Newbie needindg de rocking advice

[mickd]

Goodmorning folks. I am looking for some advice in the most effective way to remove rocks to allow for planting. Let me explain my goal and the equipment at my disposal ( my fleet ). I have mountain property in pennsylvania, very rocky and in a hollow with a creek running thru. The most level areas are creekside, some of which I would like to plant in food plots for deer and cutting with brush hog. The rocks range from the size of a brief case to that of a magazine and smaller and 2-4" thick. I would estimate 20% of what I dig is rock. I have a small dozer (6 way blade) - A B7100 Kubota - ford 1700 /FEL- attachments available are a 5' bear blade, 5'landscape rake and brush hog ( of no use at this point) We have tried loostening up 6 or so inches with the dozer and pushing off the rock but we're also getting rid of a lot of the soil. We've tried the landscape rake on the 7100, it moves away some rock while uprooting others,so it's not clearing as well as we would like. In the past we did it mostly by hand , we're not getting any younger and would like to use more diesel than back if you know what I mean. Do I have the correct equipment and attachments ? Do I need other attachments ? Is our sequence of work allright ? Does anyone need any rock---- no charge---unlimited supply !!!
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[KPark]

Sounds like scarifier work, like those found on a box blade. They would uproot the rocks and get them to the top so that you could clear them out with the rake. An added benefit is the ground would then be soft and well aerated for planting.

[flusher]

I'd use the 1700 and a subsoiler (aka ripper) and run it 5-10 inches deep to loosen the soil and bring the rocks to the surface. Then use your landscape rake and see if it works any better now. A rock rake would work better.

Land

Good luck

[SSdoxie]

Use a ripper of some type as mentioned, then if the landscape rake takes too much soil try removing every other tooth or 2 out of 3 teeth. This shoudl get the bigger ones while leaving more soil behind.
Might also consider adding a root grapple to your list of tools if you have or can add 3rd function hydraulic to the FEL.

[texasjohn]

Seems to me that using a tool to bring rocks toward surface, as already suggested, is step one.

Then, I'd take a rock rake and use it to drag rocks into piles.

Then, I'd use a rock bucket to pick up rock piles, let dirt sift back down, and move rocks to dump location.

If distances and amount of work to be done make it practicable, then consider getting a small, perhaps manual although hydraulic would be better, dump trailer to transport rocks to dump site.

Best wishes, let us know what you try and how it works out. This is a reasonably common problem discussed with some frequency on TBN.

[Egon]

Make up a rock rake for the bucket. It will be slow going but it will separate and load the rocks from the soil.

Just make it a bolt on version, make sure the teeth are large enough so they don't bend and not too long for the tractor. You want to be able to dig the teeth in and then curl the bucket up and lift.

There is a thread from some years ago about Spading The Garden that shows almost the same thing being done with a B7100.

[radioman]

ditto on rock rake. its the best tool for you since you have a tractor with FL. just drop bucket and install rock rake.

Bradco 55 Inch Rock Bucket for Compact Tractors

[yellowdogsvc]

why not crush the rocks? You don't have a machine listed that will crush the rocks but if you were to tear the ground up with your equipment down to that 6 inches, the bring in something like an FAE crusher on a big tractor or even a powerful skid steer to crush the rocks. There's some vids on Youtube of some demonstrations they did in Pennsylvania. The crusher will leave very fine to coarse gravel. Down here in Texas it's become more popular to crush the rocks in the fields. I've tried using a landscape rake, a Rockhound, and then a rock bucket and it's all slow going. Good luck

[Piston]

This is an interesting thread as I'm in a similar situation as you in rocky NH! I've been curious how well those rock buckets work for something like this. It makes sense that if the soil is loose they would work pretty well.

I've been thinking of plowing the land to loosen the soil, then renting either a rockhound or power rake to separate the rocks from the soil. Would this be a viable option as well?

[yellowdogsvc]

This is an interesting thread as I'm in a similar situation as you in rocky NH! I've been curious how well those rock buckets work for something like this. It makes sense that if the soil is loose they would work pretty well.

I've been thinking of plowing the land to loosen the soil, then renting either a rockhound or power rake to separate the rocks from the soil. Would this be a viable option as well?

a rockhound does an amazing job but it has limitations. Though it's rated for bigger, 6" rocks are about the max you want to pull into it. You need to go slow or it can tear itself up. I destroyed my rockhound, had it rebuilt a few times, and finally gave up and scrapped it. The 6B, in my opinion, is too wide and "twists" easily if the rocks are too big. It can also jam easily when it starts to fill up. Because it does such an amazing job of picking things up, it pulls in a lot of dirt, too, and you have to spend a lot of time dumping.

I've been on and off this subject for quite awhile. Some guys recommend tearing up the ground and using a harley style rake to windrow the now loose rocks. After that a skeleton bucket would probably work great.

I used a rock hound on a 10 acre hay field. I was out there 5 days picking rocks, cactus, you name it. The field turned out amazing and the rockhound stripped weeds too. As soon as the hay guy disced the field, it grew more rocks. The lesson here is to get deep enough when you are first disturbing the area and try and get those rocks as close to the surface as possible. If the rocks aren't too big, say mostly softball to possibly football sized, the rockhound would do a great job and you can go around the "briefcase" sized rocks if necessary. I still think it will take awhile whether it's a skeleton bucket, crusher, or rock picker, but the more I think about it, the more I think it could turn out really nice.