Too late to collect honeysuckle???

[Daniel son STL]

It’s been spring and rainfall for about 3 weeks, leaves have been out for about 2 weeks. I understand honeysuckle is pretty darn resilient. I would be chopping the trunk and hard root prune. Found some really nice ones with decent bases and 6’-12’ tall. Don’t want to kill them with the double insult if it’s too late in season. If anything I’ll just trunk chop them now and dig them next year.
Or maybe dig/chop a cpl now and chop/leave a cpl for next year and experiment.

But whatchu guys think?

 

[_#1_]

From my experience they are pretty much indestructible. I guy i knew had a space behind his business he wanted to clear to pave the ground. It was over run with honeysuckles. When I wen to collect two, he had already chopped some down to about 2'and they where re sprouting. Both where collected around this time. Both where washed squeaky clean of the old soil. Not a trace left. One is in a plastic washing pot and the other in a colander. Both where left out in the open through this supposedly record breaking winter here. Not heeled in the ground, not mulched, nothing. They are among the strongest growers in my yard.

My two are for testing purposes and now I know why they are so noxious invasive. Bulletproof and fast growing!

 

[akhater]

I did kill a few honeysuckle but it was plainly my fault. They are pretty hardy and I think odds are they will be just fine

 

[leatherback]

Go ahead and collect. Maybe go easy on cleaning the roots and leave that for next year. But even there.. I would bet they will live with extreme washing & trimming.. Just give them partial shade for a few weeks

 

[smilezzz]

Hi there. Total noob here, but my take on it is that they're preety much unkillable. I've taken cuttings all year round from my Japanese honeysuckle hedge, 9/10 survive and get given away. They transplant easily. Ive even pulled out older rooted ones (a couple of years at least) in the middle of winter that made it through fine. Granted it never drops below freezing here. In any case, their hardiness makes Schefflera look like *insert analogy about something obviously brittle.

 

[Daniel son STL]

Hey thanks for the replies everyone. Just picked up a needed tool for cutting through some hard to get to roots. I’ll collect them sometime this weekend

 

[Lionheart]

Does anybody know if they sprout from the hacked roots that remain in the ground? I just hacked, pried and dug one out yesterday. I'm thinking about the roots that remain in the ground. Wondering if they're gonna start growing.

 

[CasAH]

Does anybody know if they sprout from the hacked roots that remain in the ground? I just hacked, pried and dug one out yesterday. I'm thinking about the roots that remain in the ground. Wondering if they're gonna start growing.

Yes.

 

[Lionheart]

Yes.

Oh no...

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Yes, and the "Oh No'' is justified. I hate honeysuckle, an invasive weed.

They have a habit of sprouting up in the middle of blueberry bushes. Leaves are similar enough in size and shape you don't notice right away. Then you have to dig out a beast of bush that is choking the blueberries. Oh well, the joys of blueberry farming. At least honeysuckle is better than poison ivy, another that tends to invade the blueberry rows.

 

[Silentrunning]

All the rain we had this winter has produced a bumper crop of honeysuckle this spring. I am afraid to try to cut it because it will probably make it grow faster.

 

[CasAH]

All the rain we had this winter has produced a bumper crop of honeysuckle this spring. I am afraid to try to cut it because it will probably make it grow faster.

Chainsaws, brushcutters,Garlon, and fire kill it. I have killed thousands that way.

 

[TN_Jim]

Honeysuckle is one of the most invasive species in the S.E. US

It is destructive , literally beyond measure to native species.

 

[Daniel son STL]

Yes I do literally see them everywhere. Funny the day before I was going to grab them they were plowed. Ended up grabbing a few other deciduous trees, no idea of the species though.