Getting rid of Rhododendrons

[WickedWitch]

Early in the winter we chopped and burnt a great area of rhodos. Now we are wondering how to get rid of them permanently. Has anyone out there got personal experience of keeping them down with chemicals, or without chemicals? I've read a lot of advice from experts, but what happens in real life? Does it work?

[Twybill]

When the re-growth has got about 6 inches, go round each stump and strip it off. If you bend it downwards it is really easy and satisfying to break it off. Do this a couple of times a year for as long as it takes but it will kill the rhodo stump. I have killed plenty this way. Also try bruising the lower stems with a hammer at ground level where all the buds are. Giving them a good wack kills all the growing buds.

Raking all the damp soil and old leaf mulch away from any stems can help, as Rhodo does not like dry ground.

[tracy]

we also dig up the roots when we can, and hang them upside down to dry off. Seems to be working, but I know this is not always possible in large areas.

I think there are also some FC grants available for the costs of removing larger areas of Rhody. Might be worth looking into!

[HCR]

As has been said above - if you regularly break off the new growth, the roots exhaust their carbohydrate stores and the thing gives up.

I suppose one of those butane 'weed-wands' - https://www.parasene.com/vshop/prodlist.asp?search=1&parentID=103&l_categoryID=7 - would deal with the stumps, but probably wouldn't be practical over a large area.

[Exeldama]

Last year we had to pull one rhodi out with a mechanical digger...huge root system....and anothetr i massacered with a chainsaw, i must say i did it with a slightly demonic grin...i just sliced wounds into the main stump after cutting away the main stuff...... i figured i would let disease and fungus attack it.... seems to be doing the job..little regroth but im going to keep removing the wee bits to finish the spawn of the elzebub off.

[solar bud]

There's tons of the stuff in my new woodland, my neighbour said the way to do it is to chainsaw the big plants and then get the regrowth in the spring with Roundup.

I'd rather not use herbicide so the method above sounds interesting. There's just so much of it though! I might end up drilling the big plants and injecting Roundup stump killer, or I might be at it for the rest of my life!

[Stephen1]

Unfortunatley in the ideal growing conditions for Rhododendron of the acidic, wet and mild West you really will have to resort to herbicides - very much the lesser of two evils. Hard to suggest the exact method to use without seeing the site or the depth of your pockets!

[austino]

Hi Its my understanding persistence wins the day. Pull out as much as you can any which way you can. It's suprising how much you can pull out by hand by pulling up small outer peices and following it to the main route. Winches can help to pull out more major routes and my quicker trick is to tie it to my kubota tractor select 4 w.d. and then drive of yanking it out unmercifully. But most important to me is make it fun. I'm at Coombewell woods and there are a few of us that help each other out on bigger tasks and with the banter, the odd cup of tea, and a picnic lunch it really is fun. Weather permitting (to dry at the moment), we have a couple minding the fire burning all thats collected 5/6 loading and pulling and one on the chainsaw. At the end of the day and totally pooped we crack out the wine and beers. We have not used any weed killers to date and take a bit of pride in keeping it that way. Thats not to say it's wrong but we prefer not to go that route. The main stumps we can't get out need to be addressed regularly defoliating and with time i'm reliably told it gives up the ghost. We are all working really hard to clear our woods and some now are completely free and ones like mine I can only say we're getting there. So my point is make it fun and you will win the day. Cheers

[solar bud]

I've been reading about the lever and mulch method, which apparently helps the woodland regenerate faster than other methods:-

http://www.slef.org.uk/landm/

There's nothing on YouTube though unfortunately!

[solar bud]

Ok I seem to have developed a method which although hard work is quite quick.

I've got hold of a small folding garden hand saw, very sharp and very portable. I've been using this instead of a chainsaw for cutting through the stems of the rhododendron. I find that if the stem is thick and the plant is leaning, I only have to saw part way through the stem before the weight of the plant does the rest and fractures the stem with a satisfying crack/crunch. I can then drag the whole plant to where I want to leave it.

There's a huge amount of rhododendron in my wood, so to make the process of removal more interesting and enjoyable, I've started to make 'paths' through the woodland by removing only rhododendron. This means that the woodland is more easily explorable (especially for children) and I can slowly remove the rhododendron whilst making the wood more interesting to explore simultaneously.

I am aching though!!