Backhoe Dealing with pine trees

[SirMaxwell]

Anyone here ever had to deal with their removal? Ive got a lot to remove. Ive already played around with them enough to know they arent very cooperative.

Sandy soil, tap roots go straight down and the trunk only gets larger underground.

Ive just ordered a Kubota tractor/backhoe and I plan to see what I can do, surely I can remove the 4 inchers and under but that still leaves alot of larger.

Im thinking of digging down one side ( once the tree is felled ) and just cutting off the stump underground with a battery powered sawzall but its worth asking here others experiences.

No Im not interested in hiring someone to come in and do it for me nor rent a piece of equipment at this point but thanks.

I cut down a couple thousand, from little scrubs, up to 8+ inchers. If it was three or under, I bush hogged as close as possible. I then went pack with a sharp hatchet and just cross hatched all the little stumpys I could find. Sent my youngest out once or twice as well to smack with hatchet. Now a season later, and most are gone, or dissolved enough not to care. The few bigger ones, I smack 'em now and again with the hatchet. I did dig out a couple of 12's, but the rest I call soil. Same went for some small hardwoods as well.

 

[Looking4new]

On my 5 acres, I have mostly pine and larch/tamarack with a few white birch. I want rid of the tamarack. They loose their needles in the fall just like the hardwoods do and I hate them with a passion. I WILL get to it, eventually.
As for what to do with the pine stumps, rot them out. It is a pity you don't live there, as I would suggest you keep chickens. They have two positives, three if you count the eating part. They give you eggs and natural fertilizer (high in nitrogen).

 

[ruffdog]

I have 2 dozen more blue spruce that I knew I was going remove. If you take a chainsaw and cut a ring around the trunk (1/2"DP), it will kill the tree. Two rings about 2" apart is even better. A year later, the tree dies, dries, and gets lighter. I then can cut it and it gets fed into the burn pile.

 

[bigtiller]

I have 2 dozen more blue spruce that I knew I was going remove. If you take a chainsaw and cut a ring around the trunk (1/2"DP), it will kill the tree. Two rings about 2" apart is even better. A year later, the tree dies, dries, and gets lighter. I then can cut it and it gets fed into the burn pile.

Did the spruce stumps rot away as fast as the pine stumps others have talked about?

 

[ruffdog]

No, the pine stumps seem to rot quicker.

 

[marcusmerritt]

When I was a kid in the piney woods of South Georgia, trains pulling gondola cars filled with pine stumps rumbled thru town frequently. I was told the stumps were headed for place that cooked the stumps down to charcoal and then used the charcoal to manufacture gunpowder.

 

[hunt4570]

When I was a kid in the piney woods of South Georgia, trains pulling gondola cars filled with pine stumps rumbled thru town frequently. I was told the stumps were headed for place that cooked the stumps down to charcoal and then used the charcoal to manufacture gunpowder.

Well at least they had a good use for them..

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Anyone here ever had to deal with their removal? Ive got a lot to remove. Ive already played around with them enough to know they arent very cooperative.

Sandy soil, tap roots go straight down and the trunk only gets larger underground.

Ive just ordered a Kubota tractor/backhoe and I plan to see what I can do, surely I can remove the 4 inchers and under but that still leaves alot of larger.

Im thinking of digging down one side ( once the tree is felled ) and just cutting off the stump underground with a battery powered sawzall but its worth asking here others experiences.

No Im not interested in hiring someone to come in and do it for me nor rent a piece of equipment at this point but thanks.

I have an l series kubota with a backhoe and removed all kinds of stumps. Here is a video of my technique. A hack for the removal and disposing of stumps using a tractor backhoe implement
A hack for the removal and disposing of stumps using a tractor backhoe implement - YouTube

 

[mikester]

4 to 6 inch trees will come out easy with just the loader. Just push it over from higher up with the loader, then grab the roots and give it a lift and push. A root fork bucket does a great job for these and takes less soil out with the roots.

Do the job in early spring when the ground is still soft and moist. Once it goes hard pack and dry dont bother.

 

[keljan11]

Hey there, we used to have a couple of acres of Christmas trees that were way too big, and decided to change the use of the land. We had a friend in town who had a mini track-hoe with a thumb for the bucket. It took him about a day and a half to pull the 2 1/2 acres of trees that had been planted 5 ft apart. Most of these trees had 6"-7" butts. It took us about a week to burn them, and another week to level all the divots left over enough to seed the field for hay.

 

[M J S]

Looks like St. Ann"s Bay across from the old Mill, travelled the road often when the Ferry was out.....beautiful

Dealing with Pine Trees....I have been removing(playing) spruce and some pine from my property for the past 3 years with my MF1720 (TBL)..I cut the stump close to the ground then with the big ones work further away on the roost system till I can break it with the backhoe and then work towards the stump removing the earth. For the stumps that I can't remove due to size/weight I dig the hole big enough so to roll the stumps into the deeper section and cover with the soil. Remember, when the larger stumps that can be removed are removed, you usually require extra fill to even out the ground. With my size compact it works due to the fact that I am playing and not under any time restriction...it keeps my honey do list a little shorter. Take care and play safe!!!!!!

 

[1930]

Its worth mentioning that I got my tractor this weekend, went out to the property and started digging out stumps with the backhoe, I have cut down alot of trees in the past 6 months or so.

The worth mentioning part is that there was severe degradation of the pine stumps already, they have been cut 6 months tops and already the wood/roots was dry, rotting, discoloring.....

Someone mentioned maybe on this forum that unless I had magic sand I shouldnt expect them to be powder all on their own within a couple of years.....maybe in 2 years they wont be powder but at the rate they are rotting they are gonna pull out much much easier.

Maybe they will be powder in 2 years.

My plan at this point is to cut down the trees and let the stumps sit to rot, I dont want a single pine on the property, I must have cut down another 75 trees yesterday afternoon.

Ill then come back and start the clean up/hauling.

Then Im gonna dig out just what I need to dig out so I can put up the chainlink fence around the property and by the time Im done with that it will prob be Feb 2023 ( the time I plan to go into semi retirement and start building out there ) and Im gonna rent a BIG piece of equipment ( assuming it will still be needed ) and dig out what needs to be dug out.

Thats my plan and Im stickin too it :thumbsup:

 

[1930]

Another thing worth mentioning is that I did try digging down one side of the pine stump and chopping it off about 2 feet down with a sawzall and a generator.

Both sawzall and gen were purchased at H.F. Both were cheap garbage especially the gen.

I have a nice Onan Gen that I plan to bring out to the property, its new but has sat a long time, couldnt get it working in time for the weekend, waiting on a coil.

The HF 99 dollar gen couldnt power the saw fully, wouldnt move it fast enough but I was able to cut thru a stump about 8 inches in diam. Took about 15 min though.

In my opinion its still worth looking into, next month Ill have my big Gen operational and up there with me.

I am gonna look into getting a more suitable blade for the sawzall assuming there is one and see what happens.

I may even buy a cheap chainsaw from HF and use that, I cant imagine though that Id be able to cut through many stumps without ruining the chain cause there is still alot of sand involved.

 

[hunt4570]

Another thing worth mentioning is that I did try digging down one side of the pine stump and chopping it off about 2 feet down with a sawzall and a generator.

Both sawzall and gen were purchased at H.F. Both were cheap garbage especially the gen.

I have a nice Onan Gen that I plan to bring out to the property, its new but has sat a long time, couldnt get it working in time for the weekend, waiting on a coil.

The HF 99 dollar gen couldnt power the saw fully, wouldnt move it fast enough but I was able to cut thru a stump about 8 inches in diam. Took about 15 min though.

In my opinion its still worth looking into, next month Ill have my big Gen operational and up there with me.

I am gonna look into getting a more suitable blade for the sawzall assuming there is one and see what happens.

I may even buy a cheap chainsaw from HF and use that, I cant imagine though that Id be able to cut through many stumps without ruining the chain cause there is still alot of sand involved.

They have actual blades for cutting trees with your Sawzall, and you can also get a cordless Sawzall, I have a nice dewalt one. Get plenty of batteries though

 

[Oldoak]

I cant imagine though that Id be able to cut through many stumps without ruining the chain cause there is still alot of sand involved.

That is for certain.