HOW TO KILL HONEYSUCKLE
This part of my site is dedicated to honeysuckle removal, not the popper. If you want info about the tool, CLICK HERE to go to the Honeysuckle Popper main page to see details, pictures, videos and prices for the best invasive bush removal tool you've seen.
Links from this page
For techniques on how to deal with all those dead honeysuckles, and also
something fun to do with them CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE to read a light-hearted, non technical story: The Trouble With Honeysuckle Bushes
For links to more honeysuckle info CLICK HERE
How to remove honeysuckles and what happens after you do.
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.
NOTE ABOUT GARLIC MUSTARD:
The easiest way to kill garlic mustard is to weed whack it during that 1-3 week interval that its flowers have developed, right before it starts shooting out its seed branches. The plant cannot recover enough to produce seeds after that and you can leave the stems laying there rather than bagging them. Any other time, pull them out and bag them. Be persistent for 2 years and it will disapear.
After clearing an area you will need to go and weed out by hand the new honeysuckles that are going to grow. Early spring or late autumn are the best times to do this (in the north) because they are easily visible then. The first 2-3 years you will be pulling ones that grow from seeds already there, and also re-sprouts from an exposed root or two that you missed while popping.
After that you'll likely get new honeysuckles growing every year from seeds deposited by birds and rodents from the bushes on your neighbors property, (Hey, I didn't say it was easy did I) but you only need to go out every other year because 2 year olds usually pull out easily, and the numbers of new sprouts is greatly diminished.
Your honeysuckle patch may be an old stand, with most honeysuckles 20-30 ft. high with 8" diameter or larger trunks, all of which need to be sawn down and the stumps killed. The natural seed bank under these stands are severely depleted (except for honeysuckle seeds), so not much will naturally grow. In this case, its best to have some native plants and seeds ready to plant after removal.
I look at it like this: Bush honeysuckle are nothing but big weeds taking over your yard or woodland. I have never weeded my garden and thought: "Thats the end of those weeds forever", because I know they will be back. There is so many honeysuckle bushes around now that there is virtually no way they won't return to a cleared area.
That doesn't stop me though, I'm doing whats necessary to take care of my own precious little piece of the earth.
A capable operator can pop out most smaller honeysuckles up to 10' high quickly and easily, and the best thing about that is you remove the stumps. You only need to walk through an area where all the honeysuckle have been sawn off and soaked with herbicide to know what I mean. You, and your kids, will continually trip over all them small stumps. You cannot see them because the new vegetation thats going to grow hides them. They will last for many years too.
Using 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.
The high cost of these concentrated herbicides is another reason to use the honeysuckle popper. After about 50 bushes, you've paid for it! (Sorry, I had to put that plug in) :-)
Spraying the leaves of mature honeysuckle bushes with herbicides requires specialized equipment, is expensive, and in my opinion should only be done by profesionals. Plus, spraying doesn't 'remove' them as some claim, it just kills them. You still have all the dead honeysuckle skeletons to deal with. They don't just disappear. The dead stems last at least 5 years and will hinder your follow-up restoration efforts.
Here's some links with more honeysuckle removal info:
Chris McCollough of Cincinnati Wild Ones Native Plant Society has a list of 25 WAYS TO REMOVE HONEYSUCKLES Her list of ideas can apply to other invasive bushes.
Heres a fairly detailed fact sheet about chemical control; http://www.wvu.edu/~exten/infores/pubs/pest/trim5416.pdf
Honeysuckle Popper verses herbicides;
Foreword; I'm not a botanist, scientist or anything like that. I'm a toolmaker thats spent way, WAY to much time (thanks honey) learning about and removing bushes.
You dont need one or the other- YOU NEED BOTH
I'm not in competition with herbicides or any other method as "THE" way to get rid of invasive bushes. There is no single 'good' way and no matter how you approach it, its gonna be hard work. The Popper is simply an additional and very effective tool to include in your removal efforts.
From my extensive observations, I can say a typical infestation will have a wide range of ages and sizes. Where the popper really shines is in getting all the smaller ones out of the way, before going in with herbicides (or whatever) to takle the big ones.
Most bushes up to 10 years old pop out fairly easily and the main advantage is that it removes the stumps. This is a great benefit because it eliminates the tripping hazard. The smaller stumps quickly get hidden by the new vegetation and they last 5 years or longer, so its better to get them out of the way. For other advantages CLICK HERE
HOW TO KILL HONEYSUCKLE STUMPS WITHOUT USING HERBICIDES
After 5 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. Yep, it works. You need 2-4" of solid soil over it and you need to pack it down good. You can even add some mulch on top and plant some flowers on it. A couple of people looked at me like I was crazy when I told them this, but I'm here to tell you, its true. Try it. You'll see for yourself.
The point here is: When popping you only need to make sure any leftover severed roots are covered, you don't have to pull them out. They rot underground.
Cut and rub it:
This works if you can return to the cut honeysuckle every 10 days or so for a period of 3 to 4 months.
Cut all the large branches about 3 feet from the ground and cut off small shoots where they exit the crown. Make sure there is no leaf left. In a week or so, new shoots will emerge. These shoots are very tender and can easily be rubbed off with gloves on. Be regular about it. By not allowing any leaf growth, you are essentially starving the roots, and the honeysuckle will die within 4 months. If you start it late in the season, you will need to continue rubbing the next spring.
There are several reasons you want to cut the branches about 3 feet from the ground. The biggest reason for me is it makes it easier to remove the stump after its rotted because you can rock it back and forth while popping. Additionally, the new shoots tend to mostly emerge up higher on the branches which means you don’t have to do as much bending over to service it. Finially, it stays readily visible and will not get lost in the new weeds you are going to get in the now sunnier area.
It takes at least 2 years after it dies for the stump to rot enough to remove it with the popper. You will find that the popper will easily tear through rotted roots and the stump will take only a few minutes to get out.
This pic is a dead cut and rubbed Heres some shoots
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