Anyone using this... if I spray the brush at the edges of my fields how worried should I be about killing nearby trees. I heard it works well I'm just worried it works too well.

Anybody been using it?

It's just 4# arsenal. Yes stay away from desirables

I've always heard that it has a 15' radius killing area. I know it is like Brylcream, a little dab will do ya.

What species are you trying to kill? Unless it is sweetgum, you could accomplish the same thing with a herbicide that doesn’t have the soil activity imazapyr does. If you spray imazapyr in the root zone of desirable trees, such as oaks, imazapyr can definitely hurt their feelings.

I'm trying to kill the Sweetgum along the roads and around the fields. And it's mostly gums we'd be in the money if they were worth anything Plan is to hit everything with a boomless nozzle spraying off to one side of my spray rig. Don't want to kill the established larger trees if I get a little wind drift or it gets in the root zone. I can't imagine that I would wet the ground but I am no chemist and don't know exactly how the absorption works, i.e. make it's way into the soil via the undesirable plant.

The reason I am asking is with the boomless I'm bound to get some drift even on a relatively calm day or hit a few leaves on something I want to keep. Gonna be slow going if I have to use the wand.

Any other chemical I should look at instead or suggestions? I want to kill it I'm tired of driving over it with the bush hog and it's hell on my tires with all those little stobs.

Unfortunately, it is the primary herbicide used for sweetgum. As long as you don’t get it all over the root zone, you should be ok. You won’t kill a larger tree if it gets a whiff of it or on a few roots. There needs to be foliage present to get the best activity. So, spraying after April is usually better.

Thanks, yea I'm going to stockpile a few gallons over the winter for a Spring killing that stuff ain't cheap. I heard I won't be disappointed. I'm gonna give it a go.

If you get Arsenal within the drip line of a nice oak tree there's a good chance you'll do some damage. I would use something like Garlon that is only foliar active and not soil active. It does a pretty good job on sweetgum and would not risk killing any of your desirable hardwoods.

Mix Garlon and roundup and you’ll put the zap on it and won’t have to worry about soil activity. Imazapyr can “run” on you in the soil.

Garlon won’t kill sweetgum. Mixing Roundup in with imazapyr will help, to be fair. Certainly you can ding hardwoods if it gets in the root zone, but folks make a lot more out of it than what is reality. If oaks died every time some got in the root zone utilities would never use it on their ROW. You can spray a lot of products that will knock it back, but without imazapyr in the tank I’d bet you won’t kill much more than half of it. It is the go-to product for sweetgum.

If you do have serious concern and you have trees you want to keep that are fairly close, there isn’t anything wrong with being overly cautious. Safe is not sorry, I like to say. You can whittle away at it with a multi-year approach.

I spray my pines at home with this stuff to keep the undergrowth from taking over. If you get it around hardwoods though it will kill the hell out of them.

Appreciate the insight. I think in most areas the gums have grown enough I should not have a problem. I am talking about a 10ft tall wall of brush for the most part. I've knocked a lot down with the tractor but now after a few passes I'm riding over all the stobs, etc. And I know they will probably sprout again. I need to just spray it and kill it then cut it down or leave it, etc. I think I can adjust the nozzle and the pressure low enough that on the first pass I probably won't have any issues with it getting on something I want to keep.

Let us know what happens, imazapyr don't discriminate.

Hopefully... I'm going for that Agent Orange look.

Garlon don’t kill gum? Guess i have some potent water around here then.

Somebody better tell that to the bazillion or so that I have killed with it then.

Maybe I should have said “at labeled rates”. If Garlon was that good on sweetgum, not one brush applicator would be buying imazapyr to control it. I deal with utility applicators all the time and they are generally on a 3 year or longer cycle. If they can’t get control for that period until they come back they don’t like it. Sure, you can knock the leaves off and maybe kill the main stem, but more often than not, it will resprout. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times. Can you kill young sweetgum with it? Sure. Those don’t have the root systems to come back. My impression was that this isn’t the case for Goatkiller.

yes, the coming back part is what I am having difficulty with.

Why not just glyphosate? I wouldn’t fool with Arsenal in a sprayer. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

are there too many sweetgums to hack and squirt?

My thought process is to spray this on the leaves just after they sprout while it is still tall and not spray directly on the ground - I would get more into the soil I guess if I cut first then sprayed when they sprout. May not make any difference I don't know if the active ingredients get into the soil via the root system of the dead plant. I'm not that technically savy with chemicals. I'll run over it with the bush hog soon as I get a kill. I should be able to get anything that subsequently sprouts with probably 2,4-D and Roundup as a second round of spraying early summer. 2,4-D does better IMO if the plant is actively growing.

Goatkiller, you need to wait until leaves are fully developed before spraying for best results. Spraying too early will result in poor control.

Also, mowing most any brush species down before spraying is not a good practice. You end up treating the resprouts which have less leaf area than if left alone. So basically you end up treating a small cluster of branches to control a fully mature root system. Again, results usually are not food. Just an fyi.

10-4 I'll wait to spray and understand that you want to spray first then mow. That's how I do all my spraying typically.

Good advice. Need lots of foliar contact to carry chemical to roots. Label specifically says do not mix with 24D. Also not a good idea to mix with gly as it can interrupt adsorption. Arsenal and most brush killers work best in late summer and fall. The floum (sap) translocates the chemicals down into the roots for complete kill. Spraying in the spring often just top kills and plant will resprout