Meet on the trail to learn about bush honeysuckle control

The Frontier Extension District, in conjunction with Ecotone Forestry and the Kansas Wildlife and Parks, will host a meeting regarding bush honeysuckle on at 2 p.m. Nov. 22, 2021. The meeting will be at the Prairie Spirit Trail-Princeton Railhead, just off Galveston Street in downtown Princeton, Kan.

What is bush honeysuckle? It is a wild shrub that has taken over the brush understories in many areas of Kansas. Bush honeysuckle is very noticeable in the spring as it greens up early and flowers in mid-May. In the fall bush honeysuckle holds on to its leaves much longer than our native trees and shrubs giving it an extreme competitive advantage. In the 1800s pioneers used bush honeysuckle as an ornamental plant in landscaping around houses. For anyone who wants to promote native species on their property, controlling bush honeysuckle is a must!

Ryan Neises, owner of Ecotone Forestry, has scouted the area next to the meeting site and has several plants to show for identification, and then will talk about a couple of different control methods. One method is the use of a backpack mist blower and a glyphosate herbicide in the fall, normally late-October through late-November. The other popular method is the cut stump method, where the plant is cut at ground level and the stump is treated with Tordon RTU or glyphosate.

For learn about bush honeysuckle, join in at 2 p.m. Nov. 22, at the Prairie Spirit Trail rest area, Princeton. For more information, contact Ryan Schaub, Frontier Extension horticulture agent, at 785-448-6826 or reschaub@ksu.edu.

Photo thanks to Kansas Forest Service.