Critical Period Cutting

This is a technique for mechanical removal of many woody invasive plants (e.g. Glossy Buckthorn, Winged Euonymus, and Bush Honeysuckle). It is also known as Critical Period Cutting.

The basic idea is to immediately remove most of the plant (removing its throwing shade on its surroundings, and preventing seed generation that year), but retaining a single (tall) stem for new growth to favor. This may be done either in the spring or in the fall.

The critical period is re-cutting the regrowth five or six months later, then one and two years later.

It drains the energy out of the root system, instead of breaking it up and then having to deal with root fragments re-sprouting. It minimizes the “Hydra” problem, by focusing the plant’s regrowth on the single high stem.

It also makes re-clearing an area easy (clear differentiation between new saplings to pull and regrowth from old roots to cut.