Janet Steele, Area Forestry & Wildlife Agent
As days grow warmer with more daylight hours, plant, shrub and tree species begin to break dormancy and enter a new growing season. Like myself, you may be anxious to get outside and tackle some of those land management practices you have been planning all winter. These projects often include getting rid of undesirable vegetation on your property. But as soon as new leaves start to pop out is not the time to break out the saws, brush cutters, herbicides, and other equipment. Here is why:
A tree’s food factory is its leaves. During fall, trees begin to move their nutrients from their leaves, storing them primarily in their root system during their winter dormancy. With the appropriate amount of daylight hours and air and soil temperature, trees break their dormancy in the spring, and the process is reversed. The root system acts as a big pump, moving the stored nutrients back up through the tree with their water uptake. These resources feed its new growth. This process, often called “sap rising,” can last for weeks. During this time, a tree’s root system will frequently still have enough stored food resources to replace lost vegetation through resprouting or a second flush of growth. Herbicide applications during this time are usually ineffective because the tree will not translocate the chemical to the root system as effectively as during late summer and fall when it begins its nutrient storage process.
Although the best time to treat undesirable species with herbicides is in the fall, successful applications can be made once trees are fully leafed out and growing. This is usually late spring into early summer. Also, mechanical treatments, no matter the stem’s size, are best implemented well into the growing season. Most hardwood species will resprout from stumps and even their root systems, but sprouting will be less if the tree does not have stored nutrient reserves to promote another flush of growth.
The Forestry and Natural Resources team has an online video library that focuses on the different methods of controlling invasive species, both mechanically and chemically. These treatment methods can also be used on other undesirable vegetation, such as hardwood competition in pine stands, unwanted vegetation along field borders and roads, or in recreation areas. You are encouraged to click here and visit the site to learn more about these treatment methods.
There will be a Bottomland Hardwood Management Field Day at the Silver Bluff Audubon Center in Aiken County on April 4th. To receive registration information once it becomes available, please contact Janet Steele at jmwatt@clemson.edu.
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.
