Chinese Privet... Would like it to be Chinese Privet... NOT!

[grweldon]

Well, I just discovered that the nasty-looking, twisted-trunk shrubs that are all over my place are Chinese Privet... higlhly invasive...  it certainly is!

I did a Forum search on it and although I found some references, I didn't specifically see that many recommendations on how to eliminate it.  I figured there was no better place to ask than here!

Recommendations?

[Radar67]

I use the hack and skirt method with 2-4-D mixed 50/50 with water. I also add a sticking agent in with it. It is a lot of work, but you can get them under control.

[grweldon]

I use the hack and skirt method with 2-4-D mixed 50/50 with water. I also add a sticking agent in with it. It is a lot of work, but you can get them under control.

Sticking agent?

[Ianab]

Sticking agent?

Might also be called a "wetting agent". It's added to insecticides so that it actually sticks (wets) shiny leaf plants. Otherwise the drops of spray just run off some shiny leaf weeds before it can be absorbed and do it's job.

Ian

[pineywoods]

How to get rid of it ?  dozer with a root rake, big bonfire...I have bunches of the stuff, it's so thick I can't get to the trunks well enough to hack 'n squirt.

[grweldon]

I'd love to have a dozer... or a tractor even... That's a no go.  Thanks for the suggestion...

[WDH]

A mix of 25% Garlon 4 and 75% diesel.  Use a backpack sprayer.  Do a basal spray on the lower trunks of the clump, spraying the stems from ground level to about 12" up the stem.  The Garlon label describes how to do the basal spray.  Much easier to do that hack-n-squirt because, with the wand on the sprayer, you do not have to climb into the clump.  When I say clump, you probably know what I am talking about if you have chinese privet 

[Okrafarmer]

Goats love it. We like it because it's good goat food, year round.

[WDH]

I am not sure what would be worse.  Trying to keep goats in or the privet out  :D.

[Norm]

Is Garlon 4 a restricted use herbicide?

[Jeff]

When we are spraying our food plots with pronto or the ditches with 2-4-d, we add about a quarter cup of dawn dish soap to the 15 gallon tank. That is our sticking agent.

[WDH]

That is what I do too, Boss.  A couple of good squirts in a 3.5 gallon backpack sprayer.  Breaks the surface tension of the water in the spray mix so that it will coat the foliage well.  You can buy commercial surfactants that basically do the same thing.

[Red Clay Hound]

I have had good success spraying it with a 5% glyphosate (Roundup) solution.  Best time to spray is late winter when the days begin to warm up but before the deciduous trees and shrubs begin to leaf out.  I buy the generic Roundup (41% glyphosate) in 2.5 gallon jugs for about $40.  The kind I buy has the surfactant already in the solution.  With this technique you need to spray the whole plant and get the spray on as many leaves as possible.

I got a federal cost-share a couple years ago through the Georgia Forestry Commission to treat the privet on my property.  The method described above is the method recommended by the Forestry Commission.  On large tracts, they actually broadcast the spray from helicopters.  Since you are spraying while the hardwoods are dormant, it doesn't damage them and even the evergreen SYP is resistant to glyphosate damage at this time of year.

When I sprayed mine, I got about 90% control after the 1st year.  I went back the second year and sprayed anything that was still alive.  Worked very well.

[up2themtn]

I Spent a couple of weeks spraying Privet this past summer, I used a foliar application of Garlon 4 ultra and MES 100.  MES 100 serves as the surfactant.  I expect this would be easier than trying to get in and do a basal application or hack and squirt.

[Peter Smallidge]

For anyone seeking more information about the use of forest herbicides, here is a great reference from Penn State University.
The main page for forest vegetation management is http://extension.psu.edu/fvm

Here is a link to a super publication that covers many herbicide concepts and strategies
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/UH174.pdf

If Garlon 4 is restricted in your state, it is in NY, you may be able to buy it premixed as Pathfinder II.  Kerosene and diesel fuel may not be appropriate or recommended for use as a carrier by the manufacturer. [12/1/2012 - correction - both kerosene and diesel are listed as accepted oils in the manufacturers labels. Apologies for any confusion.]  Canola oil would likely work, and in volume may be less expensive.

Additional information and links about forest herbicides are here  http://cornellforestconnect.ning.com/forum/categories/project-profiles/listForCategory

[WDH]

The diesel for the basal spray is described in the label. 

[Charles135]

The 2-4-d will work and like Jeff I use a quarter cup of dish washing liquid as a sticking agent!

[Okrafarmer]

Profdan encourages the privett. He won't let me eliminate it, because it's one thing the goats can eat year round.

[grweldon]

What is the generic name of Garlon 4?  Is that the same as 2-4-d?  If so, I can't seem to find either here...

[Claybraker]

What is the generic name of Garlon 4?  Is that the same as 2-4-d?  If so, I can't seem to find either here...

Garlon 4 is the ester formulation of Triclopyr. Garlon 3 is the amine formulation. Also look for Remedy, or several generic options, Alligare in particular.  It's off patent, so you can save big bucks with generics.

What little I use, I normally order it online from a place over in Mississippi.

[beenthere]

Google coughs up a data sheet.

http://www.cdms.net/ldat/ld0B0013.pdf

[WDH]

I use the generic version, Remedy.

[grweldon]

I use the generic version, Remedy.

I'm resurrecting an old thread, but it could still be relevent to others.  I'm finally getting around to actually treating some of my chinese privet.  I'd like to add a dye to the spray so I can tell what I've sprayed.  Danny (or others), might you make a recommendation what to use as a dye?  I'm thinking I could buy some cheap oil colors in a tube and mix them with the deisel when I mix the remedy?

[beenthere]

Blue food coloring should work, but there is a blue dye apparently available where you get your spray chemicals or from TSC (Tractor Supply) also used when spraying brush killers.
Your oil colors might work too, so let us know how well it works.

[curdog]

I can't remember the name of the dye that one of our backpack spray crews use, but I do remember them coming out of the cutover looking like smurfs. The next year they tied a spool of string on there belt and tied it off to a bush. As they walked they left a trail of string to mark the area that has been sprayed. It looked like a giant spider on crack walked through the cutover, but at least they weren't blue.

[nmurph]

Garlon or Arsenal will kill privet. Either can be sprayed over the top. Garlon is less soil active and is cheaper. Arsenal will kill it deader but will also kill hardwoods that pick it up through the soil. It can also kill SYP occasionally. Garlon is less soil active and what I would suggest.

2-4-d, especially the ester formulations, will kill some HW but are far from optimum.

[grweldon]

Thanks all...

I will be using a basal application of Triclopyr (Remedy, Garlon 4) as WDH and others have recommended.  Just way too much for foliar application.  I may also be cutting some just above ground level and treating the cuts with the Triclopyr immediately.  I believe this thread mentions that as well.

It's hard to believe the extent of the infestation on my property.  I have not found one place on 60 acres where I can stand and not see any.  Many places are overgrown with it so bad that it's all you can see for yards and yards...

[WDH]

Fire will help control it.  It is very susceptible to regular burns. 

[curdog]

It is susceptible to fire especially if it is individual shrubs or small clumps. I've try to burn through dense stands of privet and the fuel loading underneath the privet was to thin and it provided too much shade on the forest floor to get fire to carry well. That stuff is horrible, it seems like every bottom is covered with stuff.

[WDH]

It is awful, for sure.

[Claybraker]

I've used bas-oil red dye from Forestry Suppliers. Although, to be honest, the oil will darken most stems.

Did you check to see if there is any cost-share money available?

[grweldon]

I'm not familiar with "cost-share" money.  I assume it's a government subsidy?  I'll google "cost sharing chinese privet" and see what I come up with.  The cost will be borne over time.  I'm picking up a gallon of remedy today, about $85.  I already have deisel at home.  Mixing it up a gallon and a half at a time in a sprayer and teaching the wife how to do a basal spray.  I'm hoping I can get several acres treated per 1.5 gallon mix.  I'm going to start on the paths and near the home and use up the gallon of Remedy and see what results that brings.

I'm a bit hesitant about fire.  The ground cover is thick and I have no idea how fast it will spread if set on fire.  I have no water in a portable state to help with control.  I'll keep it in mind but the thought of setting my forrest on fire frightens me a bit.

[Claybraker]

I don't have a good ag chem supply house nearby, so I have to use mail order. You can get a generic triclopyr ester for around $55/gallon, even with shipping you'll save a few bucks.

[grweldon]

To those who have experience with herbicides, please give me a sanity check...

Please verify that I am doing this right.  I'm using a 1.5 gallon hand sprayer.  The recommendations for mixture are 20-30% in an oil carrier.  I'm using 48 oz. of Remedy and filling the rest with diesel and adding an emulsifier/wetting agent.  Considering the price of the Remedy this seems like it's going to be an expensive process.  Using this process I'll only get 2+ sprayers full.  This WILL treat a bunch of privet but not nearly as much as I had figured...

Thanks...
Glen

[WDH]

1 to 4 is to X to 1.5.  Where 1 to 4 is 25% solution and 1.5 gallons is the capacity of the sprayer.  X = .375, which is .375 gallon which is .375 x 128 ounces which is 48 ounces.  You are bang on. 

[RCBS]

I have an area that is fairly infested.  Have not begun using herbicide on it yet, but the bushog has already taken a bite out of it.  Mowing it for 3-4 consecutive years seems to do the trick so far.  Last time I inquired about treatment at the Extension office, I was advised to use Roundup and do a foliar treatment.  Only current treatments I'm doing are basal ailanthis and barberry.  I spray them both out of the same jug.

The privet "stand" has been prettywell contained to the one area with a few patches here and there.  Still chopping grapevines and trying to get all the heavenly trees killed off, then I will turn my focus to the privet and spicebush.  Very happy to not have to deal with olive or bush honeysuckle.  Keeping an eye out for them though.

[grweldon]

Thanks WDH for the verification.

Thanks for the info RCBS.  I've also read and have been told that foliar treatment using glyphosphate is effective on privet.  I WILL use that on the small shoots I have coming up due to it's cheaper cost.  Using the bushhog on much of my privet it a no go.  I just cut down a clump last weekend that contained 8 trunks ranging from 2-3" in diameter all growing from the same spot.  Privet is a very dense wood and although I've cut much of it with my rotary cutter, it's hard on the cutter if they get much over an inch in diameter or so.  It's also hard to get to them.  Most of my clumps are over 10' tall and the crown could be 3 times that.

[WDH]

I push the big clumps over with the bucket on the front end loader. 

[RCBS]

Thanks WDH for the verification.

Thanks for the info RCBS.  I've also read and have been told that foliar treatment using glyphosphate is effective on privet.  I WILL use that on the small shoots I have coming up due to it's cheaper cost.  Using the bushhog on much of my privet it a no go.  I just cut down a clump last weekend that contained 8 trunks ranging from 2-3" in diameter all growing from the same spot.  Privet is a very dense wood and although I've cut much of it with my rotary cutter, it's hard on the cutter if they get much over an inch in diameter or so.  It's also hard to get to them.  Most of my clumps are over 10' tall and the crown could be 3 times that.

Wow.  I have a few larger bushes but most are under an inch near the ground.  I have a 3pt bushog that I can adjust and raise fairly high.  I do that, then back into the offending plants and lower the bushog.  A little violent yes, but oh so satisfying!  Sounds like you would need a Fecon Bullhead for your infestation.

[grweldon]

I push the big clumps over with the bucket on the front end loader.

When I first bought the property and was putting in my underground power from the pole to the house I rented a Terra-mite T5, the little diesel backhoe, to do the trench for my power.  I also dug up the stump of a clump of privet that was right in the way of where I wanted to drive.  Granted, the T5 isn't a powerhouse, but it took over 20 minutes to dig enough of the ground away to pull up the trivet stump.  It went into the ground 3+ feet straight down and had stabilizing roots radiating out from the center.  The Terra-mite wouldn't even budge it directly.

RCBS, I'll try to remember to take a picture of some of the average clumps around my place and post one.

[LaneC]

Hello.just my 2 cents here. We cut the big bush/clumps down, drill 1/4" holes in the stump 2 to 3 inches deep and fill the hole with KILZ-ALL. You have to have a license to get it in Mississippi but it will sure kill the root system.