I've got about 20 acres of good pasture, problem is that its covered in pear and some cholla cactus. Any ideas on the best implement to take this stuff out?? Tiller, rake? Thx.
Mechanical means of removing the complete plant and roots. If you till it you will have a bumper crop of prickly pear like you have never seen, if you mow/shred it you will have the same results.
You have to remove it completely. There are herbicides that work over time and are expensive and you need the applicator license for these.
I don't know about the Cholla cactus, I am not in their range.
Current, Power King (antique), Soon to have JD 5103
Not wanting to hijack this thread I started one in the AG Machinery area in hopes someone could enlighten me also. I know roundup won't work on the plant itself but I'm wondering if it would work on the roots. i.e. cut just below surface to expose raw root and then apply roundup.
Let me qualify myself as certainly no expert on P Pear but... I have began a war with it that I will most certainly lose but, this is what I am doing...
I use the FEL, turned on edge and I scrap the pear out of the ground. A little moisture in the ground makes it easier to get the roots... I scoop them into large piles and it seems that the ones on top are dead/dying... eventually I plan to burn each pile using a bit of diesel for encouragement...
Yes, I miss a lot of the smaller plants ... I have read that damaging the plant (shredding or otherwise) increases the effectiveness of chemicals... and this is my plan... finish what I have begun, shred as much as possible and then go back and spot treat with chemicals.... Let ya know in a year or two how effective it is..
Current, Power King (antique), Soon to have JD 5103
Wow. After reading these two articles I'm glad I don't have a bad problem. Kinda looks like my resolution will be to just plain dig out the ones that are in the middle of the field and leave the ones on the fence line alone. One thing I'm wondering now is if I were to use a propane tourch (20lb cylinder and wand) to kill the plants I don't want.
dk55, jd 450,case 811b,kioti mechron,farmal cub & super c
A rancher I know suggested that i scrape off the big plants and then plow and plant haygrazer for 2 years. HE SAID THE PEAR WOULD BE GONE . Well he was right about my field. I have a few small residuals but I now disk each year and have ended up with a very nice pasture sans cactus. May be more work than you need to do. I also used a loader to scrape up some big plants and put them in dump truck. Make a huge pile down by the river, that I let dry out and then burn. Never competely win the war do we?
rick