Cheap Tree Paint

[Good Feller]

Where do you guys get your tree marking paint?  Will regular old cheap spray paint work or do I need paint specifically made for the purpose?  I've looked in Bailey's and Forestry Suppliers Inc and it seems pretty expensive.  I'm pretty tight so I'm wanting to go the cheap route. 

[beenthere]

If there was a "cheap" route, wouldn't everyone use it??

There would be no market for tree marking paint, seems to me. : : :

Whad'ya think?

[Dale Hatfield]

cheap yes . Last till trees are cut no.

[Tillaway]

Remarking on your own dime is not exactly cheap.  Use tree marking paint, its much cheaper in the long run.  Buying bulk gallons or larger and refilling quart cans is the cheapest.  Do not buy the cheap $40 odd dollar paint guns either.  You might just as well throw $40 bucks into the street ( I speak from experience).  I have had the best luck with Tree Coder inks and guns, Nelson is a close second.  Rudd for aerosol works fine if you go that route.  Don't let any of it freeze.

Going cheap is the most expensive decision you can make.

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! to what Tillaway said. You need to use paint made for tree marking. I use Nelson's tree making paint and guns mostly because they are convenient here with it's factory in Kingsford, Michigan.

They have an "econ-spot" paint which lasts for 2 + years on the tree, and purchase it by the gallon as the least cost way to go.

[Ed]

I use the upsidedown spray can marking paint from the hardware store. It will last a couple of years on the tree.
This resulted from no local source for real tree paint and I don't want to buy it in case quantity.

Ed

[Phorester]

Decades ago when the VA Dept. of Forestry marked a lot of timber, marking paint was bought in 5 gallon buckets.   Some of the paint invariably gets slopped onto the side of the buckets during stirring and putting into the paint guns.

Once a crew was parked in the edge of a pasture with cows grazing. They were marking the woods next to the pasture. While the crew was up in the woods marking, the cows came up and licked the yellow paint off the sides of the paint buckets, then licked the sides of our green forestry trucks with their yellow tongues.  The paint dried on the trucks in the sun.  They said they never got all the paint off those trucks.