Lopper/Herbicide Applicator for Cut Stem Herbicide Application to Control Invasive and Other Unwanted Plants - FLORIDA RECYCLING & COMPOSTING CONSULTING SERVICES, INC.

Recipient Organization
FLORIDA RECYCLING & COMPOSTING CONSULTING SERVICES, INC.
RT. 4 BOX 1297H
STARKE,FL 32091

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
Invasive woody plants colinize natural areas and a exclude native plants. Unwanted woody plants out compete wanted palnts in ecosytem restoration projects. This project examines the effectiveness of a lopper/herbicide applictor to control invasive and other unwanted woody plants by appling herbicide to stems cut with the lopper.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

100%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
123	0699	2020	50%
123	2300	2020	50%

Knowledge Area
123 - Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
0699 - Trees, forests, and forest products, general; 2300 - Weeds;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;

Keywords

herbicides

herbicide application

agricultural engineering

application equipment

performance evaluation

melaleuca

schinus terebinthifolius

mimosa

bamboo

acer rubrum

liquidambar styraciflua

ecosystem management

restoration

Goals / Objectives
The project will develop and evalaute a herbicide applicator attached to the handles of a lopper to apply herbide to stems cut with the lopper. The herbicide applicator is made of CPVC pipe and fittings that. The applicator will be tested on 10 invasive woody stemmed plants: Australian pine, Brazilian peper, melaleuca, Chinese tallow, Chinese wisteria, Chinaberry, camphor tree, Ardisia, golden bamboo, and mimosa. It will also be tested on red maple, wax myrtle, and sweet gum plants important to control for fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration. Data will be collected to evaluate the effectiveness and the effort required to use the device in field settings.

Project Methods
Field plots will be established in different location in Florida where invasive plants exist. Invasive plants will be cut and herbicide applied using the herbicide applicator. Timed studies will be done to determin the effort required to cut and treat stems. Plants will be evaluated to detremine the effictiveness of the method to control target plants. Other unwanted woody stems plants will also be cut and treated. A pneumatic lopper will be evaluated to see if it will improve worker efficency and reduce worker fatique.

Progress 05/01/05 to 12/31/05

Outputs
We developed and evaluated an herbicide applicator attached to the handles of a lopper (Lop & Daub) or garden shear (Snip & Daub) that could be used to apply herbicide to stems of invasive or unwanted plants cut with the lopper or shear. The final designed used a combination of PVC and CPVC pipe parts and fittings and a cloth covered applicator tip. Cut stem applications of 13.2% to 14.4% imazapyr herbicide using the Lop & Daub or Snip & Daub controlled coral ardisia, bamboo, Brazilian pepper, Chinaberry, Chinese privet, Chinese wisteria and mimosa. Melaleuca and Chinese Tallow were not totally controlled with a cut stem treatment of 14.4% imazapyr. Cut stem application of 13.2% imazapyr herbicide using the Lop & Daub controlled red maple that was suppressing planted cypress, and wax myrtle and sweet gum and other woody stemmed plants in fuel reduction and pine release plots. The time and effort to use our tools and methods appear to be comparable to traditional cut stem applications. Based on our results there are clearly sites where our tools and methods would be cost effective when herbicide and labor costs are considered. We believe our tools can have significant commercial applications for the control of invasive and other unwanted plants.

Impacts
Plans are to do one final site evaluation of each test plot in the Spring of 2007 and publish the results with directions on how to make each of the tools we developed. We decided against marking the actual applicators due to the high cost of product liability insurance. We plan to approach a company that manufactures a tube herbicide applicator that uses a similar tip to see if they would be interested in manufacturing and selling applicators based on our design. We plan to sell the modified tips to people who want to build their own applicators since the tip is the only part of the applicator that is not available at a home supply store. The use of the applicators we developed could provide an efficient and easy to use method to control invasive and unwanted plants.

Publications

No publications reported this period