Sweet Gum Trees

[georgiadawgs44]

Over the last 3 years we’ve had parts of our lease cut and replanted. As I’m sure most here know, the sweet gums take over and grow like weeds. Been batting them for as long as I’ve been down there hunting. Cut them down to the ground and they come back. Cut and spray works pretty good. Just spraying them works but I have to spray them twice. Tried the skin the bark and spray last year but I didn’t use it full strength and didn’t have success.
This weekend I tried something different. Sprayed the trees and brush but won’t be able to check on them until next weekend.
Does anyone know of a sure fire product that works in one application?

 

[Milkman]

You can do a search and find threads about this in the past. Here’s on herbicide that will kill sweetgum.

https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/products.php?mi=19041&itemnum=17135

 

[dhsnke]

Cut the tree down and right away brush Bayer brush killer on the stump. It will kill the stump and roots and you will not have any small ones coming up next to it. Brush it on full strength. do not delute it. This will work with any tree or bush.

 

[baddave]

i've killed thousands with gly , when it turns brown cut it or it "could" recover . but actually deer will browse on it . not the best attractant in the world but deer do browse on it a good bit and i can prove it . when i do spray to kill it'll be a decently strong dose ,like 6 oz to a gallon

 

[doenightmare]

We kill them with Arsenal - just hack and squirt. Takes about a year for them to die though.

 

[gadeerwoman]

Arsenal will kill them dead. But it's hard to do a large area. Forestry Suppliers carries it on line. About 1 inch drawn into a straw with your finger over the top and placed in slash/cut or drilled hole will get it done. Ain't cheap or easy...but it works.

 

[tr21]

a good hot fire will kill them, but takes about 2 yrs before they fall over. but its too late to do it now wait until winter/ early spring to do it...

 

[furtaker]

Those useless trees will grow on concrete. I hate them.

 

[treemanjohn]

I prefer RM43 hack and squirt and it will kill them in short order.

 

[Para Bellum]

Straight glyphosate with diesel fuel as a surfactant will get em too.

 

[nmurph]

Arsenal (Imazapir) is all that's needed. Hack and squirt, or buy the tablet formulation and toss them around drip line and you are done.

 

[CarolinaDawg]

Over the last 3 years we’ve had parts of our lease cut and replanted. As I’m sure most here know, the sweet gums take over and grow like weeds. Been batting them for as long as I’ve been down there hunting. Cut them down to the ground and they come back. Cut and spray works pretty good. Just spraying them works but I have to spray them twice. Tried the skin the bark and spray last year but I didn’t use it full strength and didn’t have success.
This weekend I tried something different. Sprayed the trees and brush but won’t be able to check on them until next weekend.
Does anyone know of a sure fire product that works in one application?

The best way to tackle sweetgum is to burn regularly and treat with herbicide. The best killer of sweetgum is Imazapyr, but it’s soil active, so you can’t go nuts with it.

Saplings and small trees - Fire every 2 years or so is necessary to kill saplings. Most people do their burns in the dormant season, but you’ll kill more than saplings with growing season fires. A hot well-controlled summer fire will girdle more young trees and those that aren’t girdled will be stressed by knocking the leaves leaves off too late in the season for any to regrow before fall leaving the tree with no way to photosynthesize for months. This has to be repeated regularly and it’s impossible to know that a lot of trees will look dead from fire, but will still have living roots that will resprout.

Larger Trees (not killed by fire) - treat with generic Imazapyr to save money. Sometimes people are tempted to screw around with the mix ratio to save money when they buy Arsenal. Buy the generic and apply the proper amount if you’re going to go through all of the work. If you hack and squirt, make sure you make enough “hacks” - one hack for every 3” of trunk. If you cut and treat, treat immediately after cutting. You only have an hour before the herbicide will not be taken in.

You can kill with foliar treatment, but it’s not a best practice based on the potential collateral damage from using a herbicide that will 100% kill sweetgum.

Once again - prescribed fire is necessary every couple of years for at least 20 years to take of all of the sweetgum seeds in the seed bed assuming the soil remains untilled.

 

[gadeerwoman]

On thing to keep in mind if using Arsenal is that it can also kill desirable trees in the same area around the roots of treated trees.

 

[CarolinaDawg]

On thing to keep in mind if using Arsenal is that it can also kill desirable trees in the same area around the roots of treated trees.

Correct and just as a reminder, Arsenal is a name brand form of Imazapyr. Imazapyr is soil active unlike Glyphosate (Roundup).

 

[buckpasser]

Triclopyr is a little safer in a pine stand, but you must cover pretty much the entire tree. It will smoke them if you can. I use it along the road edges too. It kills the branches it encounters.

 

[Ray357]

Over the last 3 years we’ve had parts of our lease cut and replanted. As I’m sure most here know, the sweet gums take over and grow like weeds. Been batting them for as long as I’ve been down there hunting. Cut them down to the ground and they come back. Cut and spray works pretty good. Just spraying them works but I have to spray them twice. Tried the skin the bark and spray last year but I didn’t use it full strength and didn’t have success.
This weekend I tried something different. Sprayed the trees and brush but won’t be able to check on them until next weekend.
Does anyone know of a sure fire product that works in one application?

Pure diesel fuel with 1 Gal of crossbow per 60 gal diesel.

 

[EAGLE EYE 444]

I am a novice in this area of expertise.

I would like to know if any of you are familiar with a product called RM43 which is a total vegetation control.

HAVE ANY OF YOU USED THIS EXACT PRODUCT and if so, what information can you give me about being safe with it????

A good friend of mine that has a lot more experience with working outside and bush-hogging, skid-steer operations and clearing land etc advised me to buy this product last year and I bought two quarts of it BUT I totally forgot to try and spray any of it back in early spring like he told me to do right before everything brushed out. I just found these two quarts this afternoon.

*************************************************

I see that this product is manufactured FOR RAGAN AND MASSEY which is located in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. I was just able to finally read the super fine print that states that this product is 43.68 % GLYPHOSATE.

I am really glad that I have a BIG and more powerful magnifying glass as such because all of the writing on this attached sheet is smaller than a microscopic gnat's gonads. Here I am as I normally can see a chigger on the moon BUT it should be against the law to print anything this small.

Can any of you offer any comments about this product about the safety aspects including what types of clothing and head-gear etc to be used and also mixing particularly into a 2 1/2 gallon sprayer size????


MY ORIGINAL GOAL OF USING THIS PRODUCT WAS TO TRY AND KILL A BUNCH OF SWEETGUM AND PLUM TYPE TREES THAT BEGIN GROWING IN THE EARLY SPRING IN MY OPEN FIELD EACH YEAR. I noticed recently that these two types of "trees" were growing like crazy again already this year.

 

[spencer12]

Sweetgums and beavers are my two worst enemies

 

[georgiadawgs44]

Thanks for the replies y’all. Lots of good information here.

 

[Tight Lines]

Sweetgums and beavers are my two worst enemies

Too bad you can't get the beavers trained to target the sweet gums!