Hello the

Brand new to this group and I can see I'm going to learn alot! I'm not a
professional--just a landowner trying to get smart and manage 275 acres for
the long-haul. Location is SW Wisconsin (Hillsboro). Land was pastured
heavily till 30 years ago and no abuse since--but no management either. So
now I find an excellent crop of Ironwood......uh, I mean Ostrya
Virginiana....so I guess I could call it Hornbeam, too :-) . We do have
some Carpinus Caroliniana (musclewood) too, but not that big of a problem.
(I think I'll keep it for "species diversity" :-) ).

I've spent many days mechanically cutting Ostrya and will still probably do
much more of that. However, I dropped hundreds of $ on 2.5 gallons each of
Garlon 3A and Garlon 4. I will use little spray bottles of the Garlon 3A
mixed w/ water to spray the cut-stumps of Ostrya when I do that work.
However, right now I'm working my way through the Garlon 4 and this leads to
my question......

I've searched the web and found references to 2% (some), 5% (most), and up
to 25% mixes (a few) of Garlon 4 in diesel fuel for general basal bark
spraying. At about a dollar an ounce, I've gone with the 5% mix of Garlon 4
in diesel fuel. At one week, the trees are showing no stress. But I'm not
really that impatient :-). What are your thoughts on stiffness of mix
versus successful kill of Ostrya? Will I probably see good effect in a
month or two? Any other thoughts of which this newbie should be aware?

Once the 2.5 gallons are gone, I will probably return to mechanical removal.
This land was "high graded" for MANY years and has lots of mature and
over-mature trees of poor or deformed form. Composition is mostly Maple and
Oak with lots of Shagbark and Bitternut Hickory, and Lots of White Ash. All
the Butternut is almost gone do to that blight that effects them.

Anyways, I look forward to your thoughts. If you reply to me directly, cut
the "name" (before the @) of my email address in half.

--
Bruce Richardson - W9FZ

He's upstairs helping Porcelain make the bed. --FST