Using a Harley Rake after a mulcher tears up my forest....

[The Haymaker]

I would not mulch up anything if possible. Use your grapple and make burn pile. If you mulch the fresh cut wood, it will be a few years before any grass will grow. There is a lot of acid in fresh cut timber.

Eddie

Oddly enough, we have a LOT of sand on half the property. Fine and consistent as mortar sand without so much as a pebble. It was actually mined during the construction of I95. Up until 10 years ago there were still portion that did not grow grass. A covering of chips from a local tree service who needed a place to dispose of them had grass growing on the little deserts the next season. I'm guessing they held moisture and any seeds that blew through.

E

 

[Piston]

It'll be interesting to see what starts popping up after I clear enough for the sunlight to get through, I'm sure I'll have all sorts of new hardwood sprouts and probably a lot of random brush/weeds. I'll keep it mowed good with the brush hog as well.

I think I'm gonna need to invest in a box blade with scarifiers since I don't have one quite yet. Would it be a good idea to scarify the heck out of the soil after the mulcher goes through but before I harley rake it?

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Bush pile the slash for a year or two; then chip it. Use the chips as mulch, or spread and till under.

You're lucky with the sand. I've got nothing but a thin layer of black soil on top of glacial till boulders.

 

[Piston]

I was told by someone that a disc would be a good choice to break up a lot of the hard pack before running the Harley Rake over it? Would this be a good choice?
I know nothing about what a disc is capable of.

 

[JohninCT]

If you're going to be using a harley rake why would you want go through the trouble to try to loosen things up? Isn't one of the purposes of a harley rake to break up hard pan, fluff and smooth and windrow rocks and debris out to the side?

 

[Piston]

If you're going to be using a harley rake why would you want go through the trouble to try to loosen things up? Isn't one of the purposes of a harley rake to break up hard pan, fluff and smooth and windrow rocks and debris out to the side?

I don't know
That's why I'm asking....I'm really not sure what to do, or what a Harley Rake is capable of. I've read that the roots and small stumps will get caught in the rotating drums?
I've never used, or even seen, a Harley Rake in use. So the less steps I need to take the better

 

[JohninCT]

I don't know
That's why I'm asking....I'm really not sure what to do, or what a Harley Rake is capable of. I've read that the roots and small stumps will get caught in the rotating drums?
I've never used, or even seen, a Harley Rake in use. So the less steps I need to take the better

Check out this series of videos on the Woods brand harley rake. They will give you a pretty good idea of what it's capable of.

YouTube - ‪Woods Equipment - PowerRake Part 1 of 4‬‏

As for stumps, you said that you were digging them out with backhoe or having them mulched. Having done that, you should be able to run the harley over everthing and get it all raked out and ready for seed. An occasional "missed" stump is one thing but trying to run the harley over lots of stumps is sure to give you nothing but grief.

 

[jenkinsph]

I don't know
That's why I'm asking....I'm really not sure what to do, or what a Harley Rake is capable of. I've read that the roots and small stumps will get caught in the rotating drums?
I've never used, or even seen, a Harley Rake in use. So the less steps I need to take the better

If you run the mulcher first and chew up everything you can then rent the Harley rake for a day and try it out. My concern would be with too much debris in the windrows using the Harley rake, I would rather keep the small debris spread out. Let the wood chips and small pieces break down on the ground with time and add some extra nitrogen fertilizer. Get some soil samples with the mulch to see what is recommended and recheck every six months. If spread out and in contact with the ground and fertilizer it will all be fixed with a little time.

About the stump holes, I would keep them filled in as you work through an area if you are in an area with alot of rain. The stump holes can fill with water and get the equipment bogged down. A heavy duty boxblade with the scarifiers in the up position may work better to smooth over the surface.

Depending on your locale you might wan't to consider planting something like rye grass which doesn't need alot of seed cover. You can broadcast it with a spin spreader this fall. I should also point out that cows walking around in this area can help with beating all the debris into submission too.

 

[Carl_NH]

Piston,

I just completed a similar project on 2 acres on glacial till here on the coast - we cut the pines in 09 (about 65-70 trees 24-30" Typ), then stumped early last year - had 2-100 yard loads of stumps from that process. Was left with a rough grade from the excavator of rocks, roots and pine stubs (the little nubs from the trees) all over the place.

So I had a friend with a 6' Harley rake on his Kubota L48 to attempt a clean up of the debris - long story short the harley rake didnt work out since it kept pulling up more rocks and root debris and skipped over embedded rocks and was beating up the harley rake a lot.

Went to plan 2 in early 2010 - used the FEL and combination with the york rake to gather up the loose debris and rocks into two large piles which then settled over last fall and in the winter I burned these root/rock piles over the winter. The end result of the york raking left a decent surface but after all the stumping and excavator work the soil was poor.

So I brought in 80 yards of 3 yr composted material (left over till and dirt from a bark mulch operation - it was free) to level out the area and cover the ledge then seeded and planted some rye grass as cover last year. Then this spring put down 80 yards of loam again and seeded / fertilized.

Long story short - it takes time and depends on your sub surface (rocky or sandy) will determine the best approach. I think if rocky or has ledge the mulcher may not work to well. As others have said you will need a lot of fertilizer and lime and probably a good amount of fill/topsoil to level things out.

 

[daveinnh]

Piston:

We had a similar site. Had 6-7 acres cleared on a 58 acre site. Back in 2003 the value of the sawlogs paid for the clearing and slash chipping of 16-30" DBH pines; and we had several logs set aside for out T-F house. (We considered a recent tree stand thinning but the value of sawlogs won't even pay for the work, so we'll wait).

A second crew mob'ed 2 excavators and a second root/stump chipper for 3 weeks. They buried some rocks and created piles from others.

I hired a neighbor/contractor to bulldoze and York rake the root chip piles. Then applied Blue Seal Equigraze and lots of lime. Second York rake event to mix and imbed.

Consider hiring an excavator crew IMHO.

PM me if you'd like to see this later in August

Dave