North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 11:23 PM 8/31/2003 +0000, you wrote:
> Lucky, this is a public forum !    It makes me nervious enough to see 
> people posting statements that they are breaking a commonly ignored 
> federal law (herbicides must be used according to label), but please avoid 
> telling everyone the downright scary stuff like this !
Tanis,
This is an OLD pint can of Weed-B-Gon, the original formulation, which 
contained 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T - essentially Agent Orange.  Found it in my 
mother-in-law's basement, when we moved her to assisted living, back in '99.
I know it's not on the market any longer, but I was unaware that it's 
illegal to possess.   Have only used it on one or two stumps in the past 4 
years - painted on the exposed cambium, very sparingly, then the brush 
disposed of.
I mostly use Pathway(Tordon0 as a stump treatment on trees I don't want 
re-sprouting, and 2,4-D for thistle control, but the bulk of my weeds are 
handled by mowing or smothering with carboard & leaves.

Sam,
Nope, it's Liquidambar styraciflua, the sweetgum native to much of the 
eastern US.  One of my most disliked trees; yes, they have great fall 
color, but the dam*able balls and their propensity to throw up honkin' big 
surface roots to trip one and break the crankshaft on one's mower, in 
addition to their propensity to sucker like crazy if you ever cut them down 
make it a certainty that I'll never plant one.  They don't even make decent 
firewood - difficult, if not impossible,to split large chunks(I've buried 
more than one wedge in 'em) , and when you do burn it, it pops & snaps, 
sending sparks flying everywhere.





Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY