Today is dedicated to "Brush control".
Nothing fancy. I cut the stems near ground level and spray the cut ends with 5% Gordon's Brush Killer (a mix of 2,4-D, Triclopyr, and dicamba). I do all of my usual water conditioning: Ammonium sulfate, surficant and soft-water.
This routine is very economical in terms of the amount of spray used. I am wetting square-inches of cut stem instead of square-yards of leaves. The active ingredient does not need to diffuse through the waxy cuticle of the leaves and it is not diluted by the volume of the above-ground stems.
Another advantage is that I am pointing the spray downward at the cut stems. There is very little blow-back. I am not even cutting them at ground level due to my dunlop. I cut them at about 12" and try to keep the height consistent to make them easier to see.
This is a good time of year to use auxin-mimic sprays or growth-regulator sprays. The plants make a big push in the spring to deploy as much top-growth as possible and the leaves have not been operational long enough to have replenished those reserves. The auxin-mimics tell the cells "GROW GROW GROW", which they do, gobbling up the remaining reserves and choking off vascular structures with great globs of unorganized growth.
Triclorpyr is useful for controlling brush because it has a very long half-life in the target woody-plant. It keeps triggering unorganized and debauched consumption of critical metabolic reserves. (It is purely coincidence that the second part of this post is about politics. Really. Trust me.)
I am sure that I am missing some stems but they will be easy to find. They will be attached to the leaves that are not wilting.
Trumpet vine, Euonymus bungeanus, grape vines, poison ivy, hackberry saplings, gray dogwood, elderberry, mulberry, blackberries, Box Elder, Norway maple (where the heck did THAT come from?)... Something for everybody.
I am doing the "Set the stop-watch and take a break after an hour" routine.
---Note: I got chased inside by pollen and allergy issues at 2:00. Still, it was a productive day.---
Political musings
Europe made a hard turn away from the extreme-left in the most recent wave of elections. India's support for Modi, a Nationalist, softened. Mexico elected another, more radical Leftist. Radical immigrants are doubling-down on intimidation in Europe and John, Jon, Johann and Iargo have run out of patience and are pushing back. Brussels is mystified.
I consider myself a conservative rather than a Republican. But if I were a Republican, I would be talking about Democrat stupidity and not talking specifically about Biden.
Ripping on Biden makes it easy for the Democrats to make him the designated scapegoat at the last moment and whoever they actually put on the ballet will be untainted by the abysmal policies of the Biden Administration. Phil Indeblanc, the Democrat replacement for Biden will inherit that same Administration.\ and the same abysmal, failed policies.
Leviticus 16
ReplyDeleteThe Scapegoat
…21Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task. 22The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness.
Replace goat with Biden, and Democratic Party with Israelites and off we GO!
That Biden *might* be able to pick his own ice cream flavor MATTERS NOT! HE did all the SINS (the royal we) WE DID and thus WE are clean before OUR Democracy.
Sad part is beyond the echo chambers of DC some hard core Democrats will actually go for it.
Come the fire, the Democrats will be pleading for mercy.
ReplyDelete> with great globs of unorganized growth
ReplyDeleteThis was a philosophical moment for me. I had no idea we could spread cancer wholesale.
Yep.
DeleteDumping huge amounts of money into the economy cause metastasized, disorganized, borrow-it-while-you can growth. Dumping high-fructose corn-syrup and hydrogenized vegetable fats into human bodies causes uncontrolled growth and hormone storms before the brain is armored against them.
My neighbor is on a crusade to go after the Bittersweet in our woods. He cuts the vine as close to the ground as he can, shves off about an inch of bark, and then dabs it with a concoction that may be similar to your mix. So he does it not by spraying, but by poisoning the plants individually, one at a time. I'm glad he has the energy to do that.
ReplyDelete