SanDucerro
Gold Member
I have Huisache trees on my property - lots of them. They're similar to Mesquite in that they have lots of thorns and grow like weeds. You can chop them down pretty easily - and a bush hog will make quick work of them - but they just grow back again. I've maintained the front pasture all along, so for the most part it's clear (we'll not worry about the back of the property for now). However, I've got a spot up front that's less than an acre - 0.80 to be exact - that had 5+ year old Huisache trees on it.
We had a dozer come out and push over the trees. On the younger Huisache the tree AND the roots came up. However - in this one area - the trees were more mature and it seems the trunks just snapped right at the soil level, but the tap roots are still there. And the roots are HUGE - I'm talking roots as big around as your arm! So now I'm attempting to plow this area and the roots are in the way. I called the dozer guy and he doesn't have a root plow - but thinks he can borrow a tractor with one - and he thinks he can get to me late next week. Unfortunately - this particular dozer guy is the only one in our area that's not booked 6 weeks out. All of this is kinda "up in the air" and I don't really like to work that way. I need this spot cleared by the 15th of this month and there just isn't enough confirmation that this is going to happen - so I need a plan B.
We maked all of the stumps (which are flush with the ground) with flags so we would know what we were looking at and then proceeded to try to get a few out (my guess is there are about 90 tree roots in this area). Using the FEL we were able to get down to the root ball (about 12" under the surface), but the FEL isn't strong enough to pull the root out. Plus, we found root "arms" branching away from the tap root that are HUGE as well. I wound up using a chain saw to cut the tap root below the ball and then pull the ball out by hand. But this is taking way too long and frankly - I'm just not young enough to do this type of work any longer. I'm good for about 4 of these and then I'm wasted for the day. So - I'm looking for suggestions....
We had a dozer come out and push over the trees. On the younger Huisache the tree AND the roots came up. However - in this one area - the trees were more mature and it seems the trunks just snapped right at the soil level, but the tap roots are still there. And the roots are HUGE - I'm talking roots as big around as your arm! So now I'm attempting to plow this area and the roots are in the way. I called the dozer guy and he doesn't have a root plow - but thinks he can borrow a tractor with one - and he thinks he can get to me late next week. Unfortunately - this particular dozer guy is the only one in our area that's not booked 6 weeks out. All of this is kinda "up in the air" and I don't really like to work that way. I need this spot cleared by the 15th of this month and there just isn't enough confirmation that this is going to happen - so I need a plan B.
We maked all of the stumps (which are flush with the ground) with flags so we would know what we were looking at and then proceeded to try to get a few out (my guess is there are about 90 tree roots in this area). Using the FEL we were able to get down to the root ball (about 12" under the surface), but the FEL isn't strong enough to pull the root out. Plus, we found root "arms" branching away from the tap root that are HUGE as well. I wound up using a chain saw to cut the tap root below the ball and then pull the ball out by hand. But this is taking way too long and frankly - I'm just not young enough to do this type of work any longer. I'm good for about 4 of these and then I'm wasted for the day. So - I'm looking for suggestions....
