S-Balentine
Senior Member
Where can I find Honeysuckle?
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Honeysuckle?
- Thread starter S-Balentine
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Crakajak
Daily Driveler News Team
wildlife group in Ala. has it
280bst
Senior Member
Really is this a fishing trip
There are a lot of better plants out there that deer like to eat that aren't horribly invasive Asian species which cause all kinds of environmental problems. I would never plant honeysuckle. Deer did just fine without it for tens of thousands of years.
we have enough deer to keep it in check at our place. But honeysuckle provides food and great cover for other critters too.
Retired Army Guy
Senior Member
What he said. It will girdle & kill a lot of your native sapling trees you want to grow like Oaks & Fruit trees! For reasons unknown to me the stuff will not girdle Chinease Privet. Figures invasive's looking out for each other.
IF you all ready have it leave it if you want ; it has some value to wildlife but I wouldn't plant more. Every Biologist you talk to will tell you this & recommend better native substitutes.
Forest Grump
Senior Member
Find it in the woods; fence rows, yards, thickets in the woods. Best place to get it is where it is, particularly someplace where they don't want it. Transplant it in winter or early spring, while it is raining regularly.
What he said. It will girdle & kill a lot of your native sapling trees you want to grow like Oaks & Fruit trees! For reasons unknown to me the stuff will not girdle Chinease Privet. Figures invasive's looking out for each other.
Not every Biologist. There are a lot worse plants you could have. Honeysuckle is not Kudzu; if you know something that will choke out privet, sing out, I'd like to know. Honeysuckle has tremendous value to deer in the South. It is great winter deer food, & other than a good fertilized food plot, darn hard to beat, particularly with native forage. Where do you find it strangling all these native plants? Where do you see big open tracts of honeysuckle with no trees that overtop it? You mention oaks (of which I am a big fan, btw): oaks provide food to a deer or turkey for 2, maybe 3 weeks of a 52 week year. Honeysuckle is there, generally within reach, for 52 weeks. I plant & promote fruit trees: they are only of value when the fruit are dropping; the rest of the year, we don't want critters bothering our fruit trees. We prune, tube, trim them to keep the limbs out of reach of deer, because they will kill the tree. Whoever looked at a honeysuckle patch & said: darn, look at how the deer are eating that stuff! How can I stop that?
We have native (lonicera sempervirens) honeysuckles, & bush honeysuckles. But they don't provide the forage of Japanese honeysuckle, which is rather timid, as invasives go.
I hate Privet & would love a government program to facilitate its eradication. Same with kudzu & chinaberry, & Bradford pears. But Japanese honeysuckle I am happy to have & I spread it to where my foresters have killed it out with herbicides. I'd lots rather have that than sicklepod or ragweed.
I really like beggar weed, it's hard to beat for deer forage, fixes N, not overly competitive. Adams-Briscoe in Jackson usually carries seed. It's a native in the pea family, & fire tolerant. I plant lespedeza too. And dogwoods. Kill your sweet gum & elm & plant those.
The Longhunter
Banned
I've been to several seminars at UGA, where the real scientists discuss this.
According the them, it's not feasible to start honeysuckle if you don't already have it. If you have enough deer to make it worthwhile in the first place, the deer will not allow it to get established.
They also say that the introduction of honeysuckle is probably responsible for the healthy state of Georgia's deer herd today.
According the them, it's not feasible to start honeysuckle if you don't already have it. If you have enough deer to make it worthwhile in the first place, the deer will not allow it to get established.
They also say that the introduction of honeysuckle is probably responsible for the healthy state of Georgia's deer herd today.
shakey gizzard
Senior Member
Plazadweller
Senior Member
Your local peanut farmer beg you to not plant beggar weed.
Forest Grump
Senior Member
I plant it on large timber plantations, in the rows under thinned & mature pines, & in roadside open places. Places it would grow naturally, if not for the herbicides. I wouldn't plant it on a farm. But it's native, & very good forage, plus a legume. Folks above were arguing against honeysuckle because it is exotic; I was merely offering a native alternative, although it doesn't provide winter forage like honeysuckle.
Cadre or Paraquat are good for beggarweed control in peanuts. Valor & Classic too, at the right time.
