I have a friend that dyes with buckthorn. She uses the berries, leaves and bark. I think she dyes yarn, fabric and reeds for basket weaving. As I cut my invasive ones down, I garbage bagged pieces for her.
Before I knew what species we were dealing with, my son and I used to call it the Borg Tree, because "Resistance is futile". Still is, but now I know what it's called. Had to have hand surgery a few years back bc a puncture wound from one of its thorns grew a pyogenic granuloma. In that same session, one of the men working with me had a large thorn go through the sole of his workboot. Removing buckthorn is like Zen meditation bc you must be completely focused on what you are doing or you WILL get hurt. So be careful folks.
There's a native with huge thorns too. Just in case you may have been deceived.. it's called Hawthorn. It's related to roses and has tons of white flowers then red crab apple-like berries and insanely long thorns. They often have yellowish spots on the leaves too.
I had a branch snap back at me and what I had not realized was that a thorn stabbed in and out of the back of my hand/finger and I never knew it, what I thought happened is that I fractured my finger.Because it hurt like hell. Years went by and a lump grew between my knuckles only to finally one day a thorn started working up and out of my finger. Fun times I am still fighting these trees
Thank you for such a comprehensive video addressing buckthorn eradication. We are about three years in our house on a rural 1 acre lot that slopes down to a watershed creek behind our property. It was Nov/Dec when we offered and the seller mentioned that there was *some* buckthorn out back...🙄😬. I am big on research so learned pretty quickly to not go chopping it down all willy-nilly unless I wanted removing buckthorn to be my new hobby. Once our first spring/summer/fall was behind us, it is clear that invasive are the rule rather than the exception and we have vast amounts of canary reed grass (some wet prairie area), honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, poison oak, and poison ivy in addition to the buckthorn. Add in the standing-dead (ash, mostly) and it's hard to not get discouraged but I AM going to defeat them and reclaim our patch of paradise. I, too, am aiming to establish an understory that blends edible permaculture with ferns, etc. and wondering how to plan and execute. Do you have a video that addresses how best to tackle "what's next" after the riff-raff is gone? I am currently waiting for delivery of my newest toy...a Pullerbear christened "Kathy's Buckthorn Buster" and plan to spend the summer before I coast into my 69th b-day slaying the buckthorn beasts. I.Can't.Wait. 😁
Did not know that but very cool! I will have to check that out and ask my friends who do re-enactments about it! There might be a viable market for buckthorn yet... lol *fingers crossed*
@@EcoElsa it sure is! I would love to find buckthorne up here in Edmonton Alberta. I'm a black powder shooter and because commercial black powder is almost impossible to find, most fellows like me make our own Black powder. Buckthorne is the best charcoal for this application. How far north will we find this invasive plant?
Thank you for the support! :) I am trying to get my schedule under control so I can start doing more videos again let me know if there is another topic you would like to see me cover!
Helpful vid. I’m currently helping a friend try to get the buckthorn in his forest under control. And thank you for dropping the phrase crap pies two times 😂
Thanks Thomas I am glad you are finding the video useful! The best thing you can do to get it gone for good is get your neighbors in on how to eradicate it from their yards as well! Over time this will help cut down of the number of seedlings occurring from bird droppings too. Just remember this will be a ongoing project so don't get discouraged your effort still matters and is making a difference! Also keep in mind it may take years to see lasting results. We are in year 2 of the official management project at my parent's house and stumps are STILL coming back to life. So if you can I recommend getting the stumps out too... lol
Congratulations! Just know if you still like having a plant hedge in that space that there are plenty of native shrub species to pick from! Good luck with your progress on the hedges I am up for hearing updates on how it is going if you feel like sharing as well! :)
@@EcoElsa I started taking it down in the fall. Now I have some remaining cleanup to do. It was crossing over into becoming a treeline rather than a hedge honestly, and it was shading my neighbor's yard in a way that troubled him. I've always thought of that area as something of a shared/boundary stretch, so we talked about what might go in there instead. At the moment, we're thinking blackberries and blueberries. I've proven that I can grow mint and hot peppers. My hydrangea has lasted a surprising three years. Apparently, I'm getting better at this, so with the advice of our nearby and local legend garden shop, I am tentatively optimistic on the potential.
Thank you for the great video, I have that tree next to my exterior wall in the backyard, I am not sure if the root could crack the foundation or it is weaker to to that, thank you for any feedback
I honestly came here hoping to find a way to defend the buckthorn in my yard, as I like how it grows fast enough to harvest its branches for my own crafts. But hearing about that emodin, I think I finally understand why my large maple appears to have a part that's dying. Think I could just uproot all my buckthorn and grow it in my basement? Ahhh, why'd I have to get attached before learning it's invasive!
Thank you for your wonderful video. I am arm wrestling with my HOA to get the dogwood shrubs the buckthorn are invading removed. Both plants are intertwined along with some riverbank grape. They do not want to spend the money to hire someone to pull the shrubs. Herbicide isn't an option because they are within 10 feet of a pond. I feel so alone in this battle. Ug.
It is common to have push back on removing plants that make great privacy screens and that people mistake as being beneficial because they grow so thick. In addition to killing plants around it by putting emodin into the soil Buckthorn has also been linked in studies to attracting other things like aphids and crown root fungus that can cause damage to other plants in the area. As well as negatively impacting reproduction in amphibians and native insects with the emodin it releases. This all can add up to other more costly problems over time like losing trees, plants, and having an increase in pest species likes mosquitoes and other pest insects. I would attempt to start there and follow with it is cheaper to remove it now than later when it spreads further and will cost even more or the trees are all so mature you would have to do stump removal too to keep it nice to HOA standards. Good luck!
Great info! Any research on burning stumps? I have had good results with 4 shrubby thick stumps...we are next to a wetland and get our drinking water from our well so I don't want to use an herbicide.
Not a bad idea if you were looking to manage it to use the wood! I have thought about it sometimes that if only it had a better wood it would be a more useful invasive species. I might have to try that the next time I find a male tree to cut down. Right now my focus has been more on finding better ways to efficiently eradicate them and use the bits and pieces along the way XD
Hmm, I found some buckthorn today in the back of my work. It can try and take over the rest of the area…it has to compete with other invasives I found. Autumn Olive and tree of heaven mostly.
😂Yes and it also applicable to call it an a$hole since it has both 'male' and 'female' trees. Being a hard to kill jerk is also not one sex exclusive in the plant world there are also plants like invasive honey suckle that are monoecious meaning they have both male and female parts. Glad to hear you are having great end results and finding humor in the process!
@@xoese3753 Yes that is the best feeling! I remember when we removed the uber large female tree in the middle of my parents woods who probably was the first tree and how the saplings that had managed to survive in her vicinity nearby went nuts with the extra sunlight! Removing buckthorn can really "scratch that itch" like one of those satisfying painting videos for sure. ^_^
I'm about to start processing the bigger trees I got for.firewood. I really wanna try selling some straight pieces for wood carvers , the Heartwood is beautiful and it's a strong, flexible wood. Just cut down a shit load today actually
The biggest thing for wood carvers is they don't want cracks and if buckthorn is slow dried it usually cracks big time so if you can quick dry small chunks in a microwave or something (that you don't plan on using for food after) then you will end up with better wood! I agree it has a very beautiful heartwood. I have a favorite pen made from a buckthorn tree and I use it to sign all my important documents! ^_^
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid You are totally welcome I hope it works out! and feel free to tag me to anything on instagram @ecoelsa to see how it is going! I am a big fan of repurposing invasive species so they can have a second more useful life.
Thank you! Yes I am still working on EcoElsa :) I just took a break from videos with my wedding and covid but I have been filming and editing so there will be more going up this month! :)
It sounds like find it uses then harvest. Many people are using it (and maybe native to US) for leaves in printing on cloth (not sure what colors for dying yarns)(websearch for botanical printing).
Depends on which "buckthorns" you are talking about as that term is used as a common name for different plants. The ones I discuss in this video are Common/European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) which are both non-native to the U.S. Although that is an interesting experiment I may have to try using the leaves for printing and the bark for dyes and seeing what we get!
Wow you are amazing! Thank you for this! I'm from Wisconsin and my mother is having her backyard overrun by these. My brother can barely uproot them they are so stubborn. She wanted to use a poison and I stopped her- so now I'm trying to find a way to get rid of the issue without polluting our environment with toxic methods!
Sorry to hear about your mother's yard yeah they are quite a stubborn bush! The best natural ways I have seen are mechanical removal with pulling or goats otherwise doing a prescribed burn... But Glyphosphate an herbicide can help out a ton with removal and if applied properly it isn't terrible for the environment. You can either cut it down and nail a can on the stump for two years to make sure it is dead or cut it down dab glyphosphate on only the stump cut and also nail a can on top of it for up to two years... it is certainly a hardy bush and just so you and your family know managing for and removing buckthorn is a multi year project even if you burn or bulldoze it will keep coming back from the seed bank until it is depleted. So the best thing you can do year one is cut down all the berry producing trees before the berries fully develop and then start tackling the other mature trees! Let me know if you have any questions I should hopefully be getting up to my parents place this fall to record and show you all how their yard is doing. We have been taking a more extreme approach since it is a smaller area and have even been pulling up all the seedlings in an effort to deplete the seed bed quicker.
Not all chemical are “poisonous “. Modern chemistry has designed herbicides that are highly effective in destroying buckthorn, and readily break down via microbes and Sunlight. I will caution the use of dihydrogen monoxide or DHMO. It is fact that all mammals are contaminated with DHMO, a sad statistic. Now found in raindrops, lakes, and even Perrier. It is a sad fact that millions of gallons of DHMO is added to pesticides to help spread evenly. If there is one thing you can do, protest the use of DHMO, a terrible sounding name and absolutely contaminating many things. So, use of herbicides when needed, is acceptable. Both glyphosate and triclopyr work wonderfully and are environmentally safe.
@@EcoElsa I am approaching the end of the second year of having tied a black plastic bag over the buckthorn in our yard. The stump still feels pretty sturdy though. Should it be easy just to dig up the root now?
Hey everyone this video is getting a lot of traffic right now so I just want to add that autumn is a great time for cutting down or marking buckthorn as it is going to be one of the last trees to have green leaves AND autumn and winter are a great time to cut it down and leave it in piles to burn (once there is snow on the ground and it is the right weather conditions for burning). I would love to see how your buckthorn removal is going and if you are looking for a second opinion! Just @ecoelsa on Instagram or Facebook!
Glossy Buckthorn invaded my chain link fence. It was out of control before I woke up to it. My neighbor wants it. I cut my side down which was quite a project last year. This year it is still trying to grow out of fence towards my side. This will be a constant headache. The buckthorn I have has l spiky 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch nail like projections coming off of main stem of most branches.
Dang that really sucks and as you noted constant headache until they also get rid of it. Sorry to hear that! Why does your neighbor want to keep it? is it for the privacy screen it provides? As there are plenty of native or at least less invasive alternatives that do a good job of that as well! Additionally have you tried explaining all the negatives of it for the environment plus how it is the reason the birds crap everywhere especially bad after consuming it's berries? If they still want it after that at least see if you can convince them to cut down at least the trees that make berries since those are going to be the main ones contributing to the continued invasion of your yard. If you need anymore help feel free to send them over to my video and I am happy to answer any further questions they might have! :)
@@EcoElsa I offered to pay for a six foot high no maintenances fence in whatever color he wanted. Both sides of fence were the same look - no bad side. They were going to have to cut the trees down to install the fence since the trees grew through the chain link fence and he wouldn’t agree to allow them to be cut down. His whole small yard is full of trees. A forest in the city/suburbs. He doesn’t care if it is invasive. He wants to cover every inch of his yard with trees. My other neighbor has to take a chain saw under his fence every so often so this man doesn’t try to pull that with his fence line trying to grow trees in the fence.
@@ittsacrazyworld Gezzzzz and by pushing the love button I mean I am sending you some love because that can't be easy! You must be a saint as I would have a super hard time with that if it was my neighbor 'XD Well maybe someday he will see the light or someone else will move in lol ;)
Damn. That sucks. Neighbors who keep invasive species are the worst. My sister has a neighbor who has big burning bush trees just over his side of the property line. Super frustrating.
It's one of the best wood species for making very high quality charcoal for use in making black powder. The highest quality European black powder uses buckthorn charcoal. So for all you muzzleloading folks who are having trouble purchasing black powder because of all the manufacturing and supply chain shortages, you have a high quality source of charcoal while helping biodiversity along our creeks and wetlands.
Hi but I heard it good for Constipation and piles is it same tree bark selling on Amazon its also called cascara sagradu .let me know if it is same anymore?
I am not an herbalist or doctor so I would recommend talking to a doctor before using a plant to self treat as plants have side effects too and you may not know how it will react with other medicines you take. Cascara Sagradu is known also by the common name California Buckthorn and I am unfamiliar with it as a species. The two "buckthorns" I discuss in this video are the Common/European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus). I can tell you though that the buckthorns I discuss in this video can have extreme laxative properties and are usually marked as unsafe for human consumption.
As Elsa said, Cascara Buckthorn is a completely different species that is native to the Pacific Northwest. I had a pretty nasty toxic reaction to the sap from touching the fresh girdling scars on Common Buckthorn.
When driving between Green Bay and Milwaukee my 87 year old father noticed how many large trees where dead. I wonder if its because of all the Buckthorn that taking over Wisconsin
This may not be your thing, but... Buckthorn makes a superior grade of charcoal for use in gunpowder and pyrotechnics. Finding someone to remove the larger sections cut down in your cleanups might be easier if you know this, because it can point you in the right direction of who might be interested in helping you. Try contacting a longrifle shooting club or mountain man reenactors group in your area to see if any of their members would be interested. There are likely several people in any given are who manufacture their own powder.
@@EcoElsa Believe it or not, most people I've talked to about this invasive and why it needs to go either think it's a 'nice bush' or don't know where their beautiful garden went. Btw, is buckthorn berries where Ex-lax comes from?
Yeah non-naturalists like it as a privacy screen a lot but there are plenty of quick growing natives bushes that work just as well plus actually feed wildlife! I don't know if it is or not I would have to check but it wouldn't surprise me. I love ethnobotany (study of how people use plants) and learning about medicinal plants. Any text I have ever read about buckthorn as a medicinal plant is really old and from Europe and has always included warnings like use with caution, last resort for constipation, test in small doses, and DO NOT GIVE TO CHILDREN could harm them. I don't think I would ever use buckthorn as an herbal remedy for anything when there are so many better and way safer medicinal plants out there for constipation.
I was not familiar with that common name but after a quick search Frangula alnus or Alder Buckthorn is also known as glossy buckthorn which is the common name I am more familiar with here in the Midwest. Thanks learn something new every day! As far as the cedar trees go any idea what species they are?
@@EcoElsa They are the Eastern Cedar. Grow like weeds. Not as aromatic as the Western Cedar. I've chainsawed 400-500 and used pruners to send another 600-800 to the big pasture in the sky.
@@jimv.661 ahh Juniperus virginiana correct? just making sure we are talk about about the same plant. Yes it can take over areas especially sites that are degraded and in the process of being restored and depending on where you live some states consider it not a great plant BUT it is a native to eastern North America and does provide food and shelter for many different animals. So as long as it is not taking over a prairie it is not a completely useless plant and not typically considered invasive. But double check your state's Department of Natural Resources (if you haven't already) and just make sure you are following their best recommendations they might have some more tips to help with removal if it is one they recommend removing. Either way your prairie sounds like a well loved and cared for piece of land! So thank you for all the work you are putting in to manage it ^_^
Yeah I didn't pick my opponent well healthy green wood trees are usually harder to saw through 'XD It is possible though as buckthorn is a good hard wood. The only thing is unless the trees have been allowed to grow unchallenged the trunk doesn't get very wide for fire logs. Buckthorn puts most of it's growth into it's branches and roots. It does make for a good brush burn for sure in the winter keeping folks warm and roasting hot dogs over it to celebrate a good day of clearing it out! Probably my favorite part of a removal day hot dogs and or smores ^_^
I've been working with buckthorn the past few months, I haven't found a good way to dry it yet, but the small uncracked pieces I've been able to process have a beautiful grain, morphing from yellow to brown to orange with reflective stripes, and ended up being similar to oak in strength and weight
I asked this too and the guy who made my buckthorn pen says he dries them using a microwave by weighing the cut piece and microwaving it for short periods until the weight no longer changes. He also said to make sure to use a microwave you plan on not using for food again lol
Hi there! I liked your video & subscribed. I did a VERY basic video on Buckthorn today, but wanted to provide more comprehensive information. So, I included a link in the description to this (your) video, fyi. I hope you don't mind. If you do, I will remove it. Have a great day!
I ❤my Buckthorn! I purposely planted buckthorn on my property for security barriers. Buckthorn has nasty barb thorns on branches! They are very painful 😖 My large trees maples, oaks, have not had a problem. I also have no rodent problems ! Im not convinced this buckthorn is as bad as this video claims. This so called evil plant keeps my property safe from trespassers and unwanted rodents 🐀 🐰 THANK YOU BUCKYHORN
So what happens 200 years after buckthorn colonizes fully??? Might be the best thing the world has ever seen, this is where things get complicated... Like, do we just boot the British? xD
I have seen some success with properties I helped manage in college when it came to native grasses. So those might be worth a try granted these management plans included 3-5 year burn cycles and applying glyphosphate on stumps but the grasses seemed to do relatively well in comparison to the forbes and young trees near the buckthorn. On my parents property we are actually pulling up as much of the seedlings as we can and then packing the soil back down with birch and aspen seeds. It is a lot more work but it is a quarter acre of woods we are doing this in and we seem to depleting the seed bed quicker. I will probably do an update next year to let people know how successful we were or if we switched over to doing a small controlled burn through the under story. Can't do it this fall as there is still a nice patch of poison ivy and my family and I are all pretty allergic. Last thing I want to do is breath in poison ivy smoke before my wedding this fall! lmao XD ":D
Oh and the reason we went with birch and quaking aspen is because it is the edge of a wetland back there and in theory a tree that also has a mesh like root system might stand a chance of competing with buckthorn so we will see what happens!
@@EcoElsa Thanks! I'm going to look into your suggestions. Would definetely appreciate an update on your results! I'm turning my yard into a permaculture/food forest type system. Right now trialing several types of paw paws to see if they can survive in that area as I start to cut back on the buckthorn. Also thinking about trying some hazelnut bushes and cherry trees. Hearing that some native grasses might work in the understory is hopeful. I've started planting multiple types of ferns in that area and those seem to be doing pretty well the past couple of years so going to also keep planting ferns. I suspect ferns will help the degraded soil quality but we'll see. I can't find any research on it.
@@TheWBWoman love love love this so much! My fiance and I are saving for a house we are about 2 years out ":D but I want to do this so bad when we do get a house! Plus he is trying to get me a green house
Shoot sorry my phone didn't show all of your comment. As far as I know know ferns should help with the moisture but if you are looking for plants to put more nutrients back in the soil usually people are talking about nitrogen with this so you will need some legumes (beans) as they have nitrogen fixing bacteria on their roots that will take nitrogen for the air and turn it into a form plants can use in the soil. This is why most farmers do crop rotation with soy beans if you hadn't heard of this before and sorry if you have :) Are you in Minnesota or another state? I might have some more suggestions for berry trees that can both provide fruit and habitat for wildlife if you are interested?
This kind of looks like what I have growing in spots in my yard. Grows really fast and it’s really hard to pull out even when it’s small. I live in Western New York.
If you have nothing but buckthorn in a large are maybe use goats. Otherwise it is a trendy useless solution due to limitations and costs. The goat users never get large areas covered and restored
@@Madmax_1985 yes it had berries NO DON'T EAT THEM! They are an extreme laxative best case scenario your crap your pants a ton and worst case you have such extreme diarrhea you end up hospitalized for it. So I repeat don't eat them and especially when outdoors it is good to NEVER eat ANYTHING unless you are 100% certain you know exactly what it is. If you want to learn more about foraging rules to help you stay safe check out one of my other videos! th-cam.com/video/htRHoAyjqCA/w-d-xo.html
Still killing buckthorn, thanks for your inspiration
I have a friend that dyes with buckthorn. She uses the berries, leaves and bark. I think she dyes yarn, fabric and reeds for basket weaving. As I cut my invasive ones down, I garbage bagged pieces for her.
ohhh I do a nature art class with kids making paint and dyes from plants I think I will need to do a little experimenting now ;)
Before I knew what species we were dealing with, my son and I used to call it the Borg Tree, because "Resistance is futile". Still is, but now I know what it's called. Had to have hand surgery a few years back bc a puncture wound from one of its thorns grew a pyogenic granuloma. In that same session, one of the men working with me had a large thorn go through the sole of his workboot. Removing buckthorn is like Zen meditation bc you must be completely focused on what you are doing or you WILL get hurt. So be careful folks.
I can't love this enough wish there was a gif option to express my feelings of agreement with this comment!
There's a native with huge thorns too. Just in case you may have been deceived.. it's called Hawthorn. It's related to roses and has tons of white flowers then red crab apple-like berries and insanely long thorns. They often have yellowish spots on the leaves too.
I had a branch snap back at me and what I had not realized was that a thorn stabbed in and out of the back of my hand/finger and I never knew it, what I thought happened is that I fractured my finger.Because it hurt like hell. Years went by and a lump grew between my knuckles only to finally one day a thorn started working up and out of my finger. Fun times
I am still fighting these trees
Thank you for such a comprehensive video addressing buckthorn eradication. We are about three years in our house on a rural 1 acre lot that slopes down to a watershed creek behind our property. It was Nov/Dec when we offered and the seller mentioned that there was *some* buckthorn out back...🙄😬.
I am big on research so learned pretty quickly to not go chopping it down all willy-nilly unless I wanted removing buckthorn to be my new hobby.
Once our first spring/summer/fall was behind us, it is clear that invasive are the rule rather than the exception and we have vast amounts of canary reed grass (some wet prairie area), honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, poison oak, and poison ivy in addition to the buckthorn. Add in the standing-dead (ash, mostly) and it's hard to not get discouraged but I AM going to defeat them and reclaim our patch of paradise. I, too, am aiming to establish an understory that blends edible permaculture with ferns, etc. and wondering how to plan and execute.
Do you have a video that addresses how best to tackle "what's next" after the riff-raff is gone? I am currently waiting for delivery of my newest toy...a Pullerbear christened "Kathy's Buckthorn Buster" and plan to spend the summer before I coast into my 69th b-day slaying the buckthorn beasts. I.Can't.Wait.
😁
This wood is also the best for charcoal for making black powder for muzzleloaders
Did not know that but very cool! I will have to check that out and ask my friends who do re-enactments about it! There might be a viable market for buckthorn yet... lol *fingers crossed*
@@EcoElsa it sure is! I would love to find buckthorne up here in Edmonton Alberta. I'm a black powder shooter and because commercial black powder is almost impossible to find, most fellows like me make our own Black powder. Buckthorne is the best charcoal for this application. How far north will we find this invasive plant?
This is by far the best video I have seen covering this topic! Thank you for sharing all this good info 😁
Thank you for the support! :) I am trying to get my schedule under control so I can start doing more videos again let me know if there is another topic you would like to see me cover!
Such a helpful video - thank you for all this great info! Looking forward to learning more from you! 💚
Thank You! This was very informative. I am combating an infestation in my backyard right now.
Helpful vid. I’m currently helping a friend try to get the buckthorn in his forest under control. And thank you for dropping the phrase crap pies two times 😂
This is my second time through you video. I'm learning as much as possible to get it gone
Thanks Thomas I am glad you are finding the video useful! The best thing you can do to get it gone for good is get your neighbors in on how to eradicate it from their yards as well! Over time this will help cut down of the number of seedlings occurring from bird droppings too.
Just remember this will be a ongoing project so don't get discouraged your effort still matters and is making a difference! Also keep in mind it may take years to see lasting results. We are in year 2 of the official management project at my parent's house and stumps are STILL coming back to life. So if you can I recommend getting the stumps out too... lol
Problem in my area is that municipal authorities don't tend their land, much less get rid of invasive species.
Info was excellent!
I've just started fighting my buckthorn hedge - thank you for all the great information.
Congratulations! Just know if you still like having a plant hedge in that space that there are plenty of native shrub species to pick from! Good luck with your progress on the hedges I am up for hearing updates on how it is going if you feel like sharing as well! :)
@@EcoElsa I started taking it down in the fall. Now I have some remaining cleanup to do. It was crossing over into becoming a treeline rather than a hedge honestly, and it was shading my neighbor's yard in a way that troubled him. I've always thought of that area as something of a shared/boundary stretch, so we talked about what might go in there instead. At the moment, we're thinking blackberries and blueberries.
I've proven that I can grow mint and hot peppers. My hydrangea has lasted a surprising three years. Apparently, I'm getting better at this, so with the advice of our nearby and local legend garden shop, I am tentatively optimistic on the potential.
Thank you for the great video, I have that tree next to my exterior wall in the backyard, I am not sure if the root could crack the foundation or it is weaker to to that, thank you for any feedback
Nice job. I learned more from your video than the last 10 on buckthorne that I watched.
Thanks Eric let me know if there is another plant you would like me to cover more in the future!
I honestly came here hoping to find a way to defend the buckthorn in my yard, as I like how it grows fast enough to harvest its branches for my own crafts.
But hearing about that emodin, I think I finally understand why my large maple appears to have a part that's dying.
Think I could just uproot all my buckthorn and grow it in my basement?
Ahhh, why'd I have to get attached before learning it's invasive!
So… can you eat the berries?
Great video. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you for your wonderful video. I am arm wrestling with my HOA to get the dogwood shrubs the buckthorn are invading removed. Both plants are intertwined along with some riverbank grape. They do not want to spend the money to hire someone to pull the shrubs. Herbicide isn't an option because they are within 10 feet of a pond. I feel so alone in this battle. Ug.
It is common to have push back on removing plants that make great privacy screens and that people mistake as being beneficial because they grow so thick. In addition to killing plants around it by putting emodin into the soil Buckthorn has also been linked in studies to attracting other things like aphids and crown root fungus that can cause damage to other plants in the area. As well as negatively impacting reproduction in amphibians and native insects with the emodin it releases. This all can add up to other more costly problems over time like losing trees, plants, and having an increase in pest species likes mosquitoes and other pest insects. I would attempt to start there and follow with it is cheaper to remove it now than later when it spreads further and will cost even more or the trees are all so mature you would have to do stump removal too to keep it nice to HOA standards. Good luck!
Great info! Any research on burning stumps? I have had good results with 4 shrubby thick stumps...we are next to a wetland and get our drinking water from our well so I don't want to use an herbicide.
Good for walking sticks. If you coppice the tree it will produce excellent shoots for sticks. That would be a productive management plan.
Not a bad idea if you were looking to manage it to use the wood! I have thought about it sometimes that if only it had a better wood it would be a more useful invasive species. I might have to try that the next time I find a male tree to cut down. Right now my focus has been more on finding better ways to efficiently eradicate them and use the bits and pieces along the way XD
Thank you for this great video! Now I know for sure that I can and should remove these from the little forest on my property!
Yes! And get your neighbors to do their woods too as it will help cut down on the seedlings showing up in your yard in the future! :)
Frangula alnus (Buckthorn Alder) is great for making charcoal for black powder production.
Really great job. The buckthorn around here are killing ALL the trees in any pocket of forrest. Very sad. Thanks.
Thanks! Hopefully once more people know we can work on removing and preventing more from getting established!
@@EcoElsa
Hmm, I found some buckthorn today in the back of my work. It can try and take over the rest of the area…it has to compete with other invasives I found. Autumn Olive and tree of heaven mostly.
Buckthorn is a little biatch. I have been getting rid of it like crazy! The end result is always awesome though :)
😂Yes and it also applicable to call it an a$hole since it has both 'male' and 'female' trees. Being a hard to kill jerk is also not one sex exclusive in the plant world there are also plants like invasive honey suckle that are monoecious meaning they have both male and female parts. Glad to hear you are having great end results and finding humor in the process!
@@EcoElsa i spent 4 hours removing 1 huge buckthorn tree and it looks super nice aftet is was gone. It opened up the canopy so much
@@xoese3753 Yes that is the best feeling! I remember when we removed the uber large female tree in the middle of my parents woods who probably was the first tree and how the saplings that had managed to survive in her vicinity nearby went nuts with the extra sunlight! Removing buckthorn can really "scratch that itch" like one of those satisfying painting videos for sure. ^_^
I'm about to start processing the bigger trees I got for.firewood. I really wanna try selling some straight pieces for wood carvers , the Heartwood is beautiful and it's a strong, flexible wood.
Just cut down a shit load today actually
The biggest thing for wood carvers is they don't want cracks and if buckthorn is slow dried it usually cracks big time so if you can quick dry small chunks in a microwave or something (that you don't plan on using for food after) then you will end up with better wood! I agree it has a very beautiful heartwood. I have a favorite pen made from a buckthorn tree and I use it to sign all my important documents! ^_^
@@EcoElsa thanks for the info! I'll definitely have to look into that more
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid You are totally welcome I hope it works out! and feel free to tag me to anything on instagram @ecoelsa to see how it is going! I am a big fan of repurposing invasive species so they can have a second more useful life.
Thank you for sharing all of this great information! Keep it up!
Thank you! Yes I am still working on EcoElsa :) I just took a break from videos with my wedding and covid but I have been filming and editing so there will be more going up this month! :)
It sounds like find it uses then harvest. Many people are using it (and maybe native to US) for leaves in printing on cloth (not sure what colors for dying yarns)(websearch for botanical printing).
Depends on which "buckthorns" you are talking about as that term is used as a common name for different plants. The ones I discuss in this video are Common/European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) which are both non-native to the U.S. Although that is an interesting experiment I may have to try using the leaves for printing and the bark for dyes and seeing what we get!
Wow you are amazing! Thank you for this! I'm from Wisconsin and my mother is having her backyard overrun by these. My brother can barely uproot them they are so stubborn. She wanted to use a poison and I stopped her- so now I'm trying to find a way to get rid of the issue without polluting our environment with toxic methods!
Sorry to hear about your mother's yard yeah they are quite a stubborn bush! The best natural ways I have seen are mechanical removal with pulling or goats otherwise doing a prescribed burn... But Glyphosphate an herbicide can help out a ton with removal and if applied properly it isn't terrible for the environment. You can either cut it down and nail a can on the stump for two years to make sure it is dead or cut it down dab glyphosphate on only the stump cut and also nail a can on top of it for up to two years... it is certainly a hardy bush and just so you and your family know managing for and removing buckthorn is a multi year project even if you burn or bulldoze it will keep coming back from the seed bank until it is depleted. So the best thing you can do year one is cut down all the berry producing trees before the berries fully develop and then start tackling the other mature trees! Let me know if you have any questions I should hopefully be getting up to my parents place this fall to record and show you all how their yard is doing. We have been taking a more extreme approach since it is a smaller area and have even been pulling up all the seedlings in an effort to deplete the seed bed quicker.
Not all chemical are “poisonous “. Modern chemistry has designed herbicides that are highly effective in destroying buckthorn, and readily break down via microbes and Sunlight.
I will caution the use of dihydrogen monoxide or DHMO. It is fact that all mammals are contaminated with DHMO, a sad statistic. Now found in raindrops, lakes, and even Perrier. It is a sad fact that millions of gallons of DHMO is added to pesticides to help spread evenly.
If there is one thing you can do, protest the use of DHMO, a terrible sounding name and absolutely contaminating many things.
So, use of herbicides when needed, is acceptable. Both glyphosate and triclopyr work wonderfully and are environmentally safe.
@@EcoElsa I am approaching the end of the second year of having tied a black plastic bag over the buckthorn in our yard. The stump still feels pretty sturdy though. Should it be easy just to dig up the root now?
Common buckthorn invasion has me thinking about moving. It is just too much.
Hey everyone this video is getting a lot of traffic right now so I just want to add that autumn is a great time for cutting down or marking buckthorn as it is going to be one of the last trees to have green leaves AND autumn and winter are a great time to cut it down and leave it in piles to burn (once there is snow on the ground and it is the right weather conditions for burning).
I would love to see how your buckthorn removal is going and if you are looking for a second opinion! Just @ecoelsa on Instagram or Facebook!
Glossy Buckthorn invaded my chain link fence. It was out of control before I woke up to it. My neighbor wants it. I cut my side down which was quite a project last year. This year it is still trying to grow out of fence towards my side. This will be a constant headache. The buckthorn I have has l spiky 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch nail like projections coming off of main stem of most branches.
Dang that really sucks and as you noted constant headache until they also get rid of it. Sorry to hear that! Why does your neighbor want to keep it? is it for the privacy screen it provides? As there are plenty of native or at least less invasive alternatives that do a good job of that as well! Additionally have you tried explaining all the negatives of it for the environment plus how it is the reason the birds crap everywhere especially bad after consuming it's berries? If they still want it after that at least see if you can convince them to cut down at least the trees that make berries since those are going to be the main ones contributing to the continued invasion of your yard. If you need anymore help feel free to send them over to my video and I am happy to answer any further questions they might have! :)
@@EcoElsa I offered to pay for a six foot high no maintenances fence in whatever color he wanted. Both sides of fence were the same look - no bad side. They were going to have to cut the trees down to install the fence since the trees grew through the chain link fence and he wouldn’t agree to allow them to be cut down. His whole small yard is full of trees. A forest in the city/suburbs. He doesn’t care if it is invasive. He wants to cover every inch of his yard with trees. My other neighbor has to take a chain saw under his fence every so often so this man doesn’t try to pull that with his fence line trying to grow trees in the fence.
@@ittsacrazyworld Gezzzzz and by pushing the love button I mean I am sending you some love because that can't be easy! You must be a saint as I would have a super hard time with that if it was my neighbor 'XD Well maybe someday he will see the light or someone else will move in lol ;)
@@EcoElsa Someday. 🤞🏻
Damn. That sucks. Neighbors who keep invasive species are the worst. My sister has a neighbor who has big burning bush trees just over his side of the property line. Super frustrating.
It's one of the best wood species for making very high quality charcoal for use in making black powder. The highest quality European black powder uses buckthorn charcoal. So for all you muzzleloading folks who are having trouble purchasing black powder because of all the manufacturing and supply chain shortages, you have a high quality source of charcoal while helping biodiversity along our creeks and wetlands.
Thank you for this amazing info!
Hi but I heard it good for Constipation and piles is it same tree bark selling on Amazon its also called cascara sagradu .let me know if it is same anymore?
I am not an herbalist or doctor so I would recommend talking to a doctor before using a plant to self treat as plants have side effects too and you may not know how it will react with other medicines you take. Cascara Sagradu is known also by the common name California Buckthorn and I am unfamiliar with it as a species. The two "buckthorns" I discuss in this video are the Common/European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus). I can tell you though that the buckthorns I discuss in this video can have extreme laxative properties and are usually marked as unsafe for human consumption.
As Elsa said, Cascara Buckthorn is a completely different species that is native to the Pacific Northwest. I had a pretty nasty toxic reaction to the sap from touching the fresh girdling scars on Common Buckthorn.
When driving between Green Bay and Milwaukee my 87 year old father noticed how many large trees where dead. I wonder if its because of all the Buckthorn that taking over Wisconsin
This may not be your thing, but...
Buckthorn makes a superior grade of charcoal for use in gunpowder and pyrotechnics. Finding someone to remove the larger sections cut down in your cleanups might be easier if you know this, because it can point you in the right direction of who might be interested in helping you. Try contacting a longrifle shooting club or mountain man reenactors group in your area to see if any of their members would be interested. There are likely several people in any given are who manufacture their own powder.
Buckthorn makes the best charcoal for making black powder.
Thanx for talking about Emodin. Bad stuff!
Oh yeah! Can't talk about Buckthorn without talking about it for sure.
@@EcoElsa
Believe it or not, most people I've talked to about this invasive and why it needs to go either think it's a 'nice bush' or don't know where their beautiful garden went.
Btw, is buckthorn berries where Ex-lax comes from?
Yeah non-naturalists like it as a privacy screen a lot but there are plenty of quick growing natives bushes that work just as well plus actually feed wildlife!
I don't know if it is or not I would have to check but it wouldn't surprise me. I love ethnobotany (study of how people use plants) and learning about medicinal plants. Any text I have ever read about buckthorn as a medicinal plant is really old and from Europe and has always included warnings like use with caution, last resort for constipation, test in small doses, and DO NOT GIVE TO CHILDREN could harm them. I don't think I would ever use buckthorn as an herbal remedy for anything when there are so many better and way safer medicinal plants out there for constipation.
When are the berries created on the buckthorn. Autumn?
I see them usually start seeing them in August but it could happen earlier or later depending on where you live!
Ive noticed here in Pennsylvania the spotted lantern flies love eating it
I have tons of these on my land. They don't look bad imo but the thorns are a pain
Which one is considered the Alder Buckthorn? Reminds me of the cedar trees I've been fighting on my prairie.
I was not familiar with that common name but after a quick search Frangula alnus or Alder Buckthorn is also known as glossy buckthorn which is the common name I am more familiar with here in the Midwest. Thanks learn something new every day! As far as the cedar trees go any idea what species they are?
@@EcoElsa They are the Eastern Cedar. Grow like weeds. Not as aromatic as the Western Cedar. I've chainsawed 400-500 and used pruners to send another 600-800 to the big pasture in the sky.
@@jimv.661 ahh Juniperus virginiana correct? just making sure we are talk about about the same plant. Yes it can take over areas especially sites that are degraded and in the process of being restored and depending on where you live some states consider it not a great plant BUT it is a native to eastern North America and does provide food and shelter for many different animals. So as long as it is not taking over a prairie it is not a completely useless plant and not typically considered invasive. But double check your state's Department of Natural Resources (if you haven't already) and just make sure you are following their best recommendations they might have some more tips to help with removal if it is one they recommend removing. Either way your prairie sounds like a well loved and cared for piece of land! So thank you for all the work you are putting in to manage it ^_^
I noticed that is was rather difficult to saw thru, perhaps good for home heating?
Yeah I didn't pick my opponent well healthy green wood trees are usually harder to saw through 'XD It is possible though as buckthorn is a good hard wood. The only thing is unless the trees have been allowed to grow unchallenged the trunk doesn't get very wide for fire logs. Buckthorn puts most of it's growth into it's branches and roots. It does make for a good brush burn for sure in the winter keeping folks warm and roasting hot dogs over it to celebrate a good day of clearing it out! Probably my favorite part of a removal day hot dogs and or smores ^_^
I've been working with buckthorn the past few months, I haven't found a good way to dry it yet, but the small uncracked pieces I've been able to process have a beautiful grain, morphing from yellow to brown to orange with reflective stripes, and ended up being similar to oak in strength and weight
I asked this too and the guy who made my buckthorn pen says he dries them using a microwave by weighing the cut piece and microwaving it for short periods until the weight no longer changes. He also said to make sure to use a microwave you plan on not using for food again lol
Thanks for the great video .
Hi there! I liked your video & subscribed. I did a VERY basic video on Buckthorn today, but wanted to provide more comprehensive information. So, I included a link in the description to this (your) video, fyi. I hope you don't mind. If you do, I will remove it. Have a great day!
Hi that is totally fine! Hope your buckthorn removal project is going well!
@@EcoElsa Awesome thank you! I am just trying raise awareness of it, as I had never even heard of it until a few years ago. Thanks again!
Elsa Can I find alder Buckthorn in New Jersey .
I just bought a pill, tocotrienols, which also has buckthorn oil in it. I’m wondering if this is bad for me. Can anyone respond please?
I ❤my Buckthorn! I purposely planted buckthorn on my property for security barriers. Buckthorn has nasty barb thorns on branches! They are very painful 😖
My large trees maples, oaks, have not had a problem. I also have no rodent problems ! Im not convinced this buckthorn is as bad as this video claims. This so called evil plant keeps my property safe from trespassers and unwanted rodents 🐀 🐰
THANK YOU BUCKYHORN
charcoal for black powder?
Buckthorn charcoal is prized for making homemade black powder.
Thank you for this video I don't know if I have this but we are going to look through the woods to make sure we don't
good luck and fingers crossed you don't have it as like other invasive species it is easier to prevent than remove and restore!
Is that what they call buckthorn alder?
I assume Sea Buckthorn is equally a problem?
So what happens 200 years after buckthorn colonizes fully??? Might be the best thing the world has ever seen, this is where things get complicated... Like, do we just boot the British? xD
I wish I could find something to outcompete the buckthorn. I can't keep up with the removal in my backyard!
I have seen some success with properties I helped manage in college when it came to native grasses. So those might be worth a try granted these management plans included 3-5 year burn cycles and applying glyphosphate on stumps but the grasses seemed to do relatively well in comparison to the forbes and young trees near the buckthorn. On my parents property we are actually pulling up as much of the seedlings as we can and then packing the soil back down with birch and aspen seeds. It is a lot more work but it is a quarter acre of woods we are doing this in and we seem to depleting the seed bed quicker. I will probably do an update next year to let people know how successful we were or if we switched over to doing a small controlled burn through the under story. Can't do it this fall as there is still a nice patch of poison ivy and my family and I are all pretty allergic. Last thing I want to do is breath in poison ivy smoke before my wedding this fall! lmao XD ":D
Oh and the reason we went with birch and quaking aspen is because it is the edge of a wetland back there and in theory a tree that also has a mesh like root system might stand a chance of competing with buckthorn so we will see what happens!
@@EcoElsa Thanks! I'm going to look into your suggestions. Would definetely appreciate an update on your results! I'm turning my yard into a permaculture/food forest type system. Right now trialing several types of paw paws to see if they can survive in that area as I start to cut back on the buckthorn. Also thinking about trying some hazelnut bushes and cherry trees. Hearing that some native grasses might work in the understory is hopeful. I've started planting multiple types of ferns in that area and those seem to be doing pretty well the past couple of years so going to also keep planting ferns. I suspect ferns will help the degraded soil quality but we'll see. I can't find any research on it.
@@TheWBWoman love love love this so much! My fiance and I are saving for a house we are about 2 years out ":D but I want to do this so bad when we do get a house! Plus he is trying to get me a green house
Shoot sorry my phone didn't show all of your comment. As far as I know know ferns should help with the moisture but if you are looking for plants to put more nutrients back in the soil usually people are talking about nitrogen with this so you will need some legumes (beans) as they have nitrogen fixing bacteria on their roots that will take nitrogen for the air and turn it into a form plants can use in the soil. This is why most farmers do crop rotation with soy beans if you hadn't heard of this before and sorry if you have :) Are you in Minnesota or another state? I might have some more suggestions for berry trees that can both provide fruit and habitat for wildlife if you are interested?
I like it, it makes the bast charcoal of Blackpowder
Oh my god did I just discover someone from my old community college?
Alder buckthorn plants are great for making black powder coal. They are also plants that provide food for bears and birds.
The berries cause diarrhea
Is this the same tree ? and should i remove them , picture : ibb.co/RTDgjTm
ibb.co/zS8pvhf
ibb.co/F0836x4
no and I am not sure what kind of tree it is either... Are you located in the midwest?
This kind of looks like what I have growing in spots in my yard. Grows really fast and it’s really hard to pull out even when it’s small. I live in Western New York.
Good for firewood..... #hatebuchthorn
Buckthorn is an opportunist...a sort of "capitalist" that takes a modicum of benefits and charges way too much .
If you have nothing but buckthorn in a large are maybe use goats. Otherwise it is a trendy useless solution due to limitations and costs. The goat users never get large areas covered and restored
I love buckthorn
you mean cutting it down and setting it on fire right? lol ;)
Does this have berries and do u eat them?
@@Madmax_1985 yes it had berries NO DON'T EAT THEM! They are an extreme laxative best case scenario your crap your pants a ton and worst case you have such extreme diarrhea you end up hospitalized for it. So I repeat don't eat them and especially when outdoors it is good to NEVER eat ANYTHING unless you are 100% certain you know exactly what it is. If you want to learn more about foraging rules to help you stay safe check out one of my other videos! th-cam.com/video/htRHoAyjqCA/w-d-xo.html
Latin name?
The irony , great info tho
Thanks!
Glyphosate. BOOO!