Eco-plugs for chemical felling

[Offmeister]

Hi All

 

First post so please be gentle!

 

Has anyone out there got any experience of using Eco-Plugs for chemical felling purposes? I understand that the herbicide needs to get in to the cambium which is easily achieved when drilling into a stump as you can obviously just drill vertically down into it. However, on a live tree you cant do this, your holes will always be at an angle.

 

This poses two questions; 1) will you achieve the right depth for the plug to be activated properly when you tap it in? 2) does the chemical come out of the sides of the plug (and therefore into the cambium you have drilled through) or the bottom (into the non-active wood).

 

Also, with the tree still being fully "intact" will you need a ridiculous number of plugs to get any effect? (I suspect you will!)

 

To pre-empt any questions, this is for standing deadwood creation purposes as an alternative to ring barking which has been effective but is visually not very subtle!

 

Cheers

[Gary Prentice]

Looking forward to the answers on this - welcome to arbtalk 

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Offmeister said:

To pre-empt any questions, this is for standing deadwood creation purposes as an alternative to ring barking which has been effective but is visually not very subtle!

Neither is a necklace of plastic as the stem decomposes

[nepia]

2 hours ago, Offmeister said:

on a live tree you cant do this, your holes will always be at an angle.

 

 

'The instructions' allow for vertical or horizontal drilling into a stump so maybe the angle thing isn't as big an issue as you think.

[Macpherson]

4 hours ago, Offmeister said:

To pre-empt any questions, this is for standing deadwood creation purposes as an alternative to ring barking which has been effective but is visually not very subtle!

If you want to create a standing deadwood hazard...... just add grey squirrels and you'll not have to poison anything..... you'll just have to add time,... which apparently nobody's got these days.

[Offmeister]

4 hours ago, openspaceman said:

Neither is a necklace of plastic as the stem decomposes

Good point, but it would be easy enough to back and remove the plugs once they have done their job.

[Offmeister]

3 hours ago, nepia said:

'The instructions' allow for vertical or horizontal drilling into a stump so maybe the angle thing isn't as big an issue as you think.

Thanks for this nepia.

I must admit to not having used them myself (although I have seen them I'm action) so not familiar with the details of their usage, especially the limitations.

 

So it sounds like they should still "work", its just a case of efficacy. And of course, cost!

[openspaceman]

4 minutes ago, Offmeister said:

Good point, but it would be easy enough to back and remove the plugs once they have done their job.

It doesn't happen though, just look at all those tree guards embedded in plantings since the 80s and have you tried extracting an ecoplug?

 

A hatchet cut every 6" and dose of 50% solution glyphosate in oil with do much the same. If you must drill holes roundup and a clay plug is cheaper.

[Macpherson]

Hi, just curious ..what is it your want rid of ? ......

[Offmeister]

You make an excellent point. Even with the best intentions its unlikely that all plugs would or even could be retrieved.

 

Plus we should all do our bit to reduce our plastic usage.