So… I have some of those Honey Locusts on my property and as you can see they are a hazard. I can cut them down but I read that if I do they will sprout up along the root line. I found several references that say to girdle them. So, that’s what I did today. Hopefully, in a cpl years I’ll have some dead snags to cut up for fire wood.
If you put a little, and I mean just a little, of Pramitol pellets (crushed up) around the trunk they will die and not return. If it runs off the soil it touches will be sterile as well.
Drill a 1” hole deep inside at an angle with a spade bit. Fill full of neat round up (or generic equivalent and cap off.
I’ve killed elder like this.
I did exactly the same thing. Except I used gasoline. The hole was about 5-6” deep. It worked!
how tall are those trees?
Oh I’d give them 30-40 feet or so.
The one on the left is showing signs of dying (leaves withered) but the two on the right are grown together and I think they’re getting nutrients to the crown via the trunks fused together.
I have another one I did that is also showing signs of dying.
So… I may try girdling the two a bit higher at a point where I can get all the way around each.
do you apply any herbicides/chemicals to the girdle wounds or is it unnecessary?
I’ve read you can do either but chemicals are not required.
If I understand it correctly, the nutrients from the ground travel on the inside of the tree and the respiration exchange happens in the crown and then is transferred down the outside layer just under the bark. Girdling that outside layer disrupts the cycle and the tree dies without sending up shoots all over the place as distress response.
It’s like a buck killing a tree by rubbing off the bark …except I used a chain saw.
It’s working on two for sure and not so much on two (those two on the right in post #1).
You could probably just do a cut between the two trunks. As long as you can cut off the layer of bark and disrupt the first 2-3mm or the white underneath it should work to kill them.
I hate locust trees. Those thorns can got straight through leather high top work shoes like a knife through butter. Helped a friend cut down a black locust one Spring and decided I never wanted to see one again.
Paul
I am considering that. Maybe a plunge cut right into the center.
That would likely be enough to disrupt the circulation.
Even as they are, the trees will still die. It will just take longer. The small remaining connection won’t be able to feed the whole tree.
Paul
i read some people cut trees down to a stump drill holes in the stump and let it soak up kerosene and then light it on fire but that sounds sketchy
Yes, I cked that out but I just don’t want to use chemicals.