Cottonwood tree hunting

greythorn3 · Post by **greythorn3** » March 30, 2008, 4:35 am

I got these damn fuzz fling around and want to kill the trees with my chainsaw this year before they come back can somone help me identify the cotton wood ones. i forgot to mark them last fall, heres some pictures of them i got close so you could see the bark to let me know what ones are cottonwoods, then i can cut them down!!!

ray

Ford4jack · Post by **Ford4jack** » March 30, 2008, 9:17 am

If your not sure on which trees they are you could let them grow out then girdle them with an ax before the flower buds develop fully.Just be sure to remove the bark wide enough that it wont grow back together.

Not sure if a cottonwood flowers first then leafs out but there should be enough time to tell what they are before they go to seed.

Might want to check with a local forester, nursery or someone like that and make sure they don't grow back from the roots. I made that mistake with some black locus trees and turned a few trees into a thicket.

If they do grow out from roots you might treat the stumps with a herbicide but sometimes this will kill surrounding trees and care has to be taken around water with some of these chemicals.

Johnny Canuck · Post by **Johnny Canuck** » March 30, 2008, 9:40 am

The cottonwoods around here all look like the one on the far left in this pic with the gnarly bark.

I would still check with someone who knew for sure before i cut them down tho.
http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4 ... cotton.htm

dwbr · Post by **dwbr** » March 30, 2008, 10:09 am

i got one of those in my back yard , it is huge, and as you said every year all the white fuzz starts to blowing, one time it made a white film on my pool, my cotton wood bark looks like the one on the left in your first picture
________
Amateur Exhibitionist

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » March 30, 2008, 2:07 pm

the gnarly barked ones are the cottonwoods.
fairly useless as firewood so i dont bother with them.
they do have a nice grain when cut into planks though.

Alan Mclennan · Post by **Alan Mclennan** » March 31, 2008, 1:55 am

[quote="ford4jack"]If your not sure on which trees they are you could let them grow out then girdle them with an ax before the flower buds develop fully.Just be sure to remove the bark wide enough that it wont grow back together.

We call it ring barking the tree here same outcome tho, if in doubt cut it out, and chew the bejesus out of the stump with a stump grinder

Alan,

.

samdog66 · Post by **samdog66** » March 31, 2008, 6:27 pm

Some of the other trees might be Dogwood. You can tell by the BARK.

Jarrod · Post by **Jarrod** » March 31, 2008, 7:15 pm

Ahh hell kill em all and let god sort them out.

greythorn3 · Post by **greythorn3** » March 31, 2008, 8:31 pm

i would kill them all but a got neighbors aways past them trees and like the privacy of the leaves in the summer, also the ducks love to hide in that creek, somtimes when i go back there 30 or more ducks fly up.. to bad you can shoot in city limits!!! it is quite the nest area for moose also.

Ray