Vol. 15—1961 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

522.
This is followed by planting in the Fall and vJinter. The final step is
to remove the overstory canopy, which usually consists of 300-500 stems per
acre, with tree injectors after the seedlings have become well established(3).
This program eliminates any herbicide injury to newly planted seedlings and
takes advantage of the light shade from a high overstory canopy during the
first critical years of a seedlings establishment.
There is much yet to be learned and many improvements to be made in the
herbicide techniques for timber stand improvement given in this paper •. We have
a number of tools that can help us, but we should try now to refine them. We
need more information on timing of our foliage sprays to coincide with food
movement in plants e Good basic experiments by research foresters using radioactive
2,4,5-T and other advanced techniques available today could contribute
greatly toward solving this problem, and also the problem of sprouting following
foliage spraying. The control of basal sprouting is one of the greatest
single problems we have in the weed tree control field. We must find a way
to activate the dormant buds that give rise to these sprouts while there is
still sufficient herbicide in the plant to move into these sprouts and kill
them.
Different rates and formulations should be tried in our tree injector
work. Seasonal applications with injectors and basal spray treatments should
be further evaluated. All of this research information should continue to be
reported in the Northeast Weed Control Conference Forestry Section for the
benefit of foresters throughout the region.
It is hoped that the information presented here has contributed a little
to your understanding of herbicides and how they can be used in improving
forest stands. More important, it is hoped that your curiosity has been
aroused and that some of you will want to work on the unsolved problems in
this field.