Mackie889
Senior Member
I was thinking about doing some girdle and squirt work on a few open hardwood areas of my farm. I tried to open up a small area last Winter in a large hardwood area and it took me most of a day to do one small area by just cutting down some trees and hinge-cutting others. It was not an easy job! The girdling and squirting technique seems to be a simpler, faster way to accomplish the same goal. That goal is to create some more thicker bedding areas on the property as well as more deer forage. I saw a YouTube video by the National Deer Association that uses a technique involving girdling a tree with a chainsaw and spraying the “Craig Harper Cocktail” (mix of herbicides) into the girdle. In addition to girdling some of the larger, junk hardwoods, I’d like to create mineral stumps where you cut down trees leaving the stump to sprout new growth that the deer really hammer if you do it to the correct tree species. I have a few questions for anyone who has done either or both of these two things:
1)How big of an area would I need to open up to create a bedding area for, say one small doe group (3-4 deer) to use on a consistent basis? Is 1/4 acre big enough?
2)Concerning mineral stumps, which South Georgia species of trees would deer prefer to eat when it sprouts new growth?
3)I saw something that stated that black gum trees (they stated tupelo) are a highly desirable tree for using as mineral stumps. Is this the same tree as swamp tupelo? I have a bunch of these along my swamp.
Thanks for any input or ideas!
1)How big of an area would I need to open up to create a bedding area for, say one small doe group (3-4 deer) to use on a consistent basis? Is 1/4 acre big enough?
2)Concerning mineral stumps, which South Georgia species of trees would deer prefer to eat when it sprouts new growth?
3)I saw something that stated that black gum trees (they stated tupelo) are a highly desirable tree for using as mineral stumps. Is this the same tree as swamp tupelo? I have a bunch of these along my swamp.
Thanks for any input or ideas!