Pulling vines out of trees

[Anonymous Poster]

Last summer I bought a place with about an acre of timber. A large portion of the woods had grape vines growing up to the tops and creating a huge heavy canopy. Concerned for the future of the trees, I waited until fall (leaves dropped) and started cutting the vines at the base and started pulling them out of the trees. I soon realized that I was breaking a lot of limbs and causing damage to the trees. I then decided it would be best to just go around and cut the base of all the vines and let them die, dryout and fall out of the trees on their own. I wouldn't recommend you try pulling the vines out, as you'll likely damage the trees.

 

[fractal]

I had a running battle with some bogenvia last fall. Pulled a bunch of it out of the neighbors trees with the b7200. Just wrapped a length of nylon rope around and through the vines, tied it to the box and drove away after cutting through the plants with the chain saw.

More often than not I came away with a rope. Occasionally I came away with some vines.

Digging down a few feet and wrapping a chain around the stumps worked for pulling the stumps, but getting the vine out was another story.

Neighbor called in pros to finish cleaning out his trees last week (3 months after I got rid of the plants). They climbed up into the tree and cut them out by hand letting lengths of vine drop into a pile at the base of the tree. Man there was a lot of rubbish there when they were done. 2 people for 8 hrs to do one tree. Three trees to go.

Did I mention that I have learned to despise bogenvia?

 

[PowerMax]

Be careful - many of the vines I have in trees (especially the elms) are poison oak. It can really make you miserable when exposed to bare skin. These vines will actually wrap around the tree, choke it out, and finally kill it.

PowerMax

 

[rancar]

rlw,

I've done as you suggested....cutting vines at ground level and waiting for the tops to decompose and drop down. I'm getting old real quick watching this happen. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif-- in some cases 5 years or more. In some trees I have vines that are so thick and massive the dead vine growth continues to choke out the needed foliage growth of the tree if the tree is to survive. I've found it best to do what Bird suggested, that is, grab upon a bunch of vines as high up the tree as you can, tie securly with cable or rope, and pull. You'll get most of the upper growth out of the tree tops. You might lose some upper branches but the rest of the tree is now free to grow unhindered.

 

[Jag]

Pulling vines I use a short 5/16" cable with a slip hook in one end, put a double wrap around whatever you want to pull. The cable will always catch and not slip. It does not stretch and store engery like a naylon strap. Also if trying to pull anything of any size I use a heavy 20 or 30 foot chain to attach the cable to the tractor, this weight has a nice way of pulling everything down way out in front of you and the tracrtor.

 

[Alan L.]

I've done the same thing Bird is talking about, with some success.

 

[GregGG]

I don't know why these scarey things keep happening to me, but I went to pull a very thick, very old vine off a medium sized dead tree, not realizing the tree was so old and rotten that it snapped the tree and it came down within a distance that I consider close enough. I knew it was dead, but not THAT dead, what was that vine doing there anyway....sheesh

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Years ago around 73 an experienced tractor friend hooked up to a vine [4 inch] and went ahead; it nearly fliped the tractor over. I don't recall for sure but beleive it was a ford 3000. It seemed he was hooked to the draw bar. Point is it can be very risky. I often call vines "politians', think about that. Tractor wise I had a L2900 loader and bhoe for about 6 years and last fall bought a 4300 JD loader and bhoe with hydro. It dosen't have enough punkin to get the machine with load up and down these Ky. hills. The JD dealer with some to boot is waiting to deliver the 4410 model to me and use the loader and bhoe. This machine has the e-shift . I hope it shows increased power for my needs. I enjoy this site and the comments of many of you tractor people. You are wholesome entertainment. Tks Doc

 

[TonyC]

<font color=blue>I knew it was dead, but not THAT dead, what was that vine doing there anyway....sheesh
</font color=blue>

Just a guess but I suspect that what that vine was doing there was making the tree look less dead than it really was! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[GregGG]

well it did its job well /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif