Help getting a clearing for a garden

[vsteel]

I am looking at putting in a new garden. The place where the garden is to be was filled with elms and they have tap roots everywhere and had a bunch of little 1"-2" trees sprouting up from them. I know I can get a stump grinder for some of the larger ones that I cut down, but what to do with all of the little ones that are everywhere? I tried pulling some of the smaller ones out with my JD 2320 but it doesn't have enough weight to get the job done. (these trees also like to have several come up from one root ball, so some of the smaller trees might be connected to something larger down below.)

The tools I have at hand right now are a JD 2320 with front end loader and a JD tiller. I have a buddy that I can borrow a subsoiler from. I don't know though if my tractor has enough power to break up the tap roots. Should I try and use the tiller to slowly go into the ground and try and use it to chop them up? Should I rent something larger and try and break things up before I till? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[wushaw]

Use the sub soiler first to get up the roots. The tiller can and will jamb up on a big enough root.

 

[john_bud]

Sharpen the leading edge of the sub-soiler to a knife edge. Then drag that around and cut the roots. Follow by repeated rototilling. You may need to till frequently and to perimeter sub-soilings to keep the roots dead.

 

[charlz]

So by tap roots do you mean stumps? or just big roots? If you have stumps you would either need to grind them out (not sure how effective that would be if they come back from the roots) or get hoe and dig them out.

The subsoiler should work to pull up lateral roots.

 

[vsteel]

By tap roots I mean the ones that run under the ground a few inches horizontally and then every so often send a shoot up for a new tree. I just wasn't sure that the tractor I have would have enough oomph to pull them up. I know roots sometimes can really be tough.

 

[ToadHill]

Just a couple of comments.
Tap roots are only found on nut trees, these are roots that go vertically into the soil. What you are describing are called buttress roots, and lateral roots, they feed and anchor the tree.

If you have saplings growing off the roots, you can eliminate them easily. When you cut the main tree, within a few minutes apply a painted coat of glyphosphate (roundup) to the freshly cut stump. The stump will draw the product into the flowum of the tree and take it into the roots, and they will die quicker than they can sent out saplings.

As the roots that are left in the soil decay they use up a lot of nitrogen so keep an eye on the fertilizer needed in your garden.

 

[LBrown59]

As the roots that are left in the soil decay they use up a lot of nitrogen so keep an eye on the fertilizer needed in your garden.

would this also apply grass seed ?

 

[F.L. Jennings]

I am looking at putting in a new garden. The place where the garden is to be was filled with elms and they have tap roots everywhere and had a bunch of little 1"-2" trees sprouting up from them. I know I can get a stump grinder for some of the larger ones that I cut down, but what to do with all of the little ones that are everywhere? I tried pulling some of the smaller ones out with my JD 2320 but it doesn't have enough weight to get the job done. (these trees also like to have several come up from one root ball, so some of the smaller trees might be connected to something larger down below.)

The tools I have at hand right now are a JD 2320 with front end loader and a JD tiller. I have a buddy that I can borrow a subsoiler from. I don't know though if my tractor has enough power to break up the tap roots. Should I try and use the tiller to slowly go into the ground and try and use it to chop them up? Should I rent something larger and try and break things up before I till? Any help would be appreciated.

I had one area on our place that was soilid with elms of various sizes. Growing enmasse they are very stubborn. Using my Kubota L4200 w/FEL & backhoe I just sat amongst them and began to dig. They are basically surface rooters and the entire mess was matted together below grade. It took more work to clear out this area than any other I have worked on. In my case it was like trying to dig up a large area of welded wire fabric that had been buried 6-12" deep. After the topsoil was removed the matted roots kept the trees standing similar to canes!

If you just shear them off at ground level they will grow right back. You're going to have to root up the whole area in order to remove all of those shallow growing roots if you plan to garden there. These Elms will send up shoots from mere pieces of roots.

 

[Western]

might want to rent or "buy" a backhoe that would do it for sure. good excuse to get a new toy

 

[KentT]

might want to rent or "buy" a backhoe that would do it for sure. good excuse to get a new toy

Yep, a backhoe with a thumb would readily handle 2"-3" brush if the ground was damp... getting most -- not all -- of the roots at the same time.