How to remove shrubs

 Invasive honeysuckle and buckthorn bushes are what I'm talking about here but the info is good for most invasive bushes.  My CUT then RUB method does not work on bushes that develop root shoots from underground like privet and autumn olive.

How to remove honeysuckles and what happens afterward.

  Mister Honeysuckle has seen it all and believes the most cost effective way to remove a honeysuckle infestation in urban and surburban 'disturbed' areas (which most of it is), is to first remove all the smaller ones that you can manually with the honeysuckle popper, then saw off and kill the stumps of the larger ones. After that, just wait and see what happens next year.

  The ground disturbance created by manually removing the small stumps unleashes the seed bank and you will get a lot of new vegetation, most good, some bad. One really good thing is new tree seedlings. The bad is usually garlic mustard which you will attack quickly as part of your restoration schedule.  READ MORE

How to kill honeysuckle stumps without herbicides

CUT then RUB'em or Bag'em.
  After 7 years of removing and killing honeysuckles, I have come up with some cool ways to kill ones too big to remove with the Popper. The reason these methods work is because bush honeysuckles do not and cannot sprout from buried roots. I put that in bold letters to drive home the point. Honeysuckle does not shoot out root suckers. Its true, and that fact makes killing bush honeysuckle not as difficult as some may think. In my 5 years of observations, I have yet to see a root sprout coming from more than an inch of soil. It’s the vine type honeysuckle that can do that. The shrubs cannot. On the other hand- bush honeysuckles can and will sprout from any part of the stump or roots that are left exposed to air.

Heres a tip you probably dont know: You can kill a honeysuckle stump simply by putting a pile of dirt on top of it.  READ MORE

Kill honeysuckle and buckthorn with herbicides

Concentrated herbicides are used by many on cut stumps. To kill the stump you need to use minimum 20% Roundup or probably 30% of the generic brands of glysophate and you need to apply it fairly liberally within a minute of cutting it. For large stumps, you only need to soak the area next to the bark, not the hard woody part in the center. Have a brush with you to sweep the sawdust off before applying. The concentrated stuff is a thick liquid and doesn't go very far, you can expect to use 1- 3 dollars worth per stump depending on size.  READ MORE

honeysuckle removal