Trying to figure out what attachments to get

[rjman]

I am trying to convert previously forested land into a field that will be planted with highbush blueberry plants. I have already cleared 4 acres by cutting the trees and then hired an excavator with a root rake to come and remove all the stumps. The stumps are now gone, they were loaded into tandem dump trucks and hauled away. What this has left me with is a 4 acres of cleared ground that has some visible rocks left, a few small pieces of tree roots 1'-2' long, some areas are fairly hard packed where the dump trucks were hauling off the stumps.
The following shows a picture of the field being cleared of stumps:

This gives you some idea of what the field condition would be after the stumps are removed. I am hoping that some members on the forum who have done this sort of thing before can provide some advice on what attachments would work best to get this field ready for planting.
The attachments I currently do have are a box blade and a rotary tiller. I am thinking that I need something to collect the debris remaining and the rocks, perhaps a landscape rake? Also I will need something to deal with the compacted soil where the dump trucks were hauling to loosen it up, and I am thinking that I probably need to do that before the landscape rake. I am not really sure what implement would be best, I was looking at furrow plows, disk and tooth harrows, etc. I really only need the least expensive option that will get the job done, since after this year, the plants will be in and I won't have to do this again. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[MESSMAKER]

I would spend some time picking up rocks and cutting away roots. A few truckloads will be hard work but doable. I would then hit it with some disk harrows with some weight and set to cut aggressively. See where that leaves you.

 

[rjman]

I am looking for attachments to do this work with as I do not have the time to manually go and pick truckloads of rocks, I was hoping that something like a landscape rake would work for that. The roots that remain are just loose pieces, there wouldn't be any root cutting to do, most are quite small since the excavator has removed the majority when ripping out the stumps.

 

[rjman]

I am wondering if something like this setup might do the trick?

 

[s219]

How big and heavy is your box? I have used one before to do something similar. It worked to smooth out the ground and collect debris. Only downside is that debris would collect in the box, so I would periodically drive over to a dump area and lift the box to deposit the debris off to the side.

Start with rear cutter only, feathered so it won't dig in. Collect debris, and move off to the side (as described above). Next pass you can angle the cutter to remove more soil, and so on. At some point, drop the ripper shanks to really loosen the soil.

There may be better tools, but the box worked OK for me. It was a one-time deal, so I didn't want to invest in another implement.

 

[rjman]

How big and heavy is your box? I have used one before to do something similar. It worked to smooth out the ground and collect debris. Only downside is that debris would collect in the box, so I would periodically drive over to a dump area and lift the box to deposit the debris off to the side.

The box blade is 7' wide medium duty with 6 rippers. I will definitely give that a try first and see what it will do since that would save me a fair bit of money on a new implement.

 

[1026mrg]

Not sure what you will need... can only provide the attachments that we use for food plots in formerly forested lands....
Our plots have been carved out of the woods, in hilly/mountain areas.

1) Root grapple or stone fork with hydraulic grapple. We have both & use both for different reasons. In general both used to "pick stuff up". In some ways a stone fork
will be more versatile. Can pick up both large and small stones. Tines on a stone fork are spaced more closely together than on a root grapple to prevent smaller stones from falling through. Can get a stone fork with or without a hydraulic grapple. Will be less expensive without the grapple, but also a bit less versatile.

2) Can also use an FEL bucket to haul stones away, but stone fork works better.

3) Not sure how you prep for blueberries, but we use a three bottom, resettable plow on all of our food plots. Plow helps with soil prep & to turn under prior growth. Resettable due to rocks still lurking below.

4) Disc harrow to break up the dirt & dirt/vegetation clods post plowing & break the soil up more finely.

5) Box blade to smooth out the highs, lows & gullies. If your box blade has scarifiers, can also aid in soil prep. Might be able to substitute for plow & disc to
some degree if you have the scarifiers. Not sure how deep the roots go with blueberries.

6) Cultipacker to roll the seeds & seed bed

7) Some sort of 3pt hitch mounted spreader for fertilizing and for some seeding chores. Had a Herd rotary, but replaced it with a Vicon pendulum. Better design,
better spread pattern, lighter piece of equipment. Easier to handle & clean.

8) Tractor mounted flail mower. We use the mower to maintain clover during growing season. Also for annuals, mow & mulch last year's planting prior to
plowing & discing for the current year planting. Flail does a nice job with heavy plants & stemmy stubble.

Once again, not sure what you need for blueberries, but a laundry list of what we use for food plots in former forest.

 

[MESSMAKER]

I am looking for attachments to do this work with as I do not have the time to manually go and pick truckloads of rocks, I was hoping that something like a landscape rake would work for that. The roots that remain are just loose pieces, there wouldn't be any root cutting to do, most are quite small since the excavator has removed the majority when ripping out the stumps.

You can use a landscape rake,but you will still have piles of debris to move. You can use a loader but it can be frustrating, the rocks just roll around. You pick one up, and dump out three. I have cleared land and used a tractor, after a dozier> Still had to do some by hand as well as burn brush piles of debris. I hope you are right about the roots. They can be a headache. Good luck.

 

[boggen]

Tractor Attachments And Skid Steer Attachments For Any Tractor Or Skid Steer has videos for pretty much all types of equipment out there, along with a good amount of text to go along with the equipment. the info/videos would at least help ya familiarize yourself of what is out there.

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your in a tough situation.... box blade with rippers, york rake/landscape rake, maybe a "drag chain style harrow", a hay/manure bucket for cleaning out stalls of livestock might work (more of a multi tine front bucket), maybe a rock bucket for FEL.

a backhoe with a thumb might help with stubborn still connected roots. or renting a mini ex with thumb (mini excavator)
i am not sure if a 4in1 bucket for FEL would be beneficial or not, granted it could work, but it is the "overall width" of the fel bucket vs say a backhoe with a thumb. were width is much smaller.

 

[Rocky Hoffler]

I purchased a land scape rake to try to get roots from cleared property it did a good job of leveling but just left roots where they came up from the best thing I found was a roota chuncker A couple of kids I hired to pick up and put in bucket Good Luck