Mesquite brush killer!

[Shawn In Texas]

I was wanting to know if anyone had a good home brew mixture for killing mesquite brush or what others use for this.

We have had a bad drought here in Texas this year but the mesquite brush is still thriving with no problem.

I am guessing with no rain to bring up grass it is allowing the mesquite to take over bad.

I cut mesquite brush in my pastures a couple of months ago and it is coming back with the vengeance now.

I was cleaning up my place last week in fear of all the wild fires springing up here.

Trimming trees, clearing roads and pastures around the house just in case we have something come our way......

The mesquites are just trashing anything that holds air (TIRES).

Car tires, truck tires, tractor tires, everything.

Just driving the truck back and forth to my workshop is bad enough not to mention having to go off the road for any reason.

It may sound silly but even the real small stuff has over three inch thorns.

They are going through thick tread mud tires like nothing this year.

I am going to build a 3 point chem sprayer to help with this problem and was just wondering what you guys use to kill this stuff.

I usually shred the place with the tractor with good results but this year it is just coming back like crazy and I want to get a good grip on this stuff.

I have a lot of area to spray, 80 plus acres of pasture and areas here and there all over the place.

I have cows so I am looking for something that is cattle safe.

I would like to keep the grass (when it comes back) and just kill the heavy brush.

I don't have a problem with looking into a chem license for the product but was wondering if there was a different way to go.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

 

[36 Coupe]

Make charcoal.Bag I just finished was made in Mexico.

 

[Billybuck]

Looks like timing is important and apparently control by spraying is possible. You might want to contact this guy for the chemical used. Hope it helps.
Untitled URL Link

 

[Fuddy Duddy]

I use "Crossbow" mixed with Diesel. Works pretty good on the Black Locust. Cows won't mess with any thing with Diesel on it.

 

[8N1949]

(quoted from post at 00:53:44 09/14/11) I use "Crossbow" mixed with Diesel. Works pretty good on the Black Locust. Cows won't mess with any thing with Diesel on it.

Fuddy Duddy, says it all on using Crossbow mixed with diesel fuel, It will do it's job. It will also kill those "hedge apple trees" that will sprout back after you have cut them down.

Use it on any brush/grass you don't want around. It also gets rid of those rattlesnakes, as they don't like the smell of diesel.

 

[jackinok]

I'm in the same boat in western okla,mesquite and cactus is the only thing green in the pastures.i was thinking of one of those weed wipers,ours is not near as bad as yours gets though.couple feet tall is about all it gets here.what i'm afraid of is grass is so stressed any thing you could spray would kill it out.about the only way ive seen around here for folks to really get ahead of it if their clearing new ground is to rip it out with a crawler,followed by a few years of intense farming and grazing.

 

[Rtoon]

I have around 12 goats and they took care of the mesquite tree here eat them one year and the next yr the trees were dead

 

[JMOR]

I'm wondering whether it is mesquite of honey locust that you have? What part of Texas? I have successfully killed the locust with a mix of diesel/Remedy/Brushmaster or BK-32 (about same) and water. Nearly always need repeat applications, because I think(?) it comes back from the roots. I'm between Greenville & Canton. This link may be useful in control & has other links to plant ID.
http://texnat.tamu.edu/about/brush-busters/mesquite/

 

[Shawn In Texas]

Here is what it is.

This picture is off the web but it is the same stuff growing all over my place.

From what I can tell it is old fashion mesquite brush that turn into full trees if left alone long enough.

Same size thorns too.

I am a few miles out of San Antonio and this stuff is going mad out here!

Let me tell you! this stuff will go right through your shoe and nail your foot to your boot!

 

[elmersooner]

used to get paid to grub mesquite with high power tractor and single shank trenching plow to pull the roots. have been told excavators do a better job. the crossbow and diesel work good around here.

Jackinok----the cactus in our pastures here is now yellow.

 

[8N1949]

Shawn, what you show in the photo is a thorn pod from a Honest Locust tree. Well know in State of Texas.


Honey Locust, Sweet Locust, Thorny Locust, Sweet Bean Tree, Sweet Locust, Honey Shucks Locust
Gleditsia triacanthos
Leguminosae (Fabaceae)

Honey locusts as the species type are seldom used in the landscape because of their vicious three- pronged thorns, which can sometimes be as long as 12 inches. They grow on rich soils in the eastern third of the state, although they can tolerate drought and a wide range of soil conditions. Honey locust is a medium to large shade tree with vase-shaped, stratified branching, yellow fall color and soft-textured summer foliage that provides light filtered shade. There is a thornless variety (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) that can be used for landscaping.

Plant Habit or Use: large tree

Exposure: sun

Height: to 50 ft. in Texas landscapes, to 100'+ in more favorable climates

Width: 25 to 50 ft.

Plant Character: deciduous

Heat Tolerance: high medium

Water Requirements: medium low

Soil Requirements: adaptable

 

[Fuddy Duddy]

How do you get the diesel and water to mix?

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 19:20:15 09/13/11) How do you get the diesel and water to mix?

hake,agitate, or if power sprayer, let it bypass part of pump output back into tank. Even if stopped for a bit, it takes awhile to separate.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 17:26:06 09/13/11)
Shawn, what you show in the photo is a thorn pod from a Honest Locust tree. Well know in State of Texas.


Honey Locust, Sweet Locust, Thorny Locust, Sweet Bean Tree, Sweet Locust, Honey Shucks Locust
Gleditsia triacanthos
Leguminosae (Fabaceae)

Honey locusts as the species type are seldom used in the landscape because of their vicious three- pronged thorns, which can sometimes be as long as 12 inches. They grow on rich soils in the eastern third of the state, although they can tolerate drought and a wide range of soil conditions. Honey locust is a medium to large shade tree with vase-shaped, stratified branching, yellow fall color and soft-textured summer foliage that provides light filtered shade. There is a thornless variety (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) that can be used for landscaping.

Plant Habit or Use: large tree

Exposure: sun

Height: to 50 ft. in Texas landscapes, to 100'+ in more favorable climates

Width: 25 to 50 ft.

Plant Character: deciduous

Heat Tolerance: high medium

Water Requirements: medium low

Soil Requirements: adaptable

was pretty sure of that, too, but since I haven't been close to mesquite in a long time, I wasn't absolutely sure what mesquite thorns (if any) looked like.

 

[gahorN]

Shawn, I'm only a few miles north of you (up hwy 281) near Spicewood/Marble Falls, and I know what you mean by the mesquite/locust thorns. It took me years to get that cleared off my grass runway and this year it's back with a vengance.

The stuff that appears to get it killed...really really killed.... is "Clear Pasture" which is a triclopyr type herbicide. It ain't cheap...it costs about $90/gal. for the concentrate. But it can be used on active pastures in a broad spray for annual treatment...or...for the type problem you and I have, it can be sprayed in a more concentrated mixture as a spot-treatment or a basal treatment.

I bought a 15 gallon ATV type sprayer and mix a quart of the concentrate with 12 gals of water, 1 gal diesel, and a couple cups of laundry detergent as a wetting/emulsifying agent. I put it in the lawn-tractor trailer and drove around and shot each individual plant with it. One week later that plant was D E A D. I waited another week and individually cut each plant with pruning shears at the ground.

If you don't want to spend that kind of time on the project, you can cut each well-developed plant at the ground and paint the stump with the full concentrate. It is now D E A D.

The problem with merely mowing these sort of plants is that they have root-balls that come back persistently. Most times the plant reacts by spreading out numerous tenticles and you've actually worsened your problem.

You are going to have to spend the time/money on a serious herbicide like the one I mentioned. I prefer to kill the plant by spraying the leafy stems and let the natural photosynthesis process send that poision on down to the roots ...then clear out the plants about two weeks later either by individually cutting them or by mowing. But the important thing to remember is...you've got to poison that root-ball or the plant will retaliate with a vengance.

Here's the product MSDS/Instructions. Follow the precautions. Don't use a "fine" spray...use a coarse spray and a surfactant (detergent). REmember..the instructions are primarily intended for wide-spread application on pastures....but you and I are going to apply them directly to individual plants and therefore use a more concentrated mixture. Pay attention to the instructions on mixing with diesel....you don't want to do it out-of-order so as to cause seperation...you want it to mix well for application. I"ve had no problems at all by first adding detergent to water, then diesel, then water/herbicide and sloshing the 15 gal sprayer tank around. (This happens quite naturally since I'm using it in my lawn tractor-trailer...I wired my sprayer to my lawn tractor battery circuit using ordinary trailer wiring harness/plugs.)

Keep the stuff off of yourself. (Think about Agent Orange.)

Ooops...forgot the links. Here they are:
http://www.azspray.com/shop/pc/docs/label/clearpastureproductlabel.pdf
and
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=pasture+clear&hl=en&prmd=imvns&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1024&bih=567&wrapid=tlif131597641908710&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=6482108655235519452&sa=X&ei=CzVwTuKWLMWvsAKAs7C5CQ&ved=0CE0Q8wIwAA#

 

[Jim in Western MI]

Jeepers! That stuff would make me seriously consider whether I wanted to move to TX! Why shouldn't we plant a 100' strip along the border?

 

[Shawn In Texas]

That may work, I will start replanting mine down there and see what happens!

 

[Shawn In Texas]

gahorN,

Thanks for the info, it helps a lot.
I am going to build my 3 point sprayer and get this in motion.

I think you are correct about making it worse.

I usually shred my pastures and it keeps it down for a while but this year with no grass coming up it has come back way fast and nasty.

It seems like it is just helping it spread by cutting it.

Years ago my grand father cleared the area for a runway so he could land his piper cub.

I have kept it cut and cleared just because of the years he spent clearing it by hand.

He spent so much time doing it that it is not a question about keeping it looking like a park.

Just doesn't seem right letting it go to crap out of laziness.

I am in the process of rebuilding coral's.
I spent the last three days cutting this stuff out of all the old corral fencing just so I could reach all the old posts and fencing.

This year is bad for everything else but that nasty brush loves heat and no water.

I can only imagine how fast this stuff would grow if we had rain this year.

I have been researching chemicals the last few days and you are right on with how to handle this.

I just have such a large area that a tractor mounted sprayer is the only way to go.

I figured I would shred it to the ground and spray right on top the fresh cutting.

One other question....Do you know what is involved with getting the chem license to purchase the products?

I am going to check into it this week but was just wondering.

Thanks again for all the great info, I appreciate it.

Shawn.