longleaf plantation release

[barkies]

Does anyone have any good info on releasing longleaf pines The trees were planted nov 06 and now have a lot of grass and weeds coming up around them I need info on best time to spray and what herbicides to consider

 

[ATH]

Depends on the weeds: Broad leaf or grasses? Trees or annuals?

How are the burning laws in Alabama? Longleaf can stay in the grass stage for a long time in certain plantations until it is burned (because of a fungus). A fire tends to set some of the weeds back too. Native habitat for longleaf involves a fire regime...

 

[barkies]

The burning laws here are not very strict although right now were under an alert because of no rain just have to call in a permit with the state foresty agency and give a location size of burn and person rersponsible
Ive done a good bit of research on herbicides and suitability for longleaf

there seem to be two major choices which is arsenal or oustar ( im using the brand names not the active chemical names)
the weeds are mostly grasses and small broadleafs no trees or shrubs.
And the fungus you refered to I think is brown spot needle blight
seedlings are trated for this in the nursery and they dont have it unless crosss contaminated from existing trees after planting.
I do plan on a burn next year but I was wanting to kill back some of the thicker areas before they affect my seedlings

thanks for the reply

 

[kkottemann]

Longleaf need a few things in order to come out of the grass stage. the first thing is nutrients. if you have a longleaf (or any tree ) planted on the wrong site it will never reach its potential. second is plenty of sunshine. pine is a pioneer species, which means it in the first woody vegetation to grow in the sucessional stages of a forest and does not like competition with other species. you can create a good environment for longleaf by spraying chemicals or with the proper use of fire. longleaf love fire for several reasons, one being the fact that fire supresses all the surrounding competition allowing the tree to utilize most of the nutrients avaliable. the second is the control of brown spot needle blight. Longleaf are the most hardy, disease resistant of all the southern yellow pines, however the one that can get it is brown spot. by burning the trees every few years you can neutralize the threat of brown spot. now do not just go and burn your longleaf any time. One of the reasons this tree can survive fire at a young age is because the apical bud is covered by a tuft of needles, when a fire passes over the tree the bud is protected. in the late spring and early summer that but will shoot up and become exposed. if fire reaches the bud at this time the tree will be a gonner. late winter is the best time to burn young longleaf, whie the bud is protected. i have 80 acres of longleaf pine on my property, it is my most favoriate tree. I did my senior thesis on longleaf management at LSU. If you have specific questions PM me. I wish more people would get the longleaf bug. I will try and post some pics.