FLORIDA: Planting Sand Pears With Kubota B3300SU FEL + BUCKET SPADE

[jeff9366]

It was hot today: 88 degrees in the shade....but there was no shade where I decided to plant one Pineapple Pear and one Kieffer Pear. These are in the family known as Sand Pears in Florida. Sand Pears set a fair crop however the pears remain hard at maturity. Two different varieties are needed for pollination. These two pear trees are planted about eighty feet apart on the grassy lip of a retention pond. My wife makes poached Pear Butter and Pear Preserves from Sand Pears but I planted these to provide fruit for the pet deer within the Riverwalk development.

My tractor is a Kubota B3300SU tractor/loader package: 33-hp / 1,800 lbs. The clamp-on Bucket Spade is from Bucket Solutions in Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033. The bucket spade weighs 110 pounds and immovably clamps to the bucket with two 1-1/4"-hex-head machine screw torqued pads. In photo #2 you will observe there is plenty of support under the bucket. There is the 4" screw pad on top side of the bucket, the bucket itself and the heavy spade on the back side indirectly receiving the well distributed screw pad pressure. Bucket Spade is built very robustly.

This is an effective tool for digging. It cut through the sod easily and I excavated the two deep planting holes in just a couple of minutes. (Other days it has cut through general scrub growth and Muscadine Grape cores; large Water Oak stumps and associated large Oak roots have defeated the spade, or more accurately, my patience, occasionally.) It was not the time savings.....it was having the tractor and implement do the work on the HOT DAY. The bucket spade is NOT as capable as a backhoe but Bucket Spade cost $369 delivered in February 2012. Much less money than a backhoe, it attaches and detaches in two minutes and requires NO hydraulic line connections....and your 3-point is open for another implement.

Kubota gives the minimum lift capacity for the LA504 loader bucket as 750 pounds. Well, the spade is 110 pounds way out in front, with leverage making it effectively heavier. Put a blade load of wet dirt on the spade and you have quite a bit lift capacity being used due to the leverage. An 1,800 pound tractor w/FEL is about the minimum able to use the tool well. If you have clay or clay and rocks to dig in you would want a larger tractor and heavier FEL.

It might seem the bucket spade is hidden behind the bucket when in use. Not really, it mounts on the lower lip of the bucket and to dig you are pointing it down, so you see where it enters the earth. Generally speaking spade works best inserted at about 45 degree angle, not much more to the vertical. In tough conditions you move the tractor forward in LOW using wheel power to help push the spade in, not 100% bucket hydraulic force.

OPEN LINKS:

Tractor Forks, Bucket Forks, Loader Forks

Homes For Sale - Near the Suwannee River - The Riverwalk of Fanning Springs, FL

 

[Don87]

Nice tool.

But I gotta ask.....Eighty feet apart, that seems like an awfully long distance for pollination, shouldn't it be half that distance at the most?

 

[jeff9366]

According to the tree tags when full grown trees will be 40 feet in diameter. So from outer branch to outer branch it will be 40 feet.
Also, aesthetics partly dictated locations.

 

[Don87]

Wow, I was only finding 20 foot spread on my searches: Tree Details—The Tree Guide at arborday.org

Nassau County Extension Office - Pineapple Pear

I understand the aesthetics aspect, but I would hate to see you lose out on potential fruit to use in the future. Ain't nothing like unwrapping a pear( from the newspaper you wrapped it in), in january and eating it

 

[RobertBrown]

I have been to fanning springs many times, driven through it hundreds of times. I suspect the deer you refer to are south of town not far from Andrews WMA.
I had one of those pear trees. Not really pears, more like squirrel food to me. I would not go to too much trouble as they are susceptible to rot in the wet humid conditions here in Florida.
Seems to me you are a transplant?
Pears don't grow here. Citrus will grow providing you don't have a severe freeze. Sour oranges will grow just fine, they are good for marinating pork occasionally you will find a sweet orange tree but the fruit grown from that seed will be sour.

 

[jeff9366]

A neighbor asked me to excavate a hole for planting a large, potted, ornamental tree in his yard. The hole is about 6' X 6' X 40" - 54" deep.

In order to dig 54" deep, I needed to run the bucket pretty far down into the hole. Without 630 pound Rollover Box Blade on the 3-Pt. Hitch as counterbalance the tractor would have slipped irresistibly into the hole. There is enough counterbalance for the bucket to lift a full spade of wet dirt.

The hole was not quite finished when I snapped the photo.

The Bucket Spade is a really useful FEL accessory. Bucket Spade can accomplish most digging tasks, less narrow trenching and less 4"+ stump excavation.

FEL Bucket is 58" wide.

If anyone is looking for a nice place to live in rural, low-tax North Central Florida, this is IT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzDN3UFfm2A

 

[paulharvey]

Bartlett pears grow in Florida, and are semi self fertile, meaning they will pollinate with other Bartletts, if somewhat ineffectiently. They are hard, somewhat ugly, but tasty. The Unniversity if Florida has developed many fruit trees including peaches, pears, and apples specifically for low chill hours.

 

[jeff9366]

Good eye. Good guess. But no banana. Its a non-fruiting, BRADFORD PEAR.

 

[paulharvey]

Well I would have sworn that there is a Bartlett, and looking it up, Bartlett pear is also called a Williams Pear, and is a fairly broad family of Asiatic pears that represent over 50% of US Pear production.

 

[ddb123]

Jeff9366, I have to ask, what did you do to bend the top of your loader bucket?