What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

[mljenkins]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

You might look at an old two-wheel walk behind Gravley tractor with a rotary cutter on the front. Around here they are all over the market places in the fall and early spring for sale for a descent price. You can get them with dual wheels on the back if you are on a hill. If you want new, DR and other brands make walk behind brush cutters. I have a similar desire to cut everything out from the trees on similar acreage but leave the trees to provide pasture for our horses. Unfortunately we've got so many cherry trees I'm likely going to have to take a more aggressive stance (i.e. bulldozer) when I want it cleared.

Personally I'd try to get it cleared ASAP and then use a lawn tractor or zero turn to keep it mowed down as much as possible in the future. We have a lot of underbrush in the areas I want to clear and the longer I can't get to it the worse it gets.

As others have stated pictures would help. If the stuff isn't too thick and the terrain is level with no rocks, just run over it with the lawn tractor. Then again, I abuse mine, so...

 

[teejk]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

This is 3-5 acres of a large parcel of land. The crittters have plenty of room in other spots on the parcel, no worries there. We are talking about a spot in the woods around our build site.

Ok...I get it..."critters" have habitat elsewhere. Personally I prefer "mechanical" maintenance before I resort to "chemical" (my wife is the opposite). We are fortunate to have a lot of different birds that love the under-growth that is about 50' off the back door. "Mechanical" is a chore though...we went through a dry spell here where I didn't mow for 2 weeks...the "woods" did not take a vacation and I had black-raspberries and poplar shoots everywhere.

 

[EddieWalker]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Fence it off and buy some goats.

It will only take a couple of goats to clear that out for you and keep it cleaned up. I have 11 acres fenced in for goats and started out with just two goats. A few months later I got my third goat, and in that time, all the blackberries, along with everything else around my small 3/4 acre pond where gone!! A few more goats and all of a sudden, I could see between my trees and off behind them. Everything that they can reach is gone!!!! I currently have 9 female goats and I'm planning on staying with that number until I fence in the rest of my land. Then I'll get a male to have some babies and have enough to keep my 68 acres clean. They really do an amazing job, they are fun to watch, and super friendly!!!!

 

[MossRoad]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Hi there, a couple of years ago I bought a piece of property that was beautifully manicured under mature trees. I thought that the canopy of the trees was keeping the undergrowth from growing but have since learned that the previous owner burned the property 2 years before I bought. Fast forward 3-4 years and we have a lot of vines and woody weed type undergrowth popping up. My tractor (Kubota L4701) is not nimble enough and I feel it is too much area to do with a walk behind DR type mower. I have considered getting a little rider lawn mower but I wondered if there is not something better out there? The land is not flat but not too terribly hilly. Any ideas?

The area is about 3-5 acres or so. I would do more if I can find an efficient way to do it. The brush is mostly 8-15 inch tall new growth of briars, some tiny pines trying to pop up and some Virginia creeper, maybe some little sweet gum trees trying to pop up too. To me plantation cut is no small trees/scrub less than say 8 inch in diameter, easy woods to walk through. I think the term came from pine plantations down here in southeast.

This is 3-5 acres of a large parcel of land. The crittters have plenty of room in other spots on the parcel, no worries there. We are talking about a spot in the woods around our build site.

So you have a lot of trees close together, too close to drive your L4701 tractor through, and you don't want to use a walk-behind to mow the area underneath them, and you're wondering if a riding lawn mower would work, or if there's something better. There's currently 15" high briers, pines, creeper vines and gum trees that you want to cut down.

That's easy enough to understand.

Running a lawn tractor through that stuff could be pretty tough on a riding mower the first time or two, getting it cut down to height. But after it's down, it wouldn't be bad at all.

What's your budget?

- Cheap route, go on Craig's list and pick up a $500 beater lawn tractor and some extra blades. Raise the deck up as high as you can, fill the tires with slime or some other leak stopper, and knock all that stuff down. Switch blades as you damage them, and hit it again in a couple weeks. See how it goes.

3-5 acres of flat grass on a lawn tractor with, say, a 36" deck would take guessing 3-5 hours. Add a bunch of trees in there to go around and you may be looking at a full day or more several times per year..... I'm liking the goats. :laughing: But then you'd have fence, food, and vet bills, and the joys of animal tending.

 

[GLyford]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I 2nd the "beater" mower approach. My Dad did that to keep his back 3 acres knocked down, saving the "good" mower for around the house. Around here, you can often find a running riding mower for $200.

There is a caveat here: Dad's property had no rock or stumps. If you have either one to deal with, then I think you are back to looking at something with pivoting blades and a stump jumper like gravelys or DR brush mowers.

For stuff that is finger sized and smaller, one local guy had a 2-wheel sickle mower that he said worked very well on light brush, might have been a Jari? I think you can also find sickles (cutter bars) as an attachment for other 2-wheel tractors like the gravely or BCS. With the right guards, they should at least hop over some of the rocks and not scalp on dirt berms like a rotary mower.

 

[GLyford]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Another approach would be an ATV and a trail mower.

 

[newbury]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Hi there, a couple of years ago I bought a piece of property that was beautifully manicured under mature trees. I thought that the canopy of the trees was keeping the undergrowth from growing but have since learned that the previous owner burned the property 2 years before I bought. Fast forward 3-4 years and we have a lot of vines and woody weed type undergrowth popping up. My tractor (Kubota L4701) is not nimble enough and I feel it is too much area to do with a walk behind DR type mower. I have considered getting a little rider lawn mower but I wondered if there is not something better out there? The land is not flat but not too terribly hilly. Any ideas?

Again, I question why you don't burn it again? This is a natural method of understory control and if done properly is a lot easier than going out with a walk behind mower.

burning undergrowth carolinas - Google Search

From Using Fire to Improve Wildlife Habitat | NC State Extension Publications

For thousands of years, much of North Carolina burned every 1 to 10 years either at the hands of humans or from natural lightning ignitions. More than 10,000 years ago, Native Americans began burning southern forests and grasslands to drive game, improve grazing conditions for wildlife, clear land for farming, and improve their own safety from concealed attackers and from wildfires. European immigrants readily adopted the Indians' woodsburning practices to improve range for cattle, reduce the risk of wildfire, increase visibility of snakes and large predators, and improve access.

 

[teejk]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I 2nd the "beater" mower approach. My Dad did that to keep his back 3 acres knocked down, saving the "good" mower for around the house. Around here, you can often find a running riding mower for $200.

There is a caveat here: Dad's property had no rock or stumps. If you have either one to deal with, then I think you are back to looking at something with pivoting blades and a stump jumper like gravelys or DR brush mowers.

For stuff that is finger sized and smaller, one local guy had a 2-wheel sickle mower that he said worked very well on light brush, might have been a Jari? I think you can also find sickles (cutter bars) as an attachment for other 2-wheel tractors like the gravely or BCS. With the right guards, they should at least hop over some of the rocks and not scalp on dirt berms like a rotary mower.

Do you have any experience with the DR brush mowers? My MIL has a house not far from here that used to have a nice walking path but has since become a jungle.

 

[aczlan]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Do you have any experience with the DR brush mowers? My MIL has a house not far from here that used to have a nice walking path but has since become a jungle.

There is a place near me that used to use one for mowing their field. They said it worked well but was very slow compared to a tractor with a bush hog.

Aaron Z

 

[Nilesw]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Thank you for all the ideas everyone! I have never dealt with goats but that's an interesting idea. I am assuming they are pretty tough on fencing so fencing them in would be pretty hard?