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Hi there. We want to kill the albezias on our property by girdling. I did a Punaweb search and saw a thread about using Milestone poison, but we would prefer not to use that product. We've heard various techniques: girdle a few inches, girdle a foot, girdle all the way around the trunk. What works best for you? We have smallish trees that have 6-8 inches trunks, and a few giant ones that will need a more aggressive cut. And, what is the best type of knife tool to use? We did girdle one big tree a few years ago, and it worked well to kill it without poison but it took a while. I imagine poison would work faster. Any tips will be greatly appreciated! Aloha.
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Girdling a big albezia in order to kill it is on page 241 of "How to Kill Yourself and Start an Albezia Plantation in One Weekend".
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using Milestone poison, but we would prefer not to use that product
Have to ask "why not" -- agree that poison is bad in general, and Milestone is expensive stuff, but the intended application (a few mL into a drilled hole) would seem to have very little unintended contamination ("overspray") compared to conventional application (say, Roundup).
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Hi there. Just don't want to spend the big $$$ if we don't have to. Seems there are lots of trees out there that have been girdled and are dead or dying. We are open to poison however. We do have some of the Garlon. Would that work like Milestone?
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How many albizias do you have to kill?
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I have seen very large girdled albizias that had appeared to be dead standing trees, completely leafless for over a year, come back one branch at a time. They are the only tree I have ever seen that could do that after having 1 to 2 foot bands girdled at their base. There is an example of this in the empty lot next to the rooster farm at 16th and Paradise. It was girdled a few years ago after the rooster farm's catchment was destroyed by a falling albizia from that lot and has completely recovered after being leafless for over a year. If you drive around HPP you will see dead appearing large trees that have little green patches of leaves high in their tops, if you observe those trees over a period of months they will eventually recover from the girdling. If girdling was permanently effective there would be a whole lot less albizia here than there are.
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Girdling has to, by definition, entirely circle the trunk. It is most effective when done within 12-18" of the soil surface. The optimum width of the girdle depends on the diameter of the tree. Double the diameter: a 10" D. tree needs a 20" D. girdle. I usually use a pruning saw to cut through the bark at the upper and lower ends of the girdle. Then I use my Swiss Army knife, insert it into the upper cut, and drag it down to the lower one. Repeat all the way around. Tedious, but it works.
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Milestone, for the price and ease of use, is really the only way to go. It is fast - as soon as 2 weeks in some cases and not nearly as dangerous or time consuming as trying to girdle large trees with either a chainsaw or machete. Plus, using a chainsaw costs money in gas, oil and sharpening. A quart of Milestone, used at the rate of 5ML per tree, is good for 180 trees! Buy a quart and share with a neighbor.
If you want to kill weed trees by girdling, the easy way is to hack a trail to the tree and cinder it. That way you do not have to constantly be beating a trail to the stump to girdle it again. And again. And again....
Sorry, but you really do have to poison the things. Experience talking here.
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You can't fix Samsara.
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If you are interested Kiana, I could come over and kill them for you. I have the Milestone and depending on the accessibility and the total number of trees, could kill them all for about 75-100 dollars, maybe less.
982-8950
