How to clean *A LOT* of vegetation of a split rail fence?

[Sodo]

I would not think of using a chainsaw, you will kill your back bending over and be filing the chain all day long.

I would use eqpt like this to cut it all off flush at the ground while standing upright. Drag it off the fence and make a dense pile that can't re-grow (or burn it). Then spray the new shoots that come up, which will require a tiny fraction of poison. I assume you want to get the stuff off the fence, so you might as well do that before spraying loads of poison on your land. Only need to poison what attmpts to regrow. The hard work is getting it off the fence (if restoring the fence is want you want). I would, I like split rail. Then it's an easy walk with a backpack sprayer. Depending on what vegetation you are battling, of course.

I use a brushcutter like the one shown, but use a skillsaw blade instead of that huge 10" blade. The 10" carbide takes too long to spin up, or spin down, consequently are more dangerous. Much harder to cut carefully around a fence without gouging it. 7 1/4" carbide blade is still an angry unit but much easier to guide it. 7 1/4" blade cuts a 2" stalk same as you might imagine a skillsaw cutting it, much faster than bending over with a chainsaw. And all the 1" stalks just go "TING !"

The 3-blade in the pic is useless in comparison to carbide. You probably have to modify the brushcutter to fit the diamond of a carbide skilsaw blade but its far superior to those heavy 10" carbide blades.

Prob should post a photo of your weeds/fence.

 

[JFoy]

the Sept. flyer from Harbor Freight has a 4gal backpack sprayer for $20. I picked one up yesterday but don't know if it is any good yet.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I would suggest your equipment needed is a small chainsaw (I like Stihl products) and a weedeater with a carbide blade. On a fenceline, the trees never seem to grow on just one side of the fence but seem to grow up thru the fence. When clearing fencelines, I take my Stihl saw and cut all the growth off one side so I can remove the rest from the other. Small saplings can be cut quickly with the Stihl weed eater with carbide saw blade. Larger trees will need to be either sawed down or pulled out by the roots.
The last time I cleared out a 15 year overgrown fence line, I first cut all the branches that were embedded in the fence. Next I used my backhoe to uproot the trees and drag them out of the fenceline. After removing all the trees and saplings, I came back with the weedeater with the carbide blade and cut all the briars and small growth that I didn't remove with the tractor.

If you don't have a backhoe, you can still trim the limbs off the trees so that you can pull down the tree without pulling down the fence, then use a chain around the tree and your tractors drawbar and yank out 4-6" diameter trees pretty easily.

Residual growth can be managed with a spraying of 2-4D herbicide for the broadleaf stuff(trees) and glyphosate for the weeds and grasses.

 

[fishheadbob]

I use 41% glyphosate (undiluted) in a one-gallon pump sprayer for that purpose -- you don't have to bend over to spray the stump.

Steve

Wow. Strong mixture or rather non-mixture. I get decent results using the 41% at the recommended rate of 1 1/2 ounces to the gallon.

Don't know what type of brush you're dealing with but by now it's undoubtedly pretty woody. If it were my problem I would first buy a 12 volt, 3 point hitch mounted 15 gallon spray system at my local TSC for a little over $100. I would mix up some 41 % glyphosate (about $60) at a heavy rate - maybe 2 or 2 1/2 ounces to the gallon - along with some Garlon ($20 or $30 ) which is probably not at TSC but is at your local supplier and the internet. Spray liberally and see if a second application is called for, most likely not. You won't see any results from the glyphosate for 2 weeks, the Garlon a little sooner. Give it some time to dry out then start scraping, dragging, cutting, or whatever you choose to do to get rid of the dead stuff.
Once you get your fenceline clean there's lots of chemicals to prevent regrowth, but if you're getting horses they'll do a decent job of eating most stuff under the fence. Whatever they don't eat will be a short job for your sprayer and the glyphosate.

 

[smstonypoint]

Wow. Strong mixture or rather non-mixture. I get decent results using the 41% at the recommended rate of 1 1/2 ounces to the gallon.

.

I was talking about a cut-stump application, not a foliar spray application. If memory serves, the 41% glyphosate labels that I have looked at say that the glyphosate can be diluted with water or diesel fuel up to 25% for cut-stump applications. *

Per label recommendations, I use 2.67 ounces of 41% glyphosate per gallon of water for foliar spraying of privet, etc.

Steve

* Edit. Make that up to a 50% mixture SS-AGR-260/AG245: Herbicide Application Techniques for Woody Plant Control.

 

[fishheadbob]

I was talking about a cut-stump application, not a foliar spray application. If memory serves, the 41% glyphosate labels that I have looked at say that the glyphosate can be diluted with water or diesel fuel up to 25% for cut-stump applications. *


Steve

* Edit. Make that up to a 50% mixture SS-AGR-260/AG245: Herbicide Application Techniques for Woody Plant Control.

My apologies. You are correct.
I wonder if an occasional switch/mix to Garlon or tryclopir might help control resistant brush. Some stuff that grows around here definitely develops a liking to Roundup although a 50% mix ought knock down most everything. Vibernum, for one, almost treats that stuff like a fertilizer and shrugs it off. I came up with hitting stuff with Garlon after I saw the power company using it under high transmission lines with very good results.
While glyphosate is relatively cheap a heavy mix will sure eat up a lot of product negating some of the cost effectiveness ?.

 

[Snowback]

I'm facing a similar situation. Have been tackling the chore about 1,000' at a time with a two gallon hand tank sprayer and a weedeater. That was getting old fast, so I just used my Northern tool insert gift card and a sale to pick up a 26 gallon bad boy for $169. I don't think I will need all that capacity, but I can always short fill it. Will report back on how things go once it gets field tested which may be a little ways out. My only concern is overfilling the tank and having too much solution, but I guess a second pass on the really rough stuff could not hurt.

Plan on using an ATV as the haul vehicle. Here is the sprayer. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578572_200578572

You could always rinse this out really well and use it to water things also. In fact I think it will be great for watering the kids dirt bike riding area when it gets really hot and dusty again. (This one has a wand and a broadcast sprayer as well.)

 

[rox]

I would not think of using a chainsaw, you will kill your back bending over and be filing the chain all day long.

I would use eqpt like this to cut it all off flush at the ground while standing upright. Drag it off the fence and make a dense pile that can't re-grow (or burn it). Then spray the new shoots that come up, which will require a tiny fraction of poison. I assume you want to get the stuff off the fence, so you might as well do that before spraying loads of poison on your land. Only need to poison what attmpts to regrow. The hard work is getting it off the fence (if restoring the fence is want you want). I would, I like split rail. Then it's an easy walk with a backpack sprayer. Depending on what vegetation you are battling, of course.

I use a brushcutter like the one shown, but use a skillsaw blade instead of that huge 10" blade. The 10" carbide takes too long to spin up, or spin down, consequently are more dangerous. Much harder to cut carefully around a fence without gouging it. 7 1/4" carbide blade is still an angry unit but much easier to guide it. 7 1/4" blade cuts a 2" stalk same as you might imagine a skillsaw cutting it, much faster than bending over with a chainsaw. And all the 1" stalks just go "TING !"

The 3-blade in the pic is useless in comparison to carbide. You probably have to modify the brushcutter to fit the diamond of a carbide skilsaw blade but its far superior to those heavy 10" carbide blades.

Prob should post a photo of your weeds/fence.

That is similar to the Stihl Machine we use too. Ours is a combi system, you can swap out the implements. Swap out the brush cutter for the chain saw (and I agree, you don't want to use a chainsaw, you want to use the brush cutter), I can't imagine what bending over running a chainsaw would do to your back.

Stihl makes these combi systems in a consumer grade and a pro grade. We had to replace the consumer grade model medium sized motor- which worked for many many years a couple of years ago and moved up to the pro model. I LIKE Stihl, because if they break you can get parts, or like we do we take it into a shop. If you buy an off brand there is no fixing them, only throwing them away. I would not buy the lowest model in the consumer end, but I would think that the medium model or high model of the consumer end would work just fine for your needs.

My husband will no longer use the regular chainsaw as he cut his hand pretty bad with it, he worked (when I told him not to!) when he was feeling sick and then had the hand accident, which he recovered alright from. But since that accident he is afraid of the chainsaw, the only one he uses is the chainsaw from the Stihl Combi System. Using the chainsaw on the Stihl Combi system keeps the saw far away from you. Of course it is not as powerful as the regualr pro model Stihl Chainsaw but most of what we need, over 90% is handled by the Chainsaw on the combi system.

We bought but never used the hedge trimmer attachment. We could have bought the straight up brush cutter which is shown in your pic but actually the Stihl Combi system is more lightweight and if you use it a lot you appreciate having the lighter weight. We get plenty, plenty of power out of it. Best of luck with your project.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I use a 25 gallon sprayer, (P&K I think) that I've had for over 10 years and have had little trouble with. For fenceline control I mix 2-4-D amine at 4 oz per gallon of water and Glyphosate at 2 oz per gallon (it can all be mixed in the same tank together) and spray it on a hot sunny dry day, the hotter and drier the better. My dad swears by the sunlight as the main environmental condition, I won't say he is wrong. I've used a little dish soap in the mix before to make the solution stick to the plants better but have used it many times without and have had good results each way. Hot, sunny and dry is the best time to spray.

Spray it, wait a week and spray again if necessary, then cut stuff low at the ground level and rip it out. Keep the area mowed, trimmed and sprayed and you should be fine. The labels on most herbicides will tell you how long to wait before turning animals into the area sprayed, personally I like to wait as long as it takes for the sprayed area to die out and then some if I can.

Of course last fenceline I cleared I used a trackhoe to remove a 600'x30' area of Russian Olive then sprayed the fence once I could find it. Results are successful so far.

 

[rox]

Let me recommend a good hand saw to you jtfx. We only use Silky Saws for all our pruning, and trust me we have close to 2 months a year of daily pruning the olive trees. Both my husband and myself would rather use a Silky saw than a chainsaw. With a good handsaw you slice through the branches with just a couple of pulls. We buy them here and this particular saw is a great one,

Straight Blade Large Teeth : Silky ULTRA ACCEL Straight Blade, 24mm ( LG teeth ) | Silky Saws

This one is a really really great saw. You would not think so because it is small, but it rips through wood like you can't believe
Straight Blade Large Teeth: POCKETBOY 17mm Large Teeth | Silky Saws

And for log cutting we use this one
SUGOI 36 Extra Large Teeth | Silky Saws

You can't beat the Sillky Saws, those saw blades are awesome. My husband hand saws all our firewood for the winter using only a Silky Saw, it beats a chainsaw.

When we first started buying the Silky Saws I tried different teeth, the fine and the medium but in the end the large teeth are so sharp and cut cleanly that there was no need to buy the medium spaced teeth or the fine spaced teeth. You really rip through with the large teeth Silky Saws. Every time I come back from the States I bring a few replacement blades with me. They cannot be sharpened, gotta buy new. If you order any of these saws, order a replacement blade at the same time, but the blades do last a long time. Maybe start with the PocketBoy, you will try it out, love it and then you can go back and order either, or both, of the other two. Great saw blades, really rips through the wood like butter, easy on the arm.