Invasive Brush Plants – Part 5 – Yaupon Holly Continued

Basal Trunk Paint – This method is used when the invaded area and the trunks are too large to lopper or use the clearing saw.  We apply the Remedy-oil mixture from the ground up the all the way around the yaupon truck to about a foot to 18 inches up the trunk.  The mixture needs to be applied around the entire trunk to make sure all of the roots die.  We have two different application methods.  When we first started this method several years ago, we used a large paint brush.  As you can image, crawling around on the ground or squatting while painting is hard on the legs and knees so, we started using a “wand” applicator.  It is a simple device (we bought the first one and made the second one) made of one inch PVC with a rolling paint applicator on the end.  We fill the PVC tube with the Remedy mixture, and it runs into a threaded elbow connector into a cylinder that the rolling applicator is connected to.  Through holes in the cylinder, the Remedy mixture soaks the rolling paint applicator. 

Paint roller end of the "Wand"

Then, standing up right (as humans evolved to do) we roll the Remedy soaked rolling brush on the tree trunk.   By using the wands, we can reach the basal trunks without getting down on the ground.  It’s much better on our hands, knees and backs and the process goes much faster.  We try to make our wand applications in February or March, before the grass and weeds starting growing again and turn the underbrush into “Chiggerville” again.  Then, we wait all summer and watch the tree trucks start to crack and peel and the leaves turn yellow, then brown to black and fall off as the trees die in place.  The next fall when the chiggers are dormant,  we walk through the area and push down the dead yaupon, drag them to the burn area and burn them.

To conclude this yaupon discussion, there are other methods, such a prescribed burns that we have also tried.  This will be the subject of a later post.  The reason we chose these manual labor intensive methods is that they are the only ways we can be selective, and only destroy the yaupon while leaving the oak, dogwood and other desirable plants.

Invasive Brush Plants – Part 4 – Yaupon Holly Continued

Clear & Spray Method – This method works best in clearing a large area choked with small yaupon. We use either a pair of loppers to cut the small yaupon trunks or a mechanical clearing saw device. The clearing saw is like a weed-eater on steroids, instead of a little plastic string for cutting, it uses is metal circular saw blade. 





Stihl Clearing Saw



Once we cut out the small brush and drag it to the burn area, the job is done until spring or summer the next year. This is when the cut yaupon will make is big comeback by sprouting from the root. When the regrowth is about shin to knee high, we spray the foliage with Remedy mixed with water and a squirt of liquid dish soap. We use water instead of oil in the Remedy mixture because the mixture sprays better and stays on the leaves just fine. Depending on how strong the Remedy mixture, the leaves will get black spots overnight and a few weeks later turn completely black, fall off and the plant dies, including the roots. The trick here is to patiently wait for the regrowth and to spray the mixture in warm weather while the plant is growing so that it will take in the poison. This method has a very good success rate, but sometimes a second pass with the spray is needed to get plants that were not sprayed the first time because they were too small or not noticed because they were covered with leaves. I have heard, but not confirmed, that if you don’t put enough Remedy on the first time, a more vigorous and more difficult to kill plant will emerge. So, we make sure we use enough at the right strength, usually ¼ Remedy to ¾ water so that we do not create a super-yaupon resistant to Remedy.



Guests Burning Yaupon and Cedar



.







Invasive Brush Plants – Part 3 – Yaupon Holly Continued

Cut & Paint Stump Method – For the larger trees with trunks two or three inches in diameter, we find this method most efficient. This situation arises most often when yaupon have grown right up next to a nice larger tree. The yaupon often forms a thicket around the larger tree and some of the yaupon is quite large and tall, growing up into a tangle in the limbs of the larger tree. Poison ivy may also be on the main tree and obscured from view due to the yaupon so we are always very careful around these yaupon clumps. See post of August 5, 2010 about how to handle poison ivy.

First, we use the chain saw to cut the yaupon, close to ground. We pull the yaupon out of the tangle and stack it. The pile of cut yaupon is tied to a rope that we hook to the hitch on the ATVE and drag it burn location. More on our brush burning pile later.

Next is the painting process. We mix Remedy with diesel oil or vegetable oil (whichever one is cheaper, right now I think diesel is cheaper) and a squirt of liquid dish soap and apply it to the stump with a paint brush. The Remedy is the key ingredient; the oil’s purpose is to make sure the Remedy sticks to the trunk and doesn’t just run off to ground. The soap is a surfactant, meaning in small amounts it reduces the surface tension of the Remedy/oil mixture so that the surface contact between the Remedy mixture and surface of the yaupon trunk is increased. As an aside, the word “surfactant” is “surface acting agent” run together. The mixture is applied immediately to the fresh cut surface and down the sides and all the way around the stump from cut to dirt. When yaupon attempts to grow, it sucks in the poison which kills the roots. Our non-scientific survey of this method is 99% effective to prevent re-growth of the yaupon. Care is needed to prevent getting the Remedy mixture on other trees as this stuff seems to kill everything it touches. You don’t need a chemical license to buy it. We purchase it at Tractor Supply in Brenham for about $100/gallon. It’s expensive but by mixing and using it properly, it goes a long way

Invasive Brush Plants – Part 2 – Yaupon Holly

Ilex vomitoria is an apt name for yaupon. Guess what happens if you eat the red berries of the yaupon? That’s right, you vomit! It does not take a PhD in botony to figure out that a plant with the Latin name for vomit is probably not fit to eat. According the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees, yaupon leaves contain high caffeine content and Native Americans used to brew them with the berries into a tea to induce vomiting. The “black drink” as it was called reportedly was also a laxative. According to Audubon, native tribes from the interior of hte US traveled to the coast each year to participate in a cleansing ritual with yaupon black drink. We are certainly not making black drink or brewing yaupon tea at Dogwood Ranch. If there was a real commercial market for yaupon tea, we would be rich! We will stick to getting our morning caffeine from coffee.

In small numbers, yaupon can be beneficial to wildlife as it provides food for deer and birds. We see lots of little birds nest in the yaupon and when vines grow into and over the yaupon, it creates a thicket that birds seem to like. The brush also provides cover for other small wildlife. However, solid choking invasive stands of yaupon are harmful to native’s grasses, forbs and other wildlife food sources. Under a thick stand of yaupon, there is little to no grass. Besides, the thickets that crowed around oaks and other large trees destroy the larger trees majestic beauty and take water and resources from them.

The problem with yaupon eradication, or even just attempting to control it and establish peaceful co-existence with it, is that simply cutting it down will not do the trick. Once cut, the yaupon will sprout back from the root and sometimes sprout directly from the cut surface. To kill it completely, the roots must either but removed from the ground or otherwise killed. We’ve see folks clear out yaupon by pulling a bush hog behind a tractor but in a few years, the area will be just as dense with yaupon so little was accomplished. Besides, it’s difficult to be selective in what is cut down with bush hog so along will yaupon, small beneficial plants that may not grow back are destroyed.

Yaupon eradication is such a problem that numerous papers have been written on the subject. One master’s thesis submission by Stephanie Renee Dupree of Texas Tech University compared various eradication methods. The link to her paper is  http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-07012008-31295019526226/unrestricted/31295019526226.pdf

Also see Managing Yaupon with Fire and Herbicide in the Texas Post Oak Savannah published by the USDA Agricultural Research Service http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1211&context=usdaarsfacpub

and the Texas Parks and Wildlife publication
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_w7000_0010p_color.pdf

Digging up yaupon is not an option on Dogwood Ranch because is there is just too much of it. Instead, we have to kill the roots in place. We use three methods, unfortunately all very labor intensive, depending on the situation: 1. Cut and paint stump; 2. Clear and spray; 3. Basal trunk paint. I will describe each method in detail.

Here is a before and after shot of an early yaupon brush clearing around an oak tree.

Before

After

Invasive Brush Plants – Part 1

Just as there are the Big Three Dangers at Dogwood Ranch, there are the Big Three Invasive Brush Plants: 1. yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria); 2. Juniper, also called Texas cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and 3. Mesquite (Prosopis gladulosa var. glardulosa).

As described in the post describing the Blackland Prairie, heavy cultivation of the land in Washington County gave an opening for invasive plant species to do what invasive species do best – invade.

All three of these plants are undesirable in Texas when they become invasive such that state biologists, agricultural agents and wildlife experts encourage Texans to rid their property of these plants. Generally, the problem with these plants is they are water-hogs, invasive and push-out the native grasses and plants. For instance, yaupon holly underbrush can be so dense in the woods we cannot even walk through it. Bcause it is evergreen and densely foliated, very little grass will grow under them. The foliage usually starts about a foot up the trunk and give whitetail deer little cover from predators, such as coyotes. The coyotes learn to lay flat on the ground to look out into the yaupon where deer, and particularly fawn, can be seen if bedded down in the trees.

Juniper also create dense shade in which little grass grows. Plus, the juniper tend to grow up next to the trunk of other trees like oak and elm and suck the water way from these more desirable native trees.  On Dogwood Ranch, we noticed lots of large juniper trees with the stump of a dead oak or eml right next to it.  Our theroy is that the juniper contributed to the death of the other tree by sucking-up the water and nutrients

Dogwood Ranch doesn’t have a serious mesquite problem but there is just enough to be nuisance. Besides its invasive quality, if you have ever stepped on a mesquite thorn with bare feet or had one penetrate the sole of your shoe, you understand that any mesquite is too much mesquite-unless its being used to smoke your barbecue!

When the county agricultural agent and biologist came out to Dogwood in 2003, they both encouraged us to get rid of the yaupon and juniper. We did not have any mesquite on that portion of the property. Looking across the fence line to a neighbor’s property South of Dogwood, the new juniper growth was intense and the biologist shook his head in dismay saying “I hate to see this kind of thing” meaning property owners that allow juniper to further invade their property.

We took their advice to heart despite that about 2/3 of the initial Dogwood Ranch property was choked with dense yaupon holly brush. Further, the juniper grew undisturbed during Dogwood's hunting lease days for decades so the trees reached heights 50 or 60 feet. Through trial and error and advice from experts and other landowners, we have developed eradication programs using different technics for each type of invasive brush. In next few posts, I will describe our now finely tuned process for each type of plant and circumstance.  By far the most difficult of the three to control is the yaupon so I will start with it.