From forest to food plot, suggestions?

Tororider · Sep 5, 2007

We are in the process of making a food plot out of some woods that borders our swamp. Should be a great hunting spot when we are done. I didn't have the foresight to take before pictures, but I will try to get some quickly and keep it updated.

Heres the situation. There are a ton of what I call finger sized trees, one to two inch trees that I am cutting close to the ground. Then there are some more mature trees 6-10 inches that I am cutting off a couple feet above ground so that I have room to try and pull the stumps.

We are chipping all the trees with the Wallenstein bx62, anything bigger than what it can take will be used as firewood.

The plan is to get it cleared as much as possible and then pull stumps, probably with the aid of a sawsall. Then we will brush-hog as low as possible. Once this is done, round up and disc.

I have been advised that with an area that is so overgrown now, by the time we get to discing, I am going to have to stop at every pass to clear roots off the disc. Is there any way to avoid this? or do I just need to buck up and do that?

Thanks for any advice.

john_bud · Sep 5, 2007

Sounds like a job for a dozer pulling a rake.

If you don't want to spend that money, maybe a sub-soiler would help get the roots up.

I'd certainly try that first.

jb

scott_vt · Sep 5, 2007

Afternoon Tororider,
Like John says, a dozer would make quick work of everything you describe. If money is an issue, a box blade on the back of a good sized CUT will rip out under brish and roots from smaller trees. Also an FEL with a toothbar would also help removing alot of what you describe !

psuedofarmer · Sep 5, 2007

Tororider said:
We are in the process of making a food plot out of some woods that borders our swamp. Should be a great hunting spot when we are done. I didn't have the foresight to take before pictures, but I will try to get some quickly and keep it updated.

Heres the situation. There are a ton of what I call finger sized trees, one to two inch trees that I am cutting close to the ground. Then there are some more mature trees 6-10 inches that I am cutting off a couple feet above ground so that I have room to try and pull the stumps.

We are chipping all the trees with the Wallenstein bx62, anything bigger than what it can take will be used as firewood.

The plan is to get it cleared as much as possible and then pull stumps, probably with the aid of a sawsall. Then we will brush-hog as low as possible. Once this is done, round up and disc.

I have been advised that with an area that is so overgrown now, by the time we get to discing, I am going to have to stop at every pass to clear roots off the disc. Is there any way to avoid this? or do I just need to buck up and do that?

Thanks for any advice.

you've been given some sound advice, but i'll chime in because i just finished doing EXACTLY what you're looking to do..

i operate a large certified organic farm - i needed to expand my fields and decided to reclaim an old pasture bordered by a swamp. the area was ~3 acres. it was DENSE with fingerling trees (mostly pin cherry, etc.). in general, it's probably similar to your area.. don't have pics handy, but did take hundreds of pics to document the process:

first off, a dozer is NOT what you want to use IF you're going to plant food crops. a dozer will remove excellent top soil; you want to retain as much of that as possible. after using chainsaws, BHs, discs, etc., i changed tactics and hired an excavator with a thumb. this was critical. this machine was able to remove only the first few inches of soil (typically less); on bigger stumps, the excavator shook out the dirt and left it intact.

once the field was stumped and rocked, i ran a large disc over it... again.. and again.. and again. then limed it (2 tons/acre), added composted horse manure the first year, added a cover crop (peas/oats/vetch), the following year i added more lime, rock phosphate, and composted sheep manure. then another crover crop, this time field peas.

i'm now in my 1st year of production on that field and the yields are tremendous.. the abundance of turkey is tremendous. guess i'll be hunting from the porch this year!

the key to remember is your topsoil. if you're going to grow food, try to keep as much intact as you can; dozers work great for clearing land, but they have a tendency to take too much (while compacted the soil).

good luck.

pf

toolsorbust · Sep 5, 2007

How quick do you want it done? The slow way as well as the cheap way to clear it is go in and bush hog all that you can larger trees cut off even with the groundkeep it bush hogged ( every 3 or 4 months ) then in a gouple of years most of the stumps will have rotted away on the small stuff 4" and smaller. The larger stumps you may haft to dig them out. The advantage of doing it like this is you conserve your top soil, You mentioned that it is next to a swamp digging the ground up makes soup. also most of the roots will rot away and add to the soil. To me a large part of working the land is to let nature do her part. Just my 2c on this.

Coyote · Sep 6, 2007

I'll second pseudo's comments. I have done this all over my property. My routine is bushog as low as possible, Roundup, wait two weeks, disk it up real good. (If your disk is not getting it done, tear it up with the rippers all the way down on your BB) Wait for rain. Disk it again. Lime and fertilize. It may not be the best the first year, but it gets better with time. Good luck! It increased my wildlife population big time!

Egon · Sep 6, 2007

Dozer with a root rake on the blade will work just fine. Straight blade will not.

Ploughing/disking [ large disk ] may also be possible and then rake up the roots.

Tororider · Sep 7, 2007

Thanks guys. I was hoping to have this done for hunting this year, but that is looking less and less likely. I think I will take your advice and work towards next year by cutting and the hogging and discing a bunch of times. Here are a couple of pictures from last night. This is already a couple of days into the project. Hrm... pics too big. Ideas?

EddieWalker · Sep 7, 2007

I wouldn't think you'd have much of a chance to get it done this year. Especially if you have all those small stumps to deal with. Cutting anything off and leaving a root ball in the ground is going to make it very dificiult to work the land. Getting those root balls out is going to be your biggest challenge.

The easy solution is to hire it out, but that will also cost you the most money.

Do you have a box blade with adjustable teeth? I would try draging those teeth through the ground and see if you can loosen up the soil. It might only work with a couple of them all the way down, or just one.

There's no point using a disk until you get rid of those stumps. I've had issues with one inch stumps and the disk jumping over it. If you leave just one in there, you will know it as soon as you start disking the soil.

Eddie