How to till new clearing....?

[awshier]

Hello - I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice.
Had 3 acres of red pine mulched and grubbed - looking to break up soil and till in the mulch (approx. 3" -5" of mulch). Not sure how to begin? We want to eventually build a small barn and plant some sort of grass/hay.
3 shank ripper has been suggested prior to roto-tiller - or a subsoiler then roto-till?
Looking for help and suggestions on how to proceed.
Thanks.

[pitt_md]

If you have roots in the ground your going play he!! getting a tiller to go through them. Can you explain exactly what mulched and grubbed means?

[Egon]

A heavy duty tiller for your tractor should work. A smaller disk with lots of weight might work too.

Will you need to level the land after working it?

[awshier]

Originally Posted by pitt_md

If you have roots in the ground your going play he!! getting a tiller to go through them. Can you explain exactly what mulched and grubbed means?

Hi pitt md - thanks for replying. An ASV PT100 track loader with a Gyro Tac mulching head was used to mulch the trees and then a root rake was used to pull 99% of the stumps and a good portion of the roots as well - that was also mulched. Now I've got a layer of mulch spread out everywhere that I need to somehow till/plow or turnover into the soil. Apparently doing this as the mulch breaksdown will really help fertalize the area and retain mositure.

[awshier]

Originally Posted by Egon

A heavy duty tiller for your tractor should work. A smaller disk with lots of weight might work too.

Will you need to level the land after working it?

Hi Egon. Thanks for the post.
I wasn't sure if a tiller would manage to get down through the mulch as well as the soil very well (don't know how deep they go). I need to get it tilled up once or twice and then level things up prior to seeding. I was considering using a Feist landscaper for the finishing duties - any thoughts?
A local dealer suggested trying a "3 shank ripper" rather than a tiller incase I hit the odd stump that may have been missed.

[Duffster]

2 words........chisel plow

[ampsucker]

i would think a good slip clutch adjusted properly on a tiller would eliminate any problems with hitting the occasional stump or root.

my question is what do you hope to grow in a bed of red pine mulch? you'll need to lime the heck out of it and add a ton of nitrogen and even then you'll probably need to let it sit for several years before you get good growth. of course, blueberries do like the low pH!

tilling it under WILL help it decompose faster, but you're still creating a huge nitrogen sink with all that carbon decomposing.

you might also consider a mold board plow to turn the top over before tilling. that will help you a lot with getting it mixed up.

amp

[Egon]

The Pine Trees should have a pretty shallow root system so you probably have most of them.

Several years ago a neighbour got discouraged with my rotatilling and the results I was getting with my 16 Hp. Kubota. He set me his 65? Hp. Case Tractor with a 7/8?? ft. Rotatiller. It went down about 13 inches the first pass. More passes and it was deeper.

This tiller was sturdy. It did hit a few rocks and did break a few shear pins but no damage to tines or even thinking it was struggling. If I recall the tractor was in creeper gear and at about 750 rpm. In my opinion it would have handled some pine roots with no problem other than winding them up.

A heavy duty tiller sized to your tractor or maybe just a little less width should work.

Consider making a drag for leveling. The width, angling and going different directions will do wonders. Eddie Walker has a thread on one he built that looks pretty good.

Those are my thoughts.


I'm sure a heavy Rome type Disk behind a D6 or a proper one bottom brush breaking plow behind a D6 would do the best job. These were the type of implements I have seen used to break newly cleared brush land. Quite a few of the disc's were behind a D9. But this type of equipment is probably no longer available.

[REPO]

Personally, I would have a small CAT or plow come in and pile the mulch for burning. I know that when you mulch some trees, it can actually poison the ground, not sure about yours. Also, after that was done, I would use a single/double/triple (depending on tractor size) bottom turnover plow first, then disc it a few times. You will then probobly have to root rake it again.

[foggy1111]

I just broke about 5 acres of new ground this spring. Most of it had 12 to 14" red pine stumps on it from being logged before I bought the property. I rented a stump grinder and ground out 400 stumps from my land and trails. I ground the stumps to about 6" below the ground surface. 3 day job.

Then I tried a few different ways to prep the land for planting in the next month or so.

1. I brush hogged the "buck brush" and left the trash where it lays. Then I put down roundup. Then I used a ripper and made successive 3 foot passes....then followed that with a disc and finally a tiller....and finally a drag harrow. Some of the woody trash still needs to be cleaned up....but all in all this worked out pretty well. BUT a LOT of work.

2. Most of my land I brush hogged very close to the ground to shred all the woody material possible. Followed with a round up application as the weeds were starting to grow. Then I hooked up my trusty 5' King Kutter Tiller and tilled the ground in low range 2nd gear (sometimes 3rd). I think I got a nicer job doing this than number 1 above......and a whole lot less trips. Of course my ground is sandy loam.....and all bets are off on other types of soils.

3. Some of my land has too many stumps and rocks.....so I again brush hogged then set my 3 point disc to a pretty aggressive setting and disc'ed the land about two or three passes and followed with our drag pulled by a four wheeler.

Doing it again.....I would immediately go to method number 2 above...if rocks are not a problem. Hope this helps.