime. guess i should check labels instead of relying on others.