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How do I get rid of hackberries and other brush along fence lines?
You might have noticed that you're in a constant battle with hackberry shoots coming up along the fence, or maybe poison ivy. These share one thing in common, and that is the seeds tend to go through the digestive tract of bird, so wherever the birds land, the seeds get planted, and by the way, fertilized at the same time.
The way to control them can really vary depending on your particular approach, but I think one of the easiest ways is to use one of the tools that allows you to pull them up. There's a type of tool you can buy in specialty garden centers that grips the plant at the base, it has a long strong handle, and you just lean it back, and it pulls it right up out of the ground when it's a small, very easy to lift up plant, as long as the soil is moist. One is called the Root Jack. Another, available online is the Weed Wrench.
Now another way to approach those is to cut them off and treat the cut stump end. Now by stump, we may be talking about something smaller than a pencil. If you catch them early, cut them off about an inch above the ground, and just dab one of the brush control products. It can be a glyphosate product, or even something for controlling poison ivy. But you're just putting a drop of it right on the cut end. You're not spraying the products all over the place. It's a fairly environmentally sound way to approach them, and it translocates down into the plant and kills them quite well. If you've spent your time like I have digging up a lot of these over the years, this will be a much easier approach for you.
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