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Controlled Burns

mmatthes90

mmatthes90

Member
Ok so I searched the website and couldn't find a post specifically about burning. So I thought I'd just ask what questions I had and see what type of response I get.
Basically this is the first weekend we'll be able to get down and burn on the property, One of the guys is heading down friday afternoon to prep with a buddy of ours thats a DNR agent... We have burned before, but my questions will hit on a variety of things....
1.) Will it be ok after burning to do a light disk and lightly sow some clover and maybe oats in? This will be in an area that was old hay ground, that has no identifiable natives in(other that a few rogue switchgrass clumps)
2.) Timber Burns are new to me, so any special recommedations for timber burns? this will be small and basically run east to west on a north facing. I don't know how well it'll burn with the rain the forecast tomorrow.
3.) Also thinking about burning areas that are currently overgrown in an assortment of grasses for our new foodplots, mainly fall greens and winter foodplots, considering planting clover in these areas until ready to plant the fall/winter mix. Will this cause some negative effects later on?
Basically this property is in desperate need of as much food as it can hold and we're hoping by giving the deer other options they won't hit our corn/bean foodplots are hard early so they can mature for late season hunting. Always looking for advice and ideas, and info on these topics would be greatly appreciated....
On a side note, I know its a little late, but the forester recently walked the property and we have some problem areas we were also going to attack this weekend. have two bottles of Tardon and plan on girdling the bigger trees, do I just girdle and dump the tardon on, was there anything more specific for application? Thanks again guys
 
also, the current small clover plot has a butt load of grass growing in it, we frost seeded on the snow about a month ago, theres some solid clover growth but figured we'd dominate it with "Clethodim 2" while we were down there. Any ideas if this will affect the clover at all or the stuff we frost seeded?
 
mmatthes90 said:
Ok so I searched the website and couldn't find a post specifically about burning. So I thought I'd just ask what questions I had and see what type of response I get.
Basically this is the first weekend we'll be able to get down and burn on the property, One of the guys is heading down friday afternoon to prep with a buddy of ours thats a DNR agent... We have burned before, but my questions will hit on a variety of things....
1.) Will it be ok after burning to do a light disk and lightly sow some clover and maybe oats in? This will be in an area that was old hay ground, that has no identifiable natives in(other that a few rogue switchgrass clumps)
2.) Timber Burns are new to me, so any special recommedations for timber burns? this will be small and basically run east to west on a north facing. I don't know how well it'll burn with the rain the forecast tomorrow.
3.) Also thinking about burning areas that are currently overgrown in an assortment of grasses for our new foodplots, mainly fall greens and winter foodplots, considering planting clover in these areas until ready to plant the fall/winter mix. Will this cause some negative effects later on?
Basically this property is in desperate need of as much food as it can hold and we're hoping by giving the deer other options they won't hit our corn/bean foodplots are hard early so they can mature for late season hunting. Always looking for advice and ideas, and info on these topics would be greatly appreciated....
On a side note, I know its a little late, but the forester recently walked the property and we have some problem areas we were also going to attack this weekend. have two bottles of Tardon and plan on girdling the bigger trees, do I just girdle and dump the tardon on, was there anything more specific for application? Thanks again guys
Click to expand...

I'll tell you what I think/know, here are my answers to your questions above...

1. If you burn and then disk...that is the perfect formula for WEEDS GONE CRAZY! :grin: If you want a clover stand, I would burn it off, wait 2 weeks or so, spray it w/Roundup to kill the new green growth and then broadcast clover. Although this is not the very best way to go, I know it will work. You will need to manage the weeds either by mowing or spraying, but if you disk the ground and then broadcast clover, you will have a weed patch.

2. Timber burns - I have limited personal experience in this area, but I have done it once or twice. Do you have brushpiles/snags in the timber? If you have good fire blocks to control where the fire goes, a timber burn is fairly easily managed in the right conditions, unless you have a lot of snags/piles/downed timber, then it can get hot.

Beyond that...I would go into Dbltree's Corner and read the Switchgrass thread, the Clover thread and the Native Warm Season Grass thread and then see what questions you still have. Those may answer 90% of all of your questions for you. Also, I would check out the Growing Deer TV site and look in the archives for episode #'s 20 and 25. They address managed fire and I found them informative too.
 
We did a TSI project a couple of years ago and girdled more trees than you can imagine. We put our Tordon RTU in a plastic spray bottle and this worked very well to get the Tordon inside the girdle. If you try and pour it in, you'll waste a lot of Tordon.

We did a lot of double girdling at the recommendation of the District Forester. He also said that a girdle 3 feet above the ground is not as effective as a girdle 1 foot above the ground. If you have a lot of trees, be ready for a sore back.

You also need to be careful with Oak trees. Sometimes roots of one tree will graft with roots of another tree and the Tordon will kill the other tree also. For this reason, we did not use Tordon on any of the oak trees we girdled.
 
MPW thank you for the help, very solid advice and I appreciate it, although I'm not looking forward to the sore back....
 
Daver, the grass currently growing is from best account, non natives, honestly looks like overgrown hay pasture. So we are actually welcoming the weeds and were hoping to mix in some clover and oats possibly to over a little more food value. Also the taller weeds will be more beneficial than calf high matted grass.. in our thinking anyway. Weekend forecast looks alright down there, but the wind may be an issue, I appreciate the help guys.
 
You would be surprised how much clover may be laying there and waiting to grow. The best clover stands I get are from spraying the sod in late summer, early fall and just letting it lay idle. The following spring the clover will go crazy if there is any seed in the seedbank.

As others stated, I would not work the ground at all after the burn, just broadcast and cultipack if possible to press the seeds in the soil or you will have more weeds than clover.
 
Use a backpack blower to clear away leaf litter and create fire breaks in the timber. Timber burns are slow and some times difficult to keep going.

I use only one girdle and no herbicide on most trees but I girdle them deep enough so they die without herbicides. I do use Tordon on the locusts and ironwood and I use a backpack sprayer with the Tordon in it rather then squirt from a bottle.

No need to disc for the clover and weeds and clover don't really mix but that's up to you.

Check the Timber Stand Improvement thread(in Dbltree's Corner) for some more info on girdling and herbicides too..:way:
 
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