We recently cleared an area out for a future foodplot site. It was in 6' high, thick as hell dog wood and briars. nealry killed the bushog doing it. There is alot of stubble and root materil that remains- too much to till at this point. utilizing a controlled burn in this specific area is awful risky. Is there something i could just throw down that establishes easy to keep the dogwood and briars from coming back?

thanks

A burn isn't going to get the larger stuff, especially the stumps. You should have hired a bulldozer for a few hours and eliminated a lot of headaches that will now follow. I would swallow the losses on the bushhog time and get a bulldozer anyway. It won't cleanup as well as it would have before the stems were attached to the stumps, but a root rake will get most of them. You can spray the stems when they start sprouting out to kill the stuff, just go to the feed and seed and tell them what you are trying to get rid of. Dogwood and briars are great natural food sources for wildlife.

if you have a dc to ac power invertor you can take a 110 volt ac drill and bore some holes with an auger bit into the stumps. fill them with some diesel or KNO3

I've done the same in the past. Simply mowing will take 4-5 years for the 2-3" stumps to stop sprouting. Mine are usually willow, red osier dogwood and alder.

Apply Round up - and overseed with clovers, brassicas or grains like rye opr Winter wheat. It might be a messy plot for a couple years - but it'll clean up - and it'll never be as hard as the FIRST "MOWING"

example - 3yrs later -



I checked the plot again this last week - and was really pleased. Finally - probably will be able to leave the clover this year and just mow.


FH