What is the purpose of girdling a tree?

Jim Boyd

Senior Member
How is that better than simply cutting the tree down?

Thoughts?
 

Tight Lines

Senior Member
I've done it when I want to kill the roots and all and not have a green tree when I cut it down...works wonders on privet and sweetgums...when I cut them down live, they just come right back...
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
I did it on a huge sweetgum that I wanted gone.

It was too big for regular chainsaws and multiple fences had been attached and grown into over the years. It also had huge spike nails grown in it from being used as a deer stand. It took 2 years to die. Then limbs and the body of the tree fell for about 5-10 years. After about 15 years the stump was ready to be plucked up by tractor power.

Summation. It was either lots of work or expense to make it go away quickly or zero expense to let it take a few years.
 

Triple C

Senior Member
Snags make great nesting sights for owls n wood peckers. Cut a hardwood tree without treating the stump with herbicide and you have a jungle in a few years.

I prefer hack n squirt but just my personal preference for not running a chainsaw.

As Milkman stated, makes for easy degradation over the course of a few years rather than a mess on the ground after felling.
 

fireman32

"Useless Billy" Fire Chief.
Double girdle works the best. I single girdled a 30 inch diameter sweet gum last spring. Didn’t seem to phase it, gonna hit it again as soon as I can. Also safer than felling a big tree if you’re inexperienced, particularly in an area where it could hang up while falling.
And like Mr. Nic said, standing dead trees are good habitats for woodpeckers, owls and other small critters.
 

uturn

Senior Member
I’ve been reading for a time on the hack and squirt method…would love some real guidance from someone my small track has literally a thousand trees on the 10 acres and at least half are sweetgum…we are active, living on and working on improvements daily!

Always concerned about widow makers especially so if I begin to hack and squirt a large quantity of trees!

Apologizes for railroading your thread Jim!
 

Triple C

Senior Member
I’ve been reading for a time on the hack and squirt method…would love some real guidance from someone my small track has literally a thousand trees on the 10 acres and at least half are sweetgum…we are active, living on and working on improvements daily!

Always concerned about widow makers especially so if I begin to hack and squirt a large quantity of trees!

Apologizes for railroading your thread Jim!
uturn - Here's what I use for hack n squirt. Do it while trees are dormant. The day I did this treatment was Jan 25th, 2020. Walked thru several acres releasing crop trees and killing competing trees and other junk trees I didn't want growing. 100% kill on trees I treated and some were quite large.
31AA12FB-980E-469D-8D42-B8E2EDE8DD64.jpeg
 

fireman32

"Useless Billy" Fire Chief.
I’ve been reading for a time on the hack and squirt method…would love some real guidance from someone my small track has literally a thousand trees on the 10 acres and at least half are sweetgum…we are active, living on and working on improvements daily!

Always concerned about widow makers especially so if I begin to hack and squirt a large quantity of trees!

Apologizes for railroading your thread Jim!
What I’ve read about widowmakers is this. The tree will die while standing. By doing this, it will also dry out and drop limbs and the trunk piece by piece until it it’s gone. The tree being lighter will make it less dangerous if it does happen to fall. Typically it will take a strong wind to make it “accidentally” fall.
Dr. Grant Woods has several videos on YouTube about it.
 

The Original Rooster

Mayor of Spring Hill
I killed a bunch of Sweetgums this past year ...took a Dewalt drill and a 1" paddle bit ... drilled 4 or five holes at a slightly downward angle .. Squirted Roundup into the holes and they were dead in a fairly short time ...
I'm going to be trying this on a tree or two on my place.(y)
 

mattb78

Senior Member
Forestry work is dangerous. But I think if you did 10 acres of TSI with conventional felling vs. with chemicals the injury rate would be significantly less for the average person.
 

uturn

Senior Member
Thanks Everyone!

I’ve fallen some monsters for me and my 15 yr old Stihl…I’m no tree guy…I’ve traveled and been around some big trees lived here almost all my life and we’ve got some giants..I’d like to leave all I can of them the giants and have lost plenty to the work I’ve done thus far..I really like the killin them the sweet gums if I can’t de stump!

You harass them and they go berserk!!!

Thanks again y’all6931BF60-A98E-4111-978E-448893C96F3C.jpeg…It consumes a lot of my thoughts!
 

treadwell

Senior Member
I hack & squirt killed some larger trash trees in the ornamental part of my yard. (The part I will not be hanging out in). I did this to protect the really nice oaks from getting damaged by the falling trees. Trees died, rotted, fell in small chunks and zero damage to any limbs. IF I could have got them down without damaging the other trees, I would have just cut them down to start with.
 
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