Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Black Willows at Pond Edge? Ugh! ! !

I have a pond that is 4 years old now. Each year the Black Willows keep getting bigger and bigger. Each year I use my pole saw to cut them back to the base, and I clean the pond edge all the way around.

How do I KILL these blasted willows? Last year I tried burning them with a propane torch. That didn’t work. I don’t know what to do. But I HATE them.

I am going to try and post a picture, but i don't think i will have much luck.

Thanks for your help.

looks like the picture posted, but it is sideways. Here are a couple more.

You will need to utilize herbicide treatments to effectively eliminate established willow trees.

Mossy Oak - Willow Article

They can be controlled with a foliar treatment (spraying the leaves and the whole tree is easier for many people). The linked article describes one way to combat the trees.

I generally have the best results using cut stump herbicide treatments on invasive trees at our farm. IMO, you get more herbicide to the roots and less out into the adjacent areas. Doing the treatments during the fall while the trees are sending sap to the roots also increases the efficacy.

If you are absolutely opposed to herbicides (even though they make "pond safe" products), willows can be killed by proper girdling. This will kill you big ones, but you probably won't be able to get the small stems this way. You will have to make willow tree management an annual task on your pond.

We only have a few willows at our farm and they are not invasive - so I do NOT have experience killing pond edge willows. Hopefully, someone with lots of treatment experience will drop into your thread.

Good luck on getting your pond back into your preferred condition!

Thanks FishinRod. Good article. I'm just wondering if the Glyphosate will actually kill the tree. i sprayed a smallish one earlier this summer, and the leaves died, but i don't know if the tree died.

Best way I've found to kill them is cut them flush to the ground in the Fall and immediately paint Tordon RTU on the cut stump. I have some in a small coffee can, and use a 3/4" or 1" wide "chip" brush that you find in the paint dept at the big box stores. The brush is typically under a buck and is of natural hair, steel clamp and a wooden handle. I pour about 1" in the bottom of the can, and leave the chip brush in the can (with the lid on) as I move it around. I waste less brushing it on vs. squirting it on.

$27.00 @ Tractor Supply or $16.95+ shipping from here:
https://www.forestrydistributing.com/tordon-rtu-specialty-herbicide-corteva

Torsion RTU. Wow, I can’t wait to try that. I am so sick of cutting those willows every year to the ground. Wouldn’t be too bad if they were somewhere other than a 45* sloped bank.

Thanks for the info. By the by. . . Is more, better? Do I need to do multiple applications?

Thanks a bunch.

John

I completely agree with esshup's method! For expensive herbicides it is significantly more efficient using a brush to apply it exactly where you need it. I get 2" chip brushes at Harbor Freight and just throw them away after use. (They used to be $10 for a 36-pack.)


More advice:

Trees start to heal up very rapidly. I usually cut a small stand of trees, then clear the cuttings, and then poison every stump and stub immediately thereafter. If you clear one day and poison the next day, I believe your kill rate will go down.

However, when utilizing the method described above, it is very nice to have a strong color dye in your herbicide! (I like the bright blue.) You would think it would be easy to remember which stems you have treated, but as you cut larger areas it becomes surprisingly easy to miss some and to double-treat others.

I do not think "more is better". The innermost layer of bark (phloem) is where the sap transport system is located in the tree. That is how your herbicide is spread to the roots. I try to make my cuts horizontal. Sharp angle cuts just let some of your poison run off the cut and be wasted. I just paint the top with a single brush swipe such that it is all wet and maybe a little excess is barely running down the stump/stem. For bigger stumps, make a couple of passes to make sure you get the entire thing wet. For REALLY big stumps, I only paint the outside rim. (That was for 40" diameter trees, but yielded a 100% kill rate.)

I would definitely spend some money on a really nice pair of loppers. (I have the old Fiskars loppers with their "power gear", but of course they don't make my exact model any more. If I keep it sharp, it easily cuts 2" saplings - but I am a big guy.)

When I need to clear more ground than that, I use my Husqvarna Brushcutter. I then put on my mask and gloves and use a sprayer to apply herbicide and go fast. I will always miss a few, but it seems easier to me to go fast and get any survivors the following year rather than go slow and tedious.

I hope that helps you make a more efficient treatment plan. For doing farm labors like that, I always want to hear from the old geezers on the most efficient way to do the work!

P.S. I get my herbicides from our county Noxious Weed Department. (It will probably be called something else in Texas.) They sell me the herbicides at cost. Further, I can talk to the head of the department. I just tell him what I need to treat, and he tells me which product the experts use in my exact same climate. They even gave me some dye for free last year because one of the new guys accidentally poked holes in some of the bags while unloading the boxes.

GREAT Info! ! ! Two Questions.

What kind of dye are you talking about?

Right now my trees are in full leaf bloom, as it has not been cold enough to make them drop leaves. Do I cut them, and apply that chemical NOW, or wait till the leaves have dropped and apply it?

I am assuming now before they go dormant.

And. . . My trees come out of a clump. last year when i cut them down to the base, it was a clump that was about 12" long and 8" wide. As you can see in the pictures, i have to use the pole/chain saw on most of it and the loppers on the rest.

Thanks so much for your help.

More is not better. Typically it's a one and done deal. Tordon RTU (Ready To Use) already comes with a blue dye in it....... Cut/paint them now while the leaves are still green. They are still taking nutrients down to the roots. You can't cut it in the spring when it's shooting sap up to the trunk/branches because the sap will wash the Tordon RTU off before it's absorbed by the trees.

I'd cut a clump. paint the cut ends, cut another clump, paint. etc. It would go really fast if 2 people did it.

I have 2 pair of the same Fiskars loppers and they were purchased around 1987.....

I don't know about esshup, but we put blue pond dye in our Roundup mix in the sprayer we use for spot spraying around the farm, for the same "where was I" purpose.

Theo, I do too. I am going to make a foam dripper indicator for the 12' wide sprayer that I have that I use to spray big areas. Easier to see than the dye when spraying large areas of grass for weeds.

If your leaves are still on, then now is almost the perfect time to do it!

I have not used the Tordon RTU that esshup is describing. Great for your usage if that is already dyed.

I looked at your pictures again, but there is no good scale for my eye. I think they are thick enough, that I would cut them with a chainsaw about 8-10" above the ground? Do a comfortable working height for you and keep your chainsaw out of the dirt so it stays sharp longer.

The good think about clumps, is that you probably DO NOT need to poison every single stem! Even if you miss a few, if you get enough herbicide to the roots, then the entire willow tree clump will die.

(I keep calendar notes of all of my herbicide applications. I have definitely treated things too early or too late in the annual cycle. If you cut and treat some willows this weekend, and then do some more next weekend, keep a note of your treatment areas. If the later treatment has a significantly lower kill rate, then you can determine your optimum time to treat willows in future years. If you are going to be doing a bunch of labor at your property, might as well do it when you get the most bang for your buck!)

OK. Wednesday, I have a 21 year old coming to help me. It wore me out last time doing it by myself. I just hope that stuff does the trick. I don’t wanna see these again next year. At least not the big clumps of them. I can trim the small ones with the loppers.

Thanks for everybody’s help. I’ll let ya know.